Ex-celtic Boys Club manager abused young players

A FORMER manager of Celtic

Boys Club is facing jail after being convicted of sexually abusing a string of teenagers.

Frank Cairney, 83, abused eight boys while running St Columba’s Boys Guild in Viewpark, Lanarkshire, and the under-16 team at Celtic Boys Club.

Cairney joined Celtic in 1971 after being asked to run the youth side by legendary manager Jock Stein.

But he used his position to molest youngsters in a church hall, in his car and at Celtic’s Barrowfield training ground. Cairney, of Viewpark, had denied nine charges of historical sexual abuse spanning between 1965 and 1986.

But a jury at Hamilton Sheriff Court took just under two hours to convict him of all charges

Families of some of the victims wept as the verdicts were returned while Cairney sat motionless in the dock.

Cairney had dismissed the claims against him as “ludicrous” and told the jury his time as a coach was full of “golden memories”.

He said: “I wish I knew why the boys were saying this, it is a total shock after 50 years to hear they would say that. I don’t know why they are making these allegations because I was really friendly with them, some went to America with me so I have no idea why they are making these allegations.

“I never touched the boys in the context that is being put across here. These times are golden memories for me at Celtic and at the Boys Guild, nothing ever happened.”

But in her closing speech, depute fiscal Paula Russell had urged jurors to convict him.

She said: “These eight men have come here to tell you what Frank Cairney did to them as children.

“You heard from 60-year-old men, not teenagers, who told you that back then they all wanted to be footballers. Frank Cairney was the gatekeeper to bigger and better things.”

Sheriff Daniel Kelly, QC, paid tribute to the men for coming forward to give their evidence, saying Cairney’s “day of reckoning” had finally come.

He called for reports and deferred sentence until January.

Cairney was bailed and added to the sex offenders’ register.

He is the third member of Celtic Boys Club to have been convicted of child sexual abuse after Jim Torbett and Gerald King.