Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fiend confessed to his sick crimes
IT WAS an extraordinary interview.
Jim Mccafferty met us at the lift of his Belfast apartment building and walked us slowly to his neat little home.
I was there with the hope of hearing a confession from him, a confession of child sex abuse. It didn’t seem likely from the outset.
Who would admit something so vile to a complete stranger on their doorstep?
But Mccafferty, fat, frail, barely able to walk and obviously struggling with physical ill health, invited myself and photographer, Alan Lewis, inside and politely invited us to sit down.
I explained I wanted to talk about safeguarding issues amongst children and young people in football and football clubs. As I spoke he appeared to listen intently, head almost bowed, staring at a batch of Christmas cards he had intended to post the next day.
Alongside them was a stack of red £50 notes to accompany his messages of seasonal cheer.
But Mccafferty’s plan to make his way to the post office was interrupted by his confession to child sex abuse. The former youth coach and kitman took less than one hour to explain perverted activities he had participated in, claiming they were merely a matter of “a bit of
THE Daily Mirror’s Jilly Beattie worked to expose depraved Jim Mccafferty. In her own words, she tells how the probe brought the paedophile to justice.
hilarity”, fun of their day, no harm done.
But he later said he knew in his heart his time was up, his freedom was coming to an end.
Mccafferty was anxious about his personal safety, asking if his confession would appear in the paper the following day, worried that he would have to leave his home, and knowing the conversation was leading only one way – straight past the post office and on to a police station for questioning and his promised confession.
I had approached him to ask specific questions about claims of child sex abuse after a reader called the newsroom of our sister paper, the Daily Record.
Within 54 minutes of ringing Mccafferty’s bell, he had given me enough to enable us to publish not only the claims but, incredibly, his confession.
After a lot of talk about football, I put the claims to Mccafferty and he confirmed his association and contact with, interest in, and attraction to young boys, specifically the lads he coached in football teams. This was Mccafferty the paedophile.