Their dreams were repaid with depravity ...it was the beautiful game’s ugliest secret
‘You took advantage of your position of trust to groom and sexually abuse boys who played for your teams Trial Judge Lord Beckett’
‘Testimony from beyond grave’
THEY were tasked with helping ambitious youngsters to fulfil their dream of playing for a world-famous club.
Instead four ruthless sexual predators used their positions at Celtic FC and Celtic Boys Club to prey on innocent children.
Among them was Jim McCafferty, now 73, who worked as kitman and coach for youth football teams across Scotland. Over a period of more than 25 years, paedophile McCafferty targeted ten boys between the ages of 14 and 17.
McCafferty won the trust of officials at Celtic Boys Club and Celtic FC – while unsuspecting parents ‘respected’ him as an ‘experienced coach’.
In reality, when he was alone with the children, he was ‘intimidating, loud and aggressive’, as he pursued an unrelenting campaign of sexual abuse
A trial at the High Court in Edinburgh this year heard how McCafferty abused one youngster who went on to play for Celtic in the 1990s. Some of the coach’s victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered the fallout from McCafferty’s perversion for decades, developing serious mental health problems.
Jailing McCafferty for six years and nine months in May, Lord Beckett told him he had been ‘portrayed as being physically intimidating and an overpowering personality which you used to achieve your depraved objectives’.
He said: ‘You took advantage of your position of trust as a football coach to groom and sexually abuse boys who played for your teams.’
McCafferty pleaded guilty to 12 charges of sexual assault carried out between March 1972 and December 31, 1996. His victims were abused at locations across Scotland, including at Celtic Park and the club’s Barrowfield training ground in Glasgow.
Prosecutor Jo McDonald said that in the case of the former Celtic player, McCafferty first targeted him when he was 13. The man told police that he was abused when he showered and on minibuses returning from matches.
In a belated gesture unlikely to bring longed-for closure to his victims, McCafferty apologised to them through a statement read out in court.
McCafferty, who had moved to Belfast, was jailed for three years and nine months in Northern Ireland last year for sexually abusing a boy in the city between 2002 and 2015.
He was brought to justice in Scotland seven months after another key figure in the Celtic sex scandal, the founder of Celtic Boys Club, was jailed for the sexual abuse of young players.
Jim Torbett was 71 when he was locked up for six years last November for a string of child sex offences, with a judge saying the ‘predator’ used the team as a ‘recruiting ground’ to prey on young boys.
Torbett carried out his catalogue of ‘depraved’ crimes over nearly a decade – including abusing a fiveyear-old boy at his shop.
One victim, Andrew Gray, died before he could give evidence in court but his heart-breaking posthumous testimony helped to bring Torbett to justice.
Another victim – sexually abused by Torbett for four years – said he was ‘ecstatic’ and ‘relieved’ that the pervert was now behind bars and victims were being believed.
Torbett was jailed for abuse offences 20 years ago but faced another trial after more victims came forward.
At the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Beckett said setting up the football club may have seemed ‘public-spirited’, but Torbett used it as a ‘front and a recruiting ground’ to abuse children.
In February, Frank Cairney, 84, former manager of Celtic Boys Club, was jailed for four years for sexually abusing boys.
He had joined the Glasgow giants in 1971, after being asked to run Celtic U-16s by manager Jock Stein. But he abused his position of power to molest youngsters in a church hall, in his car and at Barrowfield training ground.
Cairney, of Viewpark, Lanarkshire, had denied nine charges of historic sexual abuse spanning between 1965 and 1986 at Celtic Boys Club and at St Columba’s Boys Guild in his home town, but was convicted at Hamilton Sheriff Court following a trial.
The paedophile, who is appealing his conviction, was described as a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ by Sheriff Daniel Kelly, QC.
Meanwhile, in January, a former Celtic Boys Club chairman convicted of sexually abusing four boys and a girl while he was a teacher was spared jail.
Gerald King, 66, was instead ordered to carry out work in the community. He had taught and coached football at a school in the north of Glasgow during the 1980s. King’s victims were between nine and 13 years old.
The Parkhead club denies direct links with Celtic Boys Club, despite claims from players that the two entities worked closely together.
Celtic FC bosses say they accept no liability for abuse at the Boys Club – but it is a defence that is coming under intense pressure.
Patrick McGuire of Thompsons Solicitors, which represents dozens of victims, urged Celtic fans to ‘use their undoubted power to demand the club faces up to their responsibilities’.
Now, with the first pay-out to a former player targeted by McCafferty, other victims can begin to hope that the club they loved will at last acknowledge responsibility for their nightmarish ordeals.