SENTENCED TO A LIFETIME OF SILENCE
Family’s anger at death of man denied justice over Celtic Boys’ Club beast due to legal blunder
A MAN who bravely gave evidence against Celtic Boys’ Club beast Frank Cairney only to see his testimony quashed on appeal has tragically died.
And the Daily Record can reveal that it was a prosecution blunder that led to evil paedophile Cairney getting a year off his four-year sentence.
We are not naming the man at the request of his family.
He is thought to have suffered a heart attack at his home after facing the anguish of seeing his evidence against Cairney quashed by the appeal court. He died, aged 60, less than two weeks after the appeal court judgment.
His daughter said: “Cairney stole my dad’s childhood, stole my dad’s innocence and sentenced him to a lifetime of silence.
“Dad had said he would fight this decision but the decision had left him crushed.”
The Daily Record can reveal the Crown failed to ask the man about his previous convictions in England, going back to 1980. Cairney’s defence team seized on the fact the convictions had not been revealed to the jury, leading to the appeal that saw his sentence reduced.
The Crown Office has told the Record it is “deeply regrettable” one of Cairney’s convictions has been quashed and it is “reviewing its practices”.
It means Cairney, 84, could be freed as early as August.
Before he died, the man told the Record: “It is an outrage. I did the right thing by coming forward and going through the ordeal of court.
“The Crown never even asked me about convictions in England. If they had, I would have told them.”
The former Celtic Boys’ Club player spent more than twoand-a-half hours in the witness box at Hamilton Sheriff Court last year.
Cairney was jailed for four years but that has now been reduced to three years. Eight men – who did not know each other – gave powerful testimony of the predatory sexual abuse carried out by Cairney from 1965 to 1986.
The man thought some kind of justice had finally be done but was left “shattered” by his experience. He said: “There is no justice. This makes me ashamed to be Scottish.
“After the trial I was interviewed by the Daily Record. The first question they asked was if I had any previous convictions. I said right away that I did and disclosed them to the Record.
“If the Crown had asked me this ahead of the trial I would have told them right away.
“I was abused in 1974 and after all these years I don’t know what to do or who to turn to. I’m convinced that if the jury had been told of my previous convictions, my evidence, which was 100 per cent truth, would have been accepted by the jury.
“It was extremely difficult to see Cairney’s face in court – one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
Cairney’s appeal hinged on the man’s convictions in England for dishonesty.
He said: “The reason I was in London was because I couldn’t get out of Glasgow quick enough after what Cairney did to me. The convictions were as a result of my state of mind. I had been sexually abused as a child.”
Lord Justice General Lord Carloway, Lord Drummond Young and Lord Turnbull overturned Cairney’s conviction on the specific charge three weeks ago. Eight convictions still stand against him.
The appeal court judges’ ruling stated: “The Crown had not accessed the Police National Computer, to which the police had access and which recorded all UK convictions. The Crown could readily have checked the PNC, which regularly provided data on previous convictions for use in prosecutions.
“The Crown ought to have disclosed the convictions...
In May, the Record revealed that Celtic FC investigated and cleared Celtic Boys’ Club bosses of any wrongdoing in the 80s.
This is at odds with Celtic FC’s contention that the two were entirely separate entities.
Jim Torbett, 71, the founder of the boys’ club, was jailed for two years in 1998 and for six years last November for a string of sex abuse against children.
Another predatory paedophile Jim McCafferty, 73, another CBC coach and Celtic FC kitman, was jailed for six years and nine months in May.
Gerald King, 66, a former CBC chairman, was convicted of abusing four boys and one girl at a school in Glasgow but avoided a jail term.
Cairney stole my dad’s childhood and innocence
DAUGHTER OF VICTIM
“There was a duty on the Crown to disclose the criminal history of complainers if known, but no routine check was carried out to find criminal records in jurisdictions other than Scotland.”