Ex-Celtic coach on child sex charge in prison for own safety
A FORMER Celtic youth coach charged with a child sex offence in Northern Ireland has asked to be held in custody for his own safety.
Jim McCafferty’s solicitor told a court his client did not want to apply for bail, adding that there was a safety issue.
McCafferty, 70, has also been linked to a string of assaults on Scottish youth players.
After the court appearance, former Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith called for an inquiry into the historical sex abuse allegations rocking the game.
He said: ‘There should be an inquiry into anybody who knew anything about this sort of thing. If this was happening at a club, what action did they take?’
McCafferty, who was involved in football in Scotland and Ireland from the 1980s, was
‘Psychological and traumatic effects’
arrested in Belfast on Tuesday by the Police Service of Northern Ireland after he walked into a police station.
His court appearance came a day after reports he had admitted abusing a string of Scottish youth players over a 20-year period.
He told a newspaper he was confessing to ‘cleanse my soul’.
Police Scotland is investigating a separate report of ‘non-recent sexual abuse’ linked to McCafferty.
McCafferty, from Wishaw, Lanarkshire, who has been living in South Belfast, was once a kitman at Celtic, Hibernian and Falkirk.
He was charged with engaging in sexual activity with a child aged 13 to 16 in Northern Ireland between December 2011 and December 2014. He was accused of sexually touching a boy aged under 16.
The balding defendant, who wore glasses and entered the dock using a mobility aid, spoke only to confirm he understood the charges when he appeared before district judge Liam McNally in Belfast’s city centre Laganside Courts.
A detective constable told the court she could connect the accused to the charges. A police officer said no suitable bail address was available and McCafferty was remanded in custody. He is due to reappear via video link on January 5.
It has been claimed McCafferty regularly abused young players at Celtic in the early 1990s. He coached Celtic Boys Club star Lawrence Haggart, who was murdered in 1996.
McCafferty quit the club that year for ‘personal reasons’ and he was a suspect in the killing before Brian Beattie was convicted. Yesterday, Lawrence’s father Larry told the Mail: ‘He has named five victims, two from Celtic, and I’m praying that my boy wasn’t one of them.’
Others implicated in the abuse scandal include ex-Hibs and Rangers youth coach Gordon Neely, who was sacked by the Ibrox club after an allegation of inappropriate behaviour towards a teenage player, and former coach Hugh Stevenson, who was accused of child sex offences at clubs around Glasgow. Both have since died.
Mr Smith, who was in charge of the SFA from 2007 until 2010, said: ‘There’s people who were committing the offences. They are a disgrace and hopefully they’re going to be found out legally and charged.
‘There’s the kids who suffered from it who are now adults, who obviously got great psychological and traumatic effects. The third element is the people who maybe knew something about this going on and didn’t do anything. Although they’re maybe not legally culpable, they’re certainly morally culpable.’
Mr Smith added: ‘We’re now finding out some of the cases down in England where the club tried to hush the situation, even paid a player money to not say anything.’ Partick Thistle have admitted sacking physiotherapist John Hart in 1992 after abuse allegations. He died three years later.
A spokesman said: ‘The club has contacted the SFA and Police Scotland to advise them of what they know to date and will fully comply with any investigation.’