JOURNEYS HOME FROM MATCHES would make any excuse saying: I’m just playing, of fun .. don’t be scared
out the van and into the house quick enough.
“I would back off, push him away. When it died down after a month, he would try again.
“This went on for about a year in total – over about a dozen times.”
The victim, who Mccafferty now admits abusing, also described the incident where shoe polish was rubbed into his genitals.
The abuse stopped when he turned 16 and joined Armadale’s under-18 side for a season. That meant less opportunity for Mccafferty to be alone with him.
But the victim believes he went on to prey on another young lad.
He said: “When he finished with me I was delighted, but he became pally with another boy.
“Every time I saw Mccafferty with him, he was in the minibus.”
The victim went on to sign for Celtic under-age teams, where he won a clutch of trophies. But before long, injury ended his playing career.
He was a coach for a time, but he quit – because he feared people would think he was a pervert like his abuser.
“I gave up coaching because I was paranoid,” the victim said. “I wasn’t married, I was a single guy coaching kids and I thought people would think I was like Mccafferty.
“This is how it affects you. It’s unbelievable how one event leads on to everything.
“It had a profound effect on my life, but I couldn’t go to the police because I was too embarrassed.
“I couldn’t put my family or friends through that.”
But the victim has now told detectives what Mccafferty did to him, and hopes he will soon face justice.
He said: “It may have taken me 33 years, but I want to expose this guy and show him for what he really is.”
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Police in West Lothian have received a report of non-recent sexual abuse, and will commence inquiries to establish the full circumstances surrounding this matter.”
Like his victim, Mccafferty also spent time at Celtic. He served as the club’s kitman in the 1990s and was involved with the youth set-up.
His time at Parkhead ended after a 1996 police investigation into his activities with boys.
Mccafferty laid low for a time but then returned to football as kitman at Hibs.
He later took on the same role at Falkirk. But in 2005, leaked police documents revealed that he was once viewed as a potential suspect in the 1996 murder of 14-year-old Celtic youth player Lawrence Haggart.
Mccafferty retired from
Falkirk after that revelation.