• Celtic Football Club Statement
  By: Newsroom Staff on 07 Nov, 2018 12:45
  
  
  
  
  
• FOLLOWING the conviction of Mr James Torbett at Glasgow Sheriff Court, Celtic Football Club wishes to express our deep regret that the incidents took place and sympathy for the victims who suffered abuse. We are grateful for the courage of those who have come forward to report abuse and to give evidence after such a long period of time. We have great respect for them and their families as they continue to cope with the distressing effects of the abuse they suffered.
  
  Allegations regarding abuse at Celtic Boys’ Club first emerged in the 1990s. Although Celtic Football Club is an entirely separate organisation, we have always taken these allegations extremely seriously because of our historic contacts with Celtic Boys’ Club. All investigations by the police and other inquiries were given our full support. We encouraged any individuals involved to report all information to the police so that matters could be investigated fully. Celtic Football Club continues to encourage any victim of abuse to report these crimes to the police.
  
  After the allegations became known in the 1990s, Celtic Football Club took steps to develop a new code of conduct and procedures to protect young people. Since then, Celtic Football Club has been at the leading edge of putting welfare and safeguarding protections in place for our young people. We were the first club in Scotland to appoint a safeguarding officer, developing policies for the protection of young people and monitoring and reviewing our procedures to ensure they continue to reflect best practice.
  
  The abuse of children is an issue affecting many areas of society, including a large number of football clubs, sports clubs, youth organisations, educational institutions and religious bodies across Britain. Celtic Football Club strongly believes that children and young people involved in football have the right to protection from all forms of harm and abuse and is committed to ensuring this and to promoting their wellbeing through continued cooperation with our children and young people, parents and carers and the relevant authorities.
  

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-46109874

The BBC published this article yesterday, the day after the conviction. Make of that what you will.

 

Typical BBC wanks.

 

The club should definitely have produced a statement earlier than today.

Now it looks like they've been pushed to say something, which (whether correct or not) does not reflect well on the club at all.

 

"Campaigners argue " . Those "campaigners" wouldn't happen to follow follow a six year old football club from the southside of the city would they?? I don't remember them "campaigning" as hard when Chelsea fc were revealed to have paid 50,000 GBP to an abuse victim tp keep his mouth shut. For some reason their moral outrage wasn't as affected . They weren't as sympathetic to the victims in that instance were they.

The man has been dealt with . He is scum. It happens all too often in all walks of society. The mock outrage coming from the other side of the city is nothing but an attempt at point scoring, proven by their lack of reaction or action in the wake of other reports of child abuse in football.

 

Totally agree, they should of set up an independent investigation themselves years ago as well, not to get in front of it but to actually help the victims and find every scumbag involved in the abuse.

Victims aren’t looking for money or anything, they just want justice which is the least they should get.

 

i struggle to work out how made his way back to celtic after being sacked the first time , strange whoever and how that was allowed to happen

 

I think Fergus McCann done what many of the previous members of the board should’ve done, this whole thing has been handled terribly imo. Whether we like it or not this happened not once but twice and members of the old board put business before young boys safety which was wrong.

 

I agree with this.

Well, some of them are; one of them is suing Celtic.

 

I honestly feel the statement doesn’t go far enough, victims weren’t believed at the time and the Club needs to apologise for the way we the Club has treated those victims..

An apology from the Club now, for the way the the Club then, failed to protect the victims is lacking. Celtic Boys Club may have been a separate entity but they were intertwined and this seems more of a legal standpoint to fend off litigation rather than the correct moral position.

Forget the Huns, Media etc.. it’s what we should do right as an organisation by the victims and I think we have failed them thus far.

 

I am glad that the statement was considered and sincere, rather than tokenistic.

 

they dont care about it , they just use it for point scoring , they live in hope we will get demoted/massively fined etc thats all they are wanting from this and it wont happen , they just live in hope

 

Aye it is sincere, but measured too..

 

Obviously celtic trying to distance themselves saying they were a seperate entity but if that was the case then how did celtic have the power to remove Torbett initially in the 70’s and then hire him back? Unfortunately some sick men have used our club’s name to their advantage, celtic’s Statement is pretty poor.

 

This.

 

Exactly, this statement should have been released within minutes of the * conviction. It should also have made a commitment to look into how it was possible for this to have happened in the first place.

This and even if they do want compensation we should pay it.

 

Totally agree around the compensation, the victims deserve it..

However, not sure an investigation would be worthwhile now, the lessons have been learned and proper safeguarding is in place. A police investigation has seen the vermin jailed not sure what a fresh investigation would show apart from 70s denial and organisational ineptness. Which unfortunately was a sign of the times..

 

The kellys and the whites would know why this monster was allowed to come back to the boys club after been kicked out a few years earlier and shake my head why it was allowed to happen .

 

It has to be measured to prevent litigation. That might seem callous, but we have to protect ourselves.

No Celtic supporter, nor current Celtic board or staff member is morally culpable for Torbett’s crimes, as far as I am aware.

With that in mind, what justice is there in our paying damages to his or their victims? Will it help victims find peace? Probably not. Will it prevent the perpetrators from abusing children in the future? No.

For me, there should be an independent investigation; anyone it finds responsible for or complicit in the abuse of children should be locked up indefinitely.

 

This.

No wean should ever have been allowed to be molested, but the sway and trust this * had - even from the kids' families themselves who allowed their kids to go to his HOME unsupervised - were all duped.

That is what these callous despicable scumbags do.

6 years is not enough for this * nonce, castration and a public hanging would put a tiny dent in repaying back the damage it has done...