UN’s Top Children’s Rights Campaigner is a Paedophile
Children’s rights activist Peter Newell jailed for abuse
Feb 16 2018
A children’s rights activist has been jailed for six years and eight months for sexually abusing a boy in the 1960s.
Peter Newell was the former co-ordinator of the Association for the Protection of All Children charity.
The 77-year-old from Wood Green, north London, was sentenced last month at Blackfriars Crown Court.
He admitted five indecent and serious sexual assaults on a child under 16.
The Association for the Protection of All Children, or Approach, says its objectives are to prevent cruelty and maltreatment of children and advance public knowledge in the UK and abroad.
It says its focus is on protecting children from “physical punishment and all other injurious… whether inside or outside the home”.
Approach operates through the Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance in the UK and the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children.
There is no suggestion the south London-based charity knew about Newell’s behaviour, which occurred before he was employed there.
In 2015 Approach brought a complaint to Europe’s top human rights watchdog against France and six other EU countries over its failure to explicitly ban smacking children.
Newell was listed as Approach’s co-ordinator in its accounts on the Charity Commission website, although the most recent document says he stood down from the role in May 2016.
According to the accounts, for the five years from 2012 to 2016, Approach received hundreds of thousands of pounds in income from the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, Save the Children and Unicef, as well as other organisations abroad and a private donor.
The latest accounts for 2017 show Approach only received funding for its overseas activities, and the NSPCC and Barnardo’s were not listed as having made any contributions.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said Newell’s offences, which were first reported to it in March 2016, started when his victim was aged 12.
Police said they took place between 1965 and 1968 at a number of addresses and locations in south and east England, including London.
Newell pleaded guilty on 2 January to two charges of serious sexual assault between May 1966 and May 1968 and three charges of indecent assault committed between May 1965 and May 1968.
The Charity Commission said it was informed by Approach about the allegation against Newell in 2016.
It said: “We have been in correspondence with the charity on this matter since 2016 to ensure the charity’s safeguarding procedures are robust and that there are policies in place to protect its beneficiaries.
“The charity has confirmed that it has safeguarding policies and procedures in place which are being kept under review and that the charity and the trustees have very limited contact with children and that there is no suggestion that the charity’s beneficiaries were or are at risk.”
Rachel Hodgkin
In 2007, Newell co-authored (with his wife Rachel Hodgkin) the Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child for Unicef.
Unicef said it has “zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse”.
A spokesperson added: “We are deeply shocked to hear of the arrest of Peter Newell. We had no knowledge of this crime when he worked as a Unicef consultant 10 years ago. Unicef has since set in place strong procedures to vet staff and consultants.”
Barnardo’s said it was “one of over a 100 organisations that supported the Alliance”.
Two young boys openly smoking cigarettes whilst at school.
White Lion Free school Islington 1973. A radical experiment in local community schooling funded by donations with no timetable, no curriculum and no rules for the pupils. Teacher sharing a light for a cigarette with a young female pupil at the school.
Peter Newell teacher/founder – White Lion Free School
White Lion Free School in Islington, London, which existed from 1972 to 1990.
Pete Newell and Alison Truefitt were the founders of the school and the key staff members at that time.
At the time I was at the school a lot of effort was put into fundraising and the kids played a big part in this. My earliest office experience was at the age of 11 and 12, writing letters asking for support.
I also attended Jimmy Savile shows at Capital Radio and met other DJs with a group of pupils from the school to represent its positive aspects as a means of publicising it in its best light. I did a lot of work raising money to get records for the school disco, posters for the disco and other things that the school really needed at the time.
Peter Newell’s co-founder of the White Lion free school was Alison Truefitt. Truefitt had very close links to Thornham Magna.
The Music Room, Yaxley Hall by kind invitation of Mr. Dominic Richards
Sunday 30th March 2014
A stimulating and fascinating afternoon of music and song: Daryl Runswick (composer, arranger for The King’s Singers, jazz musician, broadcaster) plays an unusual electric double bass in Beethoven’s A major Cello Sonata Op 69. His wife Alison Truefitt accompanies him on the piano. Then the tables are turned and Alison (singer and poet) sings Daryl’s new song cycle Life, suddenly, accompanied on the piano by Daryl.
Tickets £18, booking is essential as numbers are limited. Cheques payable to Thornham Magna PCC to: Sylvie & James Fawcett, Brookside Cottage, Thornham Magna, Eye, IP23 8HH
Musicians and organisers with Julia, Lady Henniker after the 2012 Festival weekend
Patrons: Louis de Bernières, Julia Lady Henniker, Dominic Richards
Supporters: Dr & Mrs Cordeaux, Martin Kay, David Mitchell, Christine Moore, James Palmer, Daryl Runswick, Alison Truefitt, and four anonymous
Music at Thornham is an initiative of the churchwardens and PCC of Thornham Magna and Thornham Parva, supported by the Friends of St Mary Magdalene. Any surplus funds from these concerts goes to support the fabric of our two churches.
Alison Truefitt writes: I was a journalist for ten years (Times, Guardian, BBC), before a sudden switch to study singing/piano at the Royal Academy of Music.
Then 20+ years professional singing: recitals for the BBC, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, music clubs, festivals, choral societies, minor soloist in Proms and with English National Opera. Also taught singing at Rose Bruford College, the Actors’ Centre and Royal Shakespeare Company, accompanied singers and instrumentalists, and edited/proofread books for publishers like Faber, Macmillan and Virago for a bit of extra money.
I also got deeply, madly involved in two community projects: – in 1972 a Free School for street kids in Islington – not the Tory party version – and, in the 1980s, a village resurrection project near the lovely remote mid-Wales bolt-hole I was lucky enough to inherit from my father.
The project became UK Village of the Year in 1998 and they gave me an MBE.Prince Charles asked me to join his rural development council. Thought I was more or less retired now, but maybe I’m wrong again….
This was rewarded when the village of Llanbadarn Fynydd was awarded UK village of the year in 1998. Additionally there was a Royal Visit from Prince Charles (landing his helicopter on a field next to the village) on his return from the Royal Welsh Show on the 22nd July, also in 1998.
Cassandra Cogno@CassandraCogno
When did Peter Newell end up living in Wood Green? How long did he work for the Times Educational Supplement?
Newell’s conviction raises more questions about the sadistic sexual abusers vs the no corporal punishment sexual abusers (PIE) – the two sides were very much aware of one another
He was the organiser of an experimental free school in Islington as well (White Lion Free School, formed 1972, closed 1977) for truants/disruptive children
He was deputy editor at TES, and in 1972 was education advisor to NCCL. (lots of articles/letters in The Times archives by him. )
Newell has three children, which helps him to avoid the accusation thrown at childless supporters of a ban that ‘they don’t know what it’s like to bring up kids’. “It’s part of the CV to have children,” he jokes. He says he has never hit them and was himself spared any blows as a child. “Although I did have my hair pulled once,” he smiles.
Children’s rights have been a major part of his life since he left the Times Educational Supplement in 1971
BBC News – Children’s rights activist Peter Newell jailed for abuse. His charity is called APPROACH. Q1 News of his sentencing had reporting restrictions applied. Why? Q2: Between 2012-16 the NGO received ££ hundreds of thousands fm @NSPCC @barnardos
Peter Newell – Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children
Peter Newell is a long-term advocate for children’s rights in the UK and internationally. He is Coordinator of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. In England he chaired the NGO Children’s Rights Alliance from 1992 to 2002 and is Coordinator of the Children are unbeatable! Alliance, campaigning for abolition of all corporal punishment. Together with his partner, Rachel Hodgkin, he prepared UNICEF’s Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He has worked frequently as a consultant for UNICEF, in particular advising on general measures for implementation of the Convention and on establishment of independent human rights institutions for children. He is also Adviser to the European Network of Ombudspeople for Children. Peter was a member of Professor Pinheiro’s Editorial Board for the UNSG’s Study, and also of the NGO Advisory Panel.
Rachel Hodgkin, spokeswoman for the Children are Unbeatable campaign, spearheaded by Barnardo’s, the National Children’s Bureau, the NSPCC, Save the Children, and the group Epoch (End Physical Punishment of Children).
Between 1971 and 1974, paedophile Peter Righton was a development officer at National Children’s Bureauand head of two-person Children’s Centre (‘The National Children’s Bureau‘, Evening Standard, May 12th, 1993).
Baroness Hale also part of Coram
Coram Children’s Legal Centre has seven patrons who generously give the organisation their time, support and immense legal gravitas.
They bring with them extensive experience of international and UK human rights law as well as commercial law and social work.
Our patrons are:
The Right Honourable, the Baroness Hale of Richmond
Child sex abuse inquiry hit with latest blow as senior lawyer steps down
Elizabeth Prochaska walked out before Ben Emmerson QC was suspended.
September 29, 2016
Prochaska, who founded the women’s campaign group Birthrights and was the judicial assistant to Baroness Hale and Lord Brown, worked on the inquiry for more than a year.
Rachel Hodgkin currently works as a children’s rights consultant for various children’s organisations. She has worked actively in children’s advocacy since 1979 when she helped set up the Children’s Legal Centre; in 1993 she moved to the National Children’s Bureau where she was principal policy officer and clerk to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children.
Peter Newell chairs the council of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and is coordinator of EPOCH – End Physical Punishment of Children. He also works as a consultant for UNICEF on implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child and is Adviser to the European Network of Ombudspeople for Children.
In particular, CRAE would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions we have received in drafting this report from its authors and advisors: Marc Francis (Zacchaeus 2000Trust),
David Gee (Child Soldiers International), Lucy Gregg (The Children’s
Society), Kathryn Hollingsworth (Newcastle Law School), Kate Mulley (Action for Children), Jonathan Rallings (Barnardo’s),
Zoe Renton (National Children’s Bureau), and the project’s
coordinator and editor, Natalia Schiffrin.
We also wish to especially thank Stephen Broach (Monckton Chambers), Ayesha Carmouche (INQUEST), Kamena Dorling (Coram
Children’s Legal Centre), Jenny Driscoll (King’s College London),
Catherine Franks, Tara Flood (Alliance for Inclusive Education),
Previously, there had been a loose coalition of organisations led by Epoch (End Physical Punishment of Children) under the leadership of Peter Newell, who now … Glenys Kinnock, David Aaronovitch, Claire Rayner, Sir William Utting and Matthew Taylor wrote an open letter to Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary at the time, ...
Activists for ‘children’s rights’ have unwittingly aided the paedophile agenda, argues Lynette Burrows
Gulbenkian Foundation – Peter Newell and Rachel Hodgkin have been involved in the setting-up of no fewer than eight of the most important organisations involved in children’s rights, including the Children’s Rights Office and the Children’s Rights Development Unit. All have enjoyed the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Gulbenkian Foundation
Charles Napier of PIE – worked for Nucleus – also funded by Gulbenkian Foundation
1974-1977: Exposed in Daily Telegraph as being a member and treasurer of PIE whilst also working for Nucleus – a youth welfare organisation helping youngsters in Earls Court. Funded by a grant from Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, as well as a Swiss charity, Fondation Rejoindre, and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and other trusts and individuals.
Early in 1979 the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation published
Young People & Broadcasting Commissioned from the British Youth Council by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and carried out by Peter Mandelson
The Foundation is deeply grateful to Peter Mandelson, Sara Morrison and the …
Peter Newell connected to Barbara Kahan, a social worker who presided over institutional child abuse and who rose to deputy chief inspector at the Home Office. Google both their names together and they frequently appear in articles relating to child protection.
The person who was appointed to the top of the tree by Ted Heath’s Gov’t in 1970 was Barbara Kahan, a social worker who was the Home Office’s Deputy Chief Inspector of the Children’s Dept.
Brief report on an NCB conference on residential child care, whose speakers included Sir William Utting of the SSI, Barbara Kahan and Allan Levy QC, Peter Newell from EPOCH, Norman Tutt from Leeds DSS, and Dick Clough of the SCA.
Charles Napier of PIE – worked for Nucleus – also funded by Gulbenkian Foundation
1974-1977: Exposed in Daily Telegraph as being a member and treasurer of PIE whilst also working for Nucleus – a youth welfare organisation helping youngsters in Earls Court. Funded by a grant from Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, as well as a Swiss charity, Fondation Rejoindre, and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and other trusts and individuals.
The Paedophile Information Exchange PIE was allegedly given £70,000 by the Home Office between 1977 and 1980 – the equivalent today of about £400,000.
A former Home Office worker revealed that Jim Callaghan’s Labour government and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative administration, which took over in 1979, may have provided funding for PIE.
The whistleblower said senior civil servant Clifford Hindley, who was head of the Home Office’s voluntary services unit, signed off a three year grant for £35,000 in 1980.
Previously, there had been a loose coalition of organisations led by Epoch (End Physical Punishment of Children) under the leadership of Peter Newell, who now … Glenys Kinnock, David Aaronovitch, Claire Rayner, Sir William Utting and Matthew Taylor wrote an open letter to Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary at the time, ...
Regarding: In 1977, Righton also participated in the London Medical Group’s annual conference, on this occasion the subject being ‘Human Sexuality’, speaking alongside agony aunt Claire Rayner amongst others (M. Papouchado, ‘Annual Conference of the LMG: Human Sexuality’, Journal of Medical Ethics, Vol. 3 (1977), pp. 153-154).
Claire Rayner, the veteran “agony aunt” and spokesman for the anti-smacking alliance, called on peers to back the ban, which she said would be a historic step.
Peter Newell – He’s connected to Barbara Kahan, a social worker who presided over institutional child abuse and who rose to deputy chief inspector at the Home Office. Google both their names together and they frequently appear in articles relating to child protection.
The person who was appointed to the top of the tree by Ted Heath’s Gov’t in 1970 was Barbara Kahan, a social worker who was the Home Office’s Deputy Chief Inspector of the Children’s Dept. At that time the Home Secretary was Reginald Maudling who ended up resigning after he was involved in a major scandal linked to large scale corruption in business dealings. When the remit for child care was taken over by the DHSS in 1971, Kahan transferred to that Dept, to work under Secretary of State Sir Keith Joseph.
Barbara Kahan was someone who was at the heart of a system that was rotten throughout her whole career and became a good deal more putrefied whilst she was at the highest level. Kahan came from a Labour Party, Methodist family and in 1939 went to Newnham College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge she re-started the University Labour Club, also worked for Richard Acland’s left-leaning Commonwealth Party and joined the Peace Pledge Union. After Cambridge, Kahan undertook a social science course at the LSE………..
‘5.Other witnesses we have heard from were in favour of a commissioner.[12]’ And guess who’s mentioned in citation 12. Incidentally @barnardos had some of the worst involvement in child abuse as well. These people are all connected & worked at the top to gain access to children.
I didn’t realise #PeterNewell was also part of GIendcorpun
Board of Trustees
Denise Stuckenbruck became Chair of the Global Initiative in August 2017, and is currently a principal consultant at Oxford Policy Management where she provides technical assistance to policy makers all over the world in areas related to child protection and social welfare. She has nearly 20 years of experience working with child protection programmes, most of these internationally, with Save the Children, UNICEF and 4Children.
Anne Crowley is an Associate at Cardiff University and an adviser to the Council of Europe, having had a long career with Save the Children. In addition to being a trustee for the Global Initiative. Anne is also a member of the policy advisory board at Voices from Care, a trustee of Play Wales and Chair of CASCADE’s policy and practice board.
Suresh Patel is a trainee solicitor with Memery Crystal LLP. His background experience spans teaching and lecturing, including running theatre workshops for young, newly arriving refugees and asylum seekers, as well as political research and charity work with Protimos, which challenges the exploitation of communities in Southern Africa by training local lawyers to support those communities in asserting their legal rights.
The Global Initiative is administered by the Association for the Protection of All Children, APPROACH Ltd, a registered charity No. 328132. Registered office The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR, UK. APPROACH is committed to protecting children and young people from physical punishment and all other injurious, humiliating or degrading treatment, and promotes the safeguarding of all children.
Activists for ‘children’s rights’ have unwittingly aided the paedophile agenda, argues Lynette Burrows
THE PROGRESS of “children’s rights” affords a classic example of the spellbinding effect that can be created by pressure groups. The lobby that has masterminded the movement numbers no more than a couple of dozen people, and yet its effect has been phenomenal. This can be explained only by the fact that its area of interest, the family, was relatively unexploited until a number of administrative decisions were made.
Childcare pressure groups have been influential, if not decisive, in many of the policy decisions concerning children and the family. Most people assume that campaigning groups enjoy public support. In the case of many of the children’s rights groups, however, this is not the case. It is worrying that many children’s rights organisations are, in fact, started by the same handful of people and that they rely almost entirely on institutional and charitable support.
Peter Newell and Rachel Hodgkin have been involved in the setting-up of no fewer than eight of the most important organisations involved in children’s rights, including the Children’s Rights Office and the Children’s Rights Development Unit. All have enjoyed the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Gulbenkian Foundation. They and their colleagues are influential both here and in Europe, where they are helping to draft parliament regulations for the European Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Together with a dozen or so colleagues, they have produced reports, sat on committees and recommended one another’s views on a host of issues, almost invariably within the agenda of the libertarian Left.
It was a Newell group, STOPP, that got a ban on corporal punishment in schools, despite opposition from teachers, parents and even children. Few doubt that the problems associated with poor behaviour in schools have been a result of this decision.
Another of Newell’s organisations successfully lobbied Parliament in support of moves for doctors to by-pass parental consent for under-age girls to be prescribed contraceptives. The thousands of under-16-year-olds who have babies every year should in many cases be regarded as the victims of paedophilia – except that the topic has been portrayed in such a way as to make it impossible to see it in that light.
Yet another Newell group is the anti-smacking organisation Epoch and its associated charity, Approach. This group recruited Penelope Leach, the psychologist and childcare writer, to its board and publicised the support of numerous social services and childcare organisations.
However, Hans Eysenck, of the Institute of Psychiatry, described Miss Leach’s defence of its stance on smacking as “unscientific” and “too one-sided to form the basis of responsible recommendations to law-giving bodies”. Furthermore, inquiries also reveal that, of the 60-odd organisations listed by Epoch as being in agreement with its aims, only nine supported legislation banning the smacking of children.
Nevertheless, Leach, Hodgkin and other Newell associates were also members of government advisory bodies which helped to draft the immensely important Children Act 1989.
We should be alert to the fact that many ideas implicit in administrative decisions are, in fact, derived from a philosophy first expounded by paedophile groups in the 1970s. This is not to say that those whose philosophies tend to overlap share the sexual predilections of paedophiles, but they have been, perhaps unwittingly, influenced by their political ideas.
There are three, unconnected, groups which have an interest in colonising the territory previously governed by parents: childcare professionals, commercial interests and paedophiles. Of the three, the paedophiles were the first to state their case and set their agenda.
Before they were made illegal in 1982, paedophile groups spelt out their philosophy and aims in some detail. Broadly, these were to destroy first the concept of the vulnerable child and, second, the guiding and protective role of parents. To this end, their agenda included abolishing all forms of corporal punishment of children, removing the right of adults to direct children’s behaviour, allowing them to choose whom they lived with, abolishing the age of consent for both boys and girls and making contraception and abortion available to children.
This was their programme and they influenced many others who did not see their agenda in the same sexual terms, including politicians and children’s rights activists. However, by championing so many causes from this agenda, children’s rights activists have unwittingly assisted paedophiles in achieving several aims on their agenda.
I first heard about the PIE/NCCL link years ago in a little booklet written by Lynette Burrows called “Fight for the family” she also made links to another bunch of “Childrens rights” people, Peter Newell and Rachel Hodgkin
With all 7 of the existing children’s rights organisations founded, or co-founded by one man, Peter Newell, who has been funded from the beginning by an overseas charitable trust. His partner, Rachel Hodgkin, and many colleagues from these organisations are now in prominent positions in major charities and on government bodies.
Whether one is sympathetic to the philosophy they pursue or not, it is important to realise both what they are up to, and what they really want. This is no less than the total subjugation of the family to the dictates of the state – as happens in Sweden today. The means by which they hope to accomplish this is by the same means used by the Swedish state. That is to criminalize the majority of parents, who smack their children for disciplinary purposes, so that they are everywhere at the mercy of the authorities.
This simple device enables social workers to decide to take children away from their parents for whatever reason they choose. If one considers our own cases of over-reaction by social workers as in Cleveland, the Orkneys, Nottingham and a host of other places, one can see that with an anti-smacking law in place, most of those parents who were able to get their children back – plus apologies and compensation from the authorities – would have no defence. If even a smack on the hand or leg has been administered at some time, the parents would be put in the wrong and the social workers could keep their children – and the compensation.
Among his numerous roles, in England he has chaired the NGO Children’s Rights Alliance and is Coordinator of the UK Children are unbeatable! Alliance, campaigning for abolition of all corporal punishment. In the 1990s he was Research Coordinator for the Commission on Children and Violence in the UK. Internationally, he is Coordinator of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. He helped prepare UNICEF’s Implementation Handbook on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and has worked frequently as a consultant for UNICEF.
The most important child rights issues are those that are symbolic of children’s status in society. So, in terms of my work, that means children having equal protection under the law from violence.
If I could give advocates one piece of advice? Work harder. And, in particular, work harder at getting the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognised as a legal instrument.
The best thing about the Convention is that it is clear and comprehensive about children as rights holders. The worst is that some of the language allows for punitive responses in juvenile justice.
The best achievement of my career has probably been helping to get the issue of equal protection of children taken seriously, and on to the agenda of different human rights mechanisms.
An organisation’s work which I especially admire is that of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Although there are a number of organisations doing good work.
If I was not working in child rights, I would be gardening, and growing vegetables.
The best thing about my job is the challenge of constantly inventing new advocacy strategies. The worst is meeting the same stupid, hypocritical arguments from adults.
If I was not answering these questions, I would be…on my allotment.
My best job in child rights? I’m happy where I am.
If I had to sum up children’s rights in one word, it would be: non-negociable
‘It’s not like we murdered babies’: Oxfam chief hits out at ‘unfair’ backlash over sex scandal
Boss Mark Goldring claims people are “gunning” for the charity over claims staff sexually exploited disaster victims
17 FEB 2018
Oxfam has been accused of concealing inquiry findings over claims staff used prostitutes in Haiti in 2011. Mr Goldring said nine staff behaved unacceptably and he was “deeply ashamed”.
Scotland’s charity regulator dealt with 15 cases of alleged sexual misconduct in the past two years. And ex-Unicef consultant Peter Newell, 77, of Wood Green, North London was last month jailed for raping a boy of 12 in the 1960s. Unicef said it had not known of his crime.
Jimmy Savile with American Secret Servicemen, at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where children were repeatedly raped. goodnessandharmony
The Oxfam sex scandal has been linked to Israel’s close friend Sir Jimmy Savile, who reportedly organised child abuse rings for the security services.
Pro Chancellor Lord Liddle of Carlisle, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark E.Smith, HRH Princess Alexandra, Chancellor Sir Chris Bonington, Caroline Thomson (Lady Liddle) and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Atherton
Pro Chancellor Lord Liddle of Carlisle, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark E.Smith, HRH Princess Alexandra -Jimmy Savile’s friend, Chancellor Sir Chris Bonington, Caroline Thomson (Lady Liddle) and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Atherton
Oxfam’s Caroline Thomson, accused of being part of the cover-up of the Jimmy Savile child abuse ring scandal.
Caroline Thomson, Lady Liddle, is the chair of Oxfam.
Lambeth Police Station Paedophile Sex Ring Dungeon Scandal
The leader of Lambeth Council at the time was Ted Knight (Labour) who was a close friend of Margaret Hodge (Labour) who was leader of nearby Islington Council. It is believed that Children were “traded” between Lambeth and Islington Councils.
Liddle also worked together with and was a close friend of Peter Mandelson on books outlining the political philosophy of the Labour Party under Blair’s leadership. He is chairperson of the international think tank Policy Network and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lancaster.[1]
In February 2018, the chairman of Oxfam International, Juan Alberto Fuentes Knight, was arrested as part of a corruption probe in Guatemala.
Some charities are being run by Mossad and its friends, and, are involved in organising child abuse rings?
“More than 120 workers for Britain’s leading charities were accused of sexual abuse in the past year (2017) alone, fuelling fears that child abusers are targeting overseas aid organisations.
“As new figures emerged revealing the extent of the crisis, Priti Patel, the former international development secretary, warned ‘predatory paedophiles’ had been allowed to exploit the aid sector.”
Save the Children sack 30 staff after 120 misconduct complaints in a year
February 20 2018,
Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam, arriving to be questioned by MPs with Caroline Thomson, chairwoman of the trustees, and Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam InternationalTimes Newspapers Ltd
Save The Children dealt with 193 child protection and 35 sexual harassment cases involving allegations against its staff around the world last year, the head of the charity told MPs today.
Kevin Watkins, the chief executive, told the international development select committee that the misconduct cases in 120 countries led to 30 dismissals. The scandal of the sexual misconduct of some workers in Haiti, exposed by The Times this month, was a warning against complacency to the entire aid sector, he added.
Mr Watkins was a trustee of Save The Children in 2015 when Brendan Cox, widower of MP Jo Cox, was investigated over sexual harassment allegations, but resigned before facing disciplinary action.
Oxfam admits sex workers at the “Caligula Orgy” may have been children and Roland van Hauwermeiren, Country Director for Haiti, was one of its senior executives involved in the sex-for-money scandal involving earthquake survivors
Oxfam chief executive to face calls to resign as he is confronted by MPs over Haiti sex scandal
20 February 2018
Unicef Keynote Address
2013
–
Rachel Hodgkin, Children’s Rights Advocate
Rachel Hodgkin is a children’s rights consultant and children’s advocate. She has been active in the field of children’s rights advocacy since 1979, the International Year of the Child, when she helped set up a UK “Children’s Legal Centre” where she worked for 13 years
Between 1993 and 1998 she was head of policy at the National Children’s Bureau and clerk to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children. During this period she also worked with UNICEF and the Council of Europe, and wrote various books and reports, including (with Peter Newell) “Effective Government Structures for Children”.
Other publications include “Advocacy for Children” for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (1998), “Child
Impact Statements 1997/98 -an experiment in child-proofing UK Parliamentary Bills” (Gulbenkian/NCB 2000) and “
Rethinking child imprisonment –a report on young offender institutions” (CRAE 2002).
With Peter Newell she is co-author of UNICEF’s “Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, now in its fourth edition. Currently she works as an independent expert on children’ s rights, most recently for the “Children are unbeatable!” campaign against physical punishment, for the Council of Europe on the rights of children in care and for AFRUCA (Africans Unite Against Child Abuse) on the issue of “witch branding”. She is also a guest lecturer on the children’s rights course at the London School of Economics
New charity child sex abuse scandal is sparked after UN launches probe into 60-year-old former WHO and Unicef official arrested after ‘being found with two boys at his home in Nepal’
Peter Dalglish was allegedly found in the same room as two boys aged 12 and 14
The were found together at the former WHO official’s home in Nepal by police
Dalglish worked at the UN for 30 years and held positions at the WHO and Unicef
22 April 2018
The United Nations has launched an investigation after a former senior official with links to a British charity was arrested over serious child sex offences.
Police allege they found 60-year-old Peter Dalglish with two boys aged 12 and 14 in the same room when they launched a dawn raid at his idyllic mountainside home in Nagarkot, near Kathmandu, Nepal, earlier this month.
Dalglish has held various posts, some senior, with UN agencies which receive more than £582 million a year in foreign aid from British taxpayers.
In his most recent posting in 2015, he was the UN’s ‘country representative’ in Kabul.
Peter Dalglish, pictured with a young male acquaintance, is a former Unicef and WHO official and was found with ‘two young boys at his home in Nepal’
Detectives claim the lawyer-turned-charity boss has been abusing children in Nepal for 15 years after a young man in his mid-20s made historical allegations against him. Police say that ‘medical and scientific evidence’ against Dalglish will be presented by prosecutors when he appears in court on Wednesday.
Officers said they were tipped off by workers from another charity three months ago, but also received intelligence from a foreign law enforcement agency more recently, and were following Dalglish prior to the arrest.
‘Initial investigations revealed that he had been targeting children from poor financial backgrounds and sexually abusing them,’ said Pushkar Karki, director of Nepal’s elite Central Investigation Bureau.
He claimed that Dalglish lured children away from their parents with offers to educate them, take them abroad and provide them with jobs.
He told The Mail on Sunday that Canadian-born Dalglish believed his status would make him invulnerable, adding: ‘Those things made it easy for him to prey on those kids. And then they would be silenced, because he has got so much influence.’
Staff at various UN agencies were urgently investigating Dalglish’s past activities last week.
The married father-of-one founded global charity Street Kids International (SKI), which is now part of London-based Save the Children. He says he was inspired to help youngsters by the 1984 Ethiopian famine, which gave rise to Band Aid and Live Aid, and in his autobiography he writes of meeting Bob Geldof the following year at a camp in Sudan.
He recalled watching refugee children cluster around Geldof and observed: ‘I have always believed that many kids come with a built-in radar that tells them which adults they can trust and which they should fear.’
Princess Anne has been President of Save the Children since 1970.
Dalglish, whose net worth has been estimated at more than £5 million, has met Canadian premier Justin Trudeau and Princess Anne through his humanitarian work.
About 15 years ago, he founded the Himalayan Community Foundation, providing healthcare and education to remote communities in Nepal.
Dalglish had a 30-year career with the UN and was arrested at his house in Nepal (pictured)
Dalglish’s UN career spans more than 30 years, and at various times he has held senior posts in the World Food Programme, Unicef, WHO, and UN-Habitat, the organisation’s home-building programme.
WFP said it was checking its records for the mid-1980s but had not yet found Dalglish’s name – a spokesman added that he could have been a local appointment.
UN-Habitat revealed that Dalglish worked for it between 2010 and 2015, but there have ‘not been any reports or allegations on any misconduct during his tenure’. WHO said it was ‘shocked’ at the allegations but added that no complaints had been made against him.
Save the Children said that Dalglish had never worked for the charity, adding: ‘Save the Children acquired one of SKI’s programmes and some of its assets in 2015.’ Unicef said they were reviewing their records. Sir Bob Geldof declined to comment.
Dalglish’s lawyer Rahul Chapagain insisted his client was innocent and added: ‘Charges have not be filed but he denies the allegations. He will plead not guilty.
KARTIKE, Nepal: When Peter Dalglish, a lauded humanitarian worker, built a sleek cabin near a Nepalese village of rutted roads and hills ribbed with rice paddies, local residents knew virtually nothing about him.
But over several years, the Canadian lawyer endeared himself to many in the community, greeting villagers in Nepali, offering chocolates from Thailand to children playing in the forest and helping people rebuild their homes destroyed by devastating earthquakes in 2015.
The goodwill was shattered last month when police swarmed Dalglish’s home, placed a gun to his head and arrested him on charges of raping at least two boys, 12 and 14.
Suddenly, villagers were on edge, worried about how far the betrayal — and abuse — may have stretched.
“We trusted him,” said Sher Bahadur Tamang, who said he received hundreds of dollars from Dalglish to pay for his child’s education. “He treated us so well. We never knew what was inside his mind.”
Dalglish’s downfall has been a shock partly because his work aiding street children around the world was so widely admired. He was a guest speaker at numerous events in Thailand over many years. In 2016, he was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s second highest civilian honour.
Nepal is one of Asia’s poorest countries, and thousands of nongovernmental organisations operate there with limited government oversight. The absence of strict regulations means aid groups can be used as a cover for human traffickers and predatory behaviour by humanitarian workers, said Pushkar Karki, head of Nepal’s Chief Investigation Bureau, the agency overseeing the case against Dalglish.
This year, the police arrested Hans Jurgen Gustav Dahm, 63, a German who was running a charity organisation in Kathmandu that provided free lunches to children, many of whom accused him of sexual abuse.
In the past two years, five other foreign men, including Dalglish, 60, have been arrested on suspicion of paedophilia, Karki said.
“There have been some instances where they were found working with charities,” he said, noting that several of the men informally offered money, food and clothing to children. “Our laws aren’t as strict as in foreign countries, and there is no social scrutiny like in developed countries.”
The arrest of such a notable humanitarian has added urgency to a new effort by aid workers around the world, who are saying it is now time to investigate themselves. Late last year, they started a #MeToo-like movement called #AidToo.
In February, Oxfam, one of Britain’s largest charities, fired four workers and accepted the resignations of three others after an investigation found that senior officials for the organisation had hired prostitutes in Haiti, including for sex parties.
That same month, the BBC reported that men delivering aid on behalf of the United Nations and international charities had abused displaced women in Syria, trading food for sexual favors.
“Peter Dalglish’s arrest should be a ‘teachable moment’ for the humanitarian community to understand and recognize how predators exploit the cover of ‘heroism’ to commit crimes,” Lori Handrahan, a veteran humanitarian worker, wrote in an essay published on Medium. “Let’s be clear. Peter Dalglish is not a hero. He never was.”
Dalglish was charged with paedophilia in a district court this month. He faces up to 13 years in prison.
“He sexually abused children after giving them the false hope that they would be taken to a foreign country,” said Jeevan Shrestha, a spokesman for Nepal’s Chief Investigation Bureau.
Over several decades, Dalglish, a lawyer from Ontario, built a reputation as a deeply committed advocate for children in war-torn corners of the globe.
In the 1980s, he was a co-founder of Street Kids International, an organisation that has helped homeless youths around the world find jobs, and which was recently absorbed by Save the Children.
He also partnered with the American professional skateboarder Tony Hawk to empower children through sports, and worked with the United Nations in Liberian shantytowns after the 2014 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.
But in Nepal, where he has lived off-and-on since 2002, some of those who knew him recalled unsettling requests.
In Kathmandu, at a school that provides free education to children from mountain communities, Dalglish was a popular volunteer in the early 2000s until he asked administrators to change a rule barring students from staying overnight with teachers.
Soon after, the relationship between the school’s staff members and Dalglish soured, a senior administrator said, and he was banned from the campus.
In an interview last month with The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, Dalglish spoke from behind the bars of a jail cell in Kathmandu, denying the charges against him and pointing out he had never before been the subject of a criminal investigation.
“But obviously, if you do the work that I do, with kids, you leave yourself open to criticism and suspicion,” he said. Dalglish declined further interview requests.
Rahul Chapagain, Dalglish’s lawyer, said evidence collected by the police could belong to visitors who rented the home through Airbnb. “Whatever they found, it does not necessarily belong to Peter,” he said.
Dalglish markets his cabin online as a “Himalayan Hideaway,” equipped with a Bose sound system, German bathroom fixtures and a lush garden. In his profile’s display picture, a beaming Dalglish embraces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.
On a recent day, the home was empty and locked, a ruffled comforter on the couch and board games tucked into an armoire visible through the windows. Around Kartike, a sleepy village where farmers wield sickles in watery fields, many expressed horror that a possible predator had been living just up the hill.
At a restaurant in town, the father of one of the boys in the case said he had worked as a labourer on Dalglish’s property for half a decade and had formed a warm bond with his boss. The father, Tamang, identifying himself only by his common last name to protect his family’s privacy, said he let his son, 14, occasionally spend the night at Dalglish’s home.
On the morning of April 7, Tamang was jolted awake by nearly a dozen police officers, who escorted him up a snaking path of slate-coloured tiles to Dalglish’s home, where his son was sleeping.
Inside the house, Dalglish spoke calmly to the police in English, a language Tamang did not understand.
Later, Tamang learned that plainclothes police officers had befriended his son, who told authorities that he, his 12-year-old cousin and at least two other boys had been abused by Dalglish.
In an interview, Tamang’s son said Dalglish had sexually assaulted him over a period of seven years, promising him a better life abroad if he kept quiet.
“I think the police were following Peter for a long time,” Tamang said. “The boys said they were asked to sleep naked and were raped.”
Until the boys stepped forward, villagers said there had been no signs of improper behaviour by Dalglish. He treated those who worked for him well and bought clothing, shoes and pencils for children in the village. It is unclear who initially tipped off the police about Dalglish.
A few days after the arrest, Tamang said he was summoned by the authorities to Dalglish’s home.
The police showed him a small, white box. Inside were dozens of photographs and film negatives of naked children, some of them playing in pools, Tamang said.
Chapagain, the lawyer, said Dalglish told him they were “pictures of poverty-stricken children and nothing sexually exploitative”.
But Tamang was unconvinced, characterising the experience as a nightmarish episode in his family’s ordeal.
“I never imagined Peter would do such a thing,” he said.
Order of Canada recipient Peter Dalglish found guilty of child sex assault in Nepal
11 June 2019
An Order of Canada recipient has been found guilty of sexually assaulting children in Nepal after a police investigation and trial his lawyers describe as a travesty of justice.
Sentencing for Peter Dalglish, expected in about two weeks, could see the well-known aid worker jailed for as long as 13 years.
“This has been like watching a wrongful conviction unfold in real time,” Dalglish’s Canadian lawyer, Nader Hasan, said in an interview Tuesday. “We have deep concerns about the process here, both from the perspective of procedural fairness of the court proceedings as well as certain tactics taken by the police and the state.”
The judge, who rendered his verdict late Monday, has yet to release his reasons for the guilty finding. Dalglish, 62, has denied any wrongdoing.
Originally from London, Ont., Dalglish has spent years working around the globe. Nepalese police arrested him in the early hours of April 8 last year in a raid on the mountain home he had built in the village of Kartike east of the capital of Kathmandu. Police alleged he had raped two Nepalese boys aged 11 and 14, who were with him.
Pushkar Karki, chief of the Central Investigation Bureau, said at the time Dalglish lured children from poor families with promises of education, jobs and trips, and then sexually abused them. Karki said other foreign men in Nepal had also been arrested on suspicion of pedophilia.
“There have been some instances where they were found working with charities,” Karki told the New York Times. “Our laws aren’t as strict as in foreign countries, and there is no social scrutiny like in developed countries.”
“There ought to have been reasonable doubt,” Hasan said. “The police intimidation tactics and the police bribes and the police threats ought to have been insurmountable evidence of not just not guilty, but of actual innocence.”
Hasan said the Nepalese legal system, which operates largely in secrecy, bears little resemblance to anything in Canada _ or many other countries. Among other problems, courts do not record proceedings or produce transcripts, leading to confusion about what witnesses actually said.
His lawyers say in one incident, a witness helpful to the defence was testifying when the judge excused himself from the courtroom to go eat dinner. They say he told parties to carry on without him and that he would catch up with the court clerk afterwards.
Hasan said Dalglish’s family — his ex-wife and daughter live in the Netherlands and his brothers in Ontario — as well as friends have been standing by him. In addition, he has strong support in Nepal, where two young men he had previously mentored have been visiting him twice daily in prison in Dhulikhel near Kathmandu to take him food.
“Obviously, (it) was emotionally devastating for him –as it would be for anyone, particularly someone who is innocent,” Hasan said of the guilty finding. “But he’s a remarkably resilient human being and it’s helpful that he has a very strong support system. That helps him stay positive.”
Dalglish, who had spent years doing humanitarian work in Nepal, co-founded a Canadian charity called Street Kids International in the late 1980s. He has worked for several humanitarian agencies, including UN Habitat in Afghanistan and the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response in Liberia. He was named a member of the Order of Canada in late 2016.
In a statement emailed to Global News, Hasan said Dalglish’s family, friends and supporters were “deeply troubled” by Monday’s verdict and remain “steadfastly convinced of Peter’s innocence.”
“The local legal team in Nepal did not merely raise a reasonable doubt; they demonstrated that Peter was factually innocent,” the statement reads.
Hasan said they remain “optimistic” that Dalglish will be exonerated by Nepal’s appellate courts.
I am also intending to write a report on the time Peter Dalglish worked with Ethiopian vulnerable children during the infamous famine of 1984. I am reaching out to the publicist of Bob Geldof, who funded most of his activities for comment. If anyone has any info, please DM me.
Street Kids International Charity Founder, Peter Dalglish, arrested on suspicion of Paedophilia
A United Nations adviser and the founder of Street Kids International was arrested on suspicion of pedophilia after he was caught with two young children during a police raid.
Peter John Dalglish, United Nations adviser and founder of the Street Kids International charity, was arrested on suspicion of pedophilia, at a home that he was staying at in Nepal. During the arrest, two young children, ages 12 and 14, were “rescued” from the home.
Latest on his trial from 1 month ago:
Peter Dalglish’s final hearing coming to an end
Feb 6 2019 A source told Kathmandu Tribune that Canadian Peter Dalglish’s final hearing is likely to happen at the end of this month or in the first week of March.
Dalglish was arrested last year for pedophilia charges. If convicted he will serve a minimum sentence of seven years in jail.
Eliza Manningham-Buller has been Chair of Wellcome since 2015, having served as a Governor since 2008. A conference, held at Cambridge and financially supported by the Wellcome Trust, made headlines:
It is financially supported by CRASSH, the Wellcome Trust, the Sexual Divisions Study Group of the British Sociological Association, the French Institute, Northumbria University, the Laboratoire de Sociologie of the University of Lausanne, and The Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES).
Conference summary
This conference brings together social and political scientists, feminist scholars, sexologists, psychiatrists, historians of science, as well as mental health practitioners and sexual rights activists to critically explore the sexual classifications produced by the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published in May 2013. The DSM is the standard reference for the classification of mental disorders, and its first major revision since 1994 is consequently an important global event. The conference will explore which categories of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’, ‘healthy’ and ‘pathological’ sexualities and identities the new manual produces, and critically scrutinise their consequences for diagnostic practices as well as their wider social and political implications. The conference will take place on 4 and 5 July 2013 at the interdisciplinary Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) of the University of Cambridge. It is financially supported by CRASSH, the Wellcome Trust, the Sexual Divisions Study Group of the British Sociological Association, the French Institute, Northumbria University, the Laboratoire de Sociologie of the University of Lausanne, and The Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES).
Supported by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge, the British Sociological Association Sexual Divisions Study Group, The Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) and Northumbria University.
Peter Dalglish’s final hearing pending, likely to be sentenced
7 Sept 2018
KATHMANDU — While Peter Dalglish’s final hearing is pending, a source has revealed to Kathmandu Tribune that Peter is likely to be sentenced for ten years or so according to the old law.
Dalglish’s last hearing was on August 9 and the next hearing isn’t announced yet by the Kavre court.
With a lighter sentencing, Peter Dalglish will escape the new law’s judgment. Dalglish had come to Nepal on a tourist visa when he was arrested on April 9.
1984 : His friend, Liberal MP John Godfrey, was president of the University of King’s College at the time
2013:
Dalglish was teaching a weekly class as a volunteer at the Shree Mangal Dvip Buddhist School
Mary Clancy, another of Dalglish’s friends and a lawyer and former Liberal politician in Halifax
He was director of the UN program, Combatting Child Labour, in Nepal from October 2002 to May 2005. He’s now (2013) senior adviser in Nepal to the Swiss NGO Terre des Hommes on working children, child soldiers and street children.
His Dutch wife, Nienke Schaap, and their eight-year-old daughter, Annelie, live in Amsterdam but the family returns to Canada every August to enjoy this country’s vast open spaces.
DALGLISH, Peter John, B.A., LL.B.; lawyer, social entrepreneur, advocate for street and working children; b. London, Ont., May 1957; s. Francis William and Marianne Dalglish; e. Upper Canada Coll. 1969-75; Stanford Univ. B.A. 1979; Dalhousie Law Sch. LL.B. 1983; m. Nienke Schaap; daughter: Annelie Margaretha; EXTVE. DIR., SOUTH ASIA CHILDREN’S FUND, Kathmandu, Nepal 2005- ; Field Worker, UN World Food …
“Another school in Nepal says it banned him from its premises years ago, citing alleged conduct toward children that made administrators uneasy.”
Order of Canada recipient Peter Dalglish accused of abusing children he pledged to help
April 22, 2018
A Canadian man who spent decades working with children’s organizations and received the Order of Canada for his global contributions is now locked in a crowded detention cell in Kathmandu accused of having sex with minors.
Peter Dalglish, 60, has been a leading international advocate for combatting child poverty. But early on the morning of April 7, police descended on his home in Nepal and took him away at gunpoint.
At the time of his arrest, two boys − one 12, another 14 − were in the house with him. Police say they also found photos inside the home of naked children. Mr. Dalglish has not been formally charged, but is being held while police investigate; local courts can authorize up to 25 days for such investigations. So far, three alleged victims have spoken to police. The two boys found in the house gave detailed descriptions of his alleged sexual contact with them, the father of one boy told The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Dalglish, speaking from behind bars, denied any improper contact with children, while his lawyer said the photographs are of the sort a tourist might take of unclothed children in impoverished areas. Police have yet to submit a detailed charge sheet against him. His lawyer says he will plead not guilty. “I’ve never had a civil or a criminal prosecution, ever,” Mr. Dalglish told The Globe. “But obviously, if you do the work that I do, with kids, you leave yourself open to criticism. And suspicion.”
His arrest has nevertheless brought new scrutiny to his decades of humanitarian work, which placed him in regular and close contact with children in numerous countries.
His travels took him across the globe. He delivered aid to famine-struck Ethiopia; worked with the children of murdered parents in Guatemala; evacuated children from war-torn Sudan and provided technical training to kids in Khartoum; taught sex workers’ children in Calcutta; responded to the Ebola crisis in Liberia; founded an organization that helped street kids in numerous countries; and oversaw skills training in Afghanistan.
In Kabul, he once held weekend classes for children in a bunker. He described them to the publication Tes, formerly known as the Times Educational Supplement, as “like Dead Poets Society, but with a ragtag group of kids whose entire lives have been defined by war.” At one point, 42 children showed up.
Now, his conduct is being re-evaluated by organizations around the world. One international school in Thailand that placed him under investigation late last year has removed him from its board of directors, citing concerns about his presence around children. Another school in Nepal says it banned him from its premises years ago, citing alleged conduct toward children that made administrators uneasy.
Until his arrest, however, that undercurrent had done little to mar the global profile of Mr. Dalglish as an erudite, roguishly charming leader wholly devoted to the well-being of children. Kids in Nepal and around the world loved his willingness to buck convention and spin lessons from war zones and Elizabethan poetry alike. Foreign donors were captivated by his spunk and inspirational tales. One of his recent endeavours involves supplying water to 11 Nepali villages, using US$300,000 provided by a Canadian donor. His citation from the Governor-General’s office for the Order of Canada in 2016 says he “has devoted his life to helping children escape poverty.”
But Nepali police accuse him of abusing those he pledged to help.
“He was influencing [children] to do sexual acts,” said Pushkar Karki, one of Nepal’s top police officers and director of the country’s Central Investigation Bureau. “They were lured.”
He added: “A person can be a very good person in society, but the crime they commit is different. A crime is a crime.”
Police in Nepal received a tip about Mr. Dalglish around 3 1/2 months ago from a local organization. Later, they also received notice from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the RCMP declined comment on an investigation in another country). Mr. Dalglish was travelling at the time, but “he was on our radar as soon as he landed in Nepal,” Mr. Karki said. After he was arrested, police found photographs in his home of “a lot of children in various poses,” Mr. Karki said. “Some of them are naked, some of them are not.”
He believes the children “are from around the world.”
The house Peter Dalglish built in Nagarkot, Nepal.
Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail
In March, after speaking at a prominent international school in Beijing, Mr. Dalglish returned to Nepal, where he went trekking.
Unbeknownst to him, plainclothes police went in his absence to a house he had built in Nagarkot, roughly two hours by road from Kathmandu. The three-storey residence is equipped with a Finnish stone fireplace and overlooks a panorama of vertiginous terraces. On a clear day, the snow-capped Himalayas rim the horizon.
The officers who came here “said they were from an organization and wanted to help kids,” said a Nepali villager who works for Mr. Dalglish at the house in Nagarkot and whose 14-year-old son was one of the boys the plainclothes officers befriended in what police called a trust-building exercise. Police say the boy described for them sexual contact with Mr. Dalglish. (The Globe is not naming the father to protect the identity of the alleged victims.)
After Mr. Dalglish returned from the trek, officers pounced, a dozen of them arriving at his Nagarkot house at dawn. They found two boys − the villager’s son and his 12-year-old nephew inside, and seized Mr. Dalglish’s computer and mobile phone.
Mr. Dalglish was taken away “with a gun to his head,” his lawyer, Rahul Chapagain, said . But the police case against him is “just an accusation, or allegations. It has not been presented to the court,” he said. Mr. Dalglish has told him that the photos, for example, are of “children from places he has been travelling around the world, especially African children,” some of whom wore no clothing. “It’s not a single child in a room in a [sexual condition], but it’s more of a natural state: They were naked.”
Mrr. Chapagain has not seen the images himself; police have yet to formally submit evidence. But “obviously we are pleading not guilty,” he said.
In the days since Mr. Dalglish’s arrest, the boys have given statements and undergone medical examinations. The father of the 14-year-old boy also provided a written statement to police, parts of which he described to The Globe in an interview.
“The kids told me that they took a shower [and] got naked” with Mr. Dalglish, he said.
“He did that and also played with their genitals,” the father said. Mr. Dalglish also had intercourse with them, he said. “It’s just unthinkable.”
Mr. Dalglish was married with a daughter when he moved into a house in Kathmandu in 2002. Neither his daughter nor his wife, from whom he has since separated, ever lived with him in the country.
However, young Nepali males regularly stayed at his house. He often entertained young people he financially supported − most of them male, according to five people who know him − bringing them to his place to eat, read and watch cartoons.
Mr. Dalglish sponsored school fees for numerous students, sometimes bringing them on overseas travel to events such as the Model United Nations. The children he supported “were poor but really talented,” said Chiri Maharjan, who once worked as a gardener for Mr. Dalglish, becoming such a trusted friend that his name is on the title for the Nagarkot home.
One boy he found carrying bags for Japanese tourists, another at a community learning centre. He found Rishi Bastakoti, who is now 20, selling postcards on the side of the road when he was 12 years old. The boy told Mr. Dalglish that his mother had recently died and his father “doesn’t care about me. I told him all this story, and he said, ‘Maybe I’ll sponsor you.’”
Soon, Mr. Dalglish began sending money. “School fees, uniform, books, everything,” Mr. Bastakoti said. A child in Nepal can be educated for as little as $750 a year. The money continued through high school and then college, where Mr. Bastakoti studied hotel management for two years. He had an opportunity to travel with Mr. Dalglish, too, accompanying him twice to Model UN events in Singapore.
Mr. Dalglish also helped his family, providing money to rebuild his grandfather’s house after the 2015 earthquake that struck Nepal.
“He is more than a father to us. He’s a great guy,” Mr. Bastakoti said. There was no sexual contact between the two, he said.
Mr. Dalglish “hasn’t done any bad things to us,” added Krishna Gurung, 21, another Nepali man sponsored by Mr. Dalglish for roughly a decade. “He always said ‘Stay away from drugs, stay away from bad people.’ I don’t believe that he has done those kind of things to other people.”
Children play at Shree Mangal Dvip Boarding School in Kathmandu, where Peter Dalglish once taught leadership classes.
Elsewhere, however, the interactions between Mr. Dalglish and students raised suspicions, including on the grounds of Shree Mangal Dvip Boarding School, which provides free Buddhist education to lower-caste children from impoverished high-altitude locations. Situated in Kathmandu, the school educates hundreds of children who might otherwise remain illiterate, housing them in dormitories and teaching them English.
In 2003, Mr. Dalglish volunteered to teach a weekly leadership class at the school. He was a “really, really challenging, wonderful teacher. Kids loved what he did,” said Shirley Blair, a Canadian teacher who is the school’s long-time director. Some 40 children might attend a class.
Then something happened that worried Ms. Blair. One day, Mr. Dalglish emerged from class surrounded by children, “and he was trying to convince me to bend a rule to let kids stay overnight,” Ms. Blair said. She refused, irritated that he would seek to undermine her authority.
But standing next to her was a visitor, a teacher from the United States, who watched the exchange and expressed concern about Mr. Dalglish’s relationship with the children. “It was like a blinding flash of lightning for me,” Ms. Blair said. (The Globe verified this account with the visiting teacher.)
Mr. Dalglish had invited the school’s students to his home for dinner on occasion and administrators had “heard about some suspicious behaviours with our children,” said Khenpo Chonyi Rangdrol, who was principal at the school from 2004 to 2011.
But an investigation failed to uncover clear evidence. Mr. Rangdrol and Ms. Blair confronted Mr. Dalglish nevertheless, couching their concern in terms of alcohol: Perhaps he was drinking too much, and “once you are drunk you don’t know what you are doing,” Mr. Rangdrol said.
Eventually, Ms. Blair says she banned Mr. Dalglish from the school. “I said you are persona non grata.” In their final conversation, about seven years ago, she says she told him “You need help.”
Mr. Dalglish disputes this. He left the school “for different reasons,” he said in an interview, but primarily because work took him to Afghanistan. “I was never banned from the school,” he said.
He spoke from a concrete detention room in downtown Kathmandu, inside the guarded compound of the Central Investigation Bureau. He and 10 other men share a concrete cell that measures roughly seven by four paces. Visitors must provide fingerprints and surrender identification and phones to see him.
“This is obviously a horrible circumstance to be in,” he said on a recent day when approached by a Globe reporter, whom he greeted cheerily. He began by introducing some of his cellmates − they are “a really good team,” he said − and offering flattery about the professionalism of his treatment.
“This is not the Hyatt,” he said, wearing a camouflage-patterned T-shirt. But, he added, the experience has “showed me some of the best of Nepal in terms of the men I’m sharing the cell with, all of whom have been supportive and kind and protective of me.”
Leaning against the bars of his cell as he spoke, he answered questions for nearly 15 minutes.
Asked whether he had showered and had sex with the boys in his house, he said “No, never. Never, never.” He “completely” denied any inappropriate sexual relations with children at any time.
The boys in his house at the time of his arrest, he said “are people I’ve known for some time. So it’s not as if, you know, I’ve picked somebody off the street.
“You should also know that they were not found in my bedroom,” he said. One was on a couch just outside his upstairs sleeping quarters. Another was on the main floor.
The son of the villager who spoke to The Globe was in the house for his own well-being, Mr. Dalglish said, since the boy’s home village is plagued by alcohol problems. And after the father married again, his new wife “doesn’t necessarily want the first wife’s children around,” Mr. Dalglish said. The boy, he added “never stayed in my house unless his father was on the grounds.”
The father contradicted parts of that account, saying his son is welcome to stay with his new wife. His son stayed with Mr. Dalglish because Mr. Dalglish invited him, he said. The same was true for the nephew. “One day, Peter told my son, ‘Call that boy to stay over,’” the father said.
When The Globe continued to ask questions, Mr. Dalglish said “We should probably wrap things up.” Told police now have three alleged victims, one of whose allegations date back more than a decade,he said: “Let’s talk to the judge and we’ll see what happens in court. Thank you, my friend.”
The house Peter Dalglish built in Nagarkot, Nepal.
Nathan VanderKlippe
What transpires in that court is likely to be watched intently at the organizations where Mr. Dalglish came into contact with children over his lengthy career.
In interviews, he has described taking on an activist role in his teens, before going on to graduate from Dalhousie University law school and Stanford in the United States. He briefly worked in the Prime Minister’s Office under Pierre Trudeau before taking work as a lawyer. Then, in 1984, he was seized by images of children starving in Ethiopia. He organized an aid shipment and then accompanied it to Ethiopia.
While there, “I saw these kids and I realized they were the most extraordinary children I had ever met and my life would be working for them,” he said in an interview with WTV, the student channel at Wellington College in Britain.
It’s a story he has recounted to students around the world, typically elite high schools, such as the United World Colleges, where he would encourage young people to consider avenues in life outside of the traditional pathways to wealth and prestige, such as law and business.
Now, some of those schools are severing ties with him. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Dalglish was a board member at the United World College Thailand (UWCT). In a statement, UWCT said Mr. Dalglish had limited contact with students and was present for only four board meetings since his appointment in 2017.
Last November, according to the school, “speculation surfaced about potential inappropriate conduct involving children” − although the speculation did not involve children from UWCT. The school launched an inquiry, led by an external forensic psychologist, and spoke to those pupils who had the most direct contact with Mr. Dalglish. It concluded no students had been assaulted or exploited.
The school said that once the inquiry was complete, concerns were raised about the appropriateness of allowing Mr. Dalglish to be around the children. The school said it had decided to suspend Mr. Dalglish from the board, but he was arrested before the suspension was issued. It has now taken effect, according to the statement issued by the school.
“I feel deeply wounded, and I really regret if I’ve done anything to damage the reputations of these schools, or their leaders,” Mr. Dalglish said.
The breadth of his career means many others are similarly taking stock.
He was the founder of Street Kids International, which has now merged with Save the Children. In the years that followed, he taught at his alma mater, Upper Canada College. He became the first director of Youth Service International (Canada’s volunteer civilian corps for young people), executive director of the South Asia Children’s Fund and a senior adviser to the AWR Lloyd Foundation, according to the foundation’s website.
UCC said it has no record of complaints or other information suggesting sexual assault by Mr. Dalglish. His image has been deleted from the AWR Lloyd site; a spokesperson said he “has had no formal or active relationship with our firm.”
Mr. Dalglish also held a series of senior United Nations posts, including with the International Labor Organization, the World Health Organization and UN-Habitat.
The WHO said it received no complaints about his behaviour while he worked there. UN-Habitat said that “based on initial consultations” it had “found that there were no reports or allegations on any misconduct during his tenure with UN-Habitat.” The ILO said it “had no association with Mr. Dalglish since the conclusion of his engagement in 2005. In view of the allegations made against him, the ILO is undertaking its own examination of these matters.”
In Nepal, meanwhile, police are grappling with a series of foreign pedophiles in their country. Mr. Karki has had recent cases from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. In 2015, a Nepali court jailed another Canadian, Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, for child molestation. Maiti Nepal, a non-profit that works to combat sex trafficking, has observed a rise in local sex-related crimes in recent years, following a crackdown in Thailand that has displaced some of those activities to other countries.
Mr. Karki worries that what has made Nepal such an attractive place to tourists − its welcoming people, its deference to foreigners − has also made it vulnerable. “The tiger is killed because of its nice, beautiful skin. It is not preserved,” he said.
Among critics of international organizations, the arrest of Mr. Dalglish has renewed calls for greater scrutiny of foreign officials dispatched to impoverished countries, particularly those who occupy privileged positions with children. “You have to remember that UN officials have immunity from prosecution. So quite often, crimes are committed by UN officials because they know they can easily get away with them,” said Rasna Warah, a Kenyan columnist and author of Unsilenced: Unmasking the United Nations’ Culture of Cover-ups, Corruption and Impunity.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said “we must end impunity for those guilty of sexual exploitation and abuse.”
But large organizations must do more, including the installation of software to help spot pedophiles, said Lori Handrahan, author of Epidemic: America’s Trade in Child Rape.
Because, experts say, history shows that those who hurt children are also often those who serve them.
”Anybody who is going to gain access to children has to groom everybody around them first − and they do that by pretending that they care so much about children,” Ms. Handrahan said. That is “a classic profile of a pedophile.”
Former Senior United Nations Official Facing Pedophilia Charges in Nepal
KATHMANDU, April 8: Former UN-Habitat country representative for Afghanistan, Peter John Dalglish, has been arrested from Kavrepalanchowk district for his alleged involvement in pedophilia, a psychiatric disorder that leads to sexual attraction toward children.
The 60-year-old Canadian, who served as UN- Habitat country representative for Afghanistan from 2010 to 2014, was arrested by a team of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) from the house of Chinkaji Maharjan at Mandan Deupur Municipality in Kavrepalanchowk district on Saturday morning.
CIB, which was closely monitoring his activities, arrested Dalglish with two boys aged 12 and 14 from his room at Maharjan’s house. The boys were immediately rescued while Dalglish was brought to Kathmandu for further investigation.
The CIB has filed a case of child sexual abuse (pedophilia) against him and initiated further investigation. Dalglish has been remanded to judicial custody for five days for further investigation by the Kathmandu District Court.
DIG Pushkar Karki, director of the CIB, said that preliminary investigation by CIB suggested that Dalglish might have sexually abused many children.
Sixty-year-old Peter John Dalglish, a Canadian, had served as UN- Habitat country representative for Afghanistan from 2010 to 2014.
In Nepal, Dalglish, as the founder of the Himalayan Community Foundation, a non-governmental humanitarian organization to help poor and deprived families with their children’s education, has been running various projects related to education and drinking water for the deprived communities in Kavrepalanchowk district for the last two years, according to CIB.
“Our preliminary investigation has found that he has been targeting children from poor financial backgrounds and sexually abusing them. By promising the family members that he would educate their children, take them abroad and also provide them jobs after they finish their education, he had been sexually abusing children. Given his age and his high profile in the humanitarian sector, he would easily win trust of the family members and later abuse their children,” DIG Karki elaborated.
Apart from working in UN-Habitant as country representative, he has also worked in top positions of other UN bodies. After working in UN-Habitant for four years, Dalglish had joined the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response in Liberia in 2015 where he worked for a year. In 2016, Dalglish joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as a senior urban advisor to coordinate global efforts to stop the spread of the Ebola epidemic. He is also one of the founders of Street Kids International, a Canada-based non-governmental organization established in 1988.
Dalglish, who was born in Ontario, is a graduate from Stanford University, US.
“He had arrived in Nepal three months ago. After we got information about his sexual misconduct from security agencies in other countries, we had been closely following him and managed to arrest him,” DIG Karki said.
According to DIG Karki, Dalglish might have sexually abused children in Kathmandu as well as in Pokhara. “Not just that, he might have been involved in pedophilia in other countries as well where he served as UN official in the past. We are investigating into the matter,” DIG Karki said.
As per the law, he may be jailed for eight to twelve years if convicted of the crime.
With his arrest, the number of pedophiles arrested in the last two years has reached seven. Six of the arrested individuals are foreigners, according to police. Among the arrested foreigners, four are above 60 years.
According to Wikipedia, Peter Dalglish “(born 20 May 1957), is a Canadian humanitarian and founder of the Street Kids International charity and the Trails Youth Initiative program. He is currently the Country Representative for UN-Habitat in Afghanistan”. He is also an alumnus of Stanford University and Dalhousie University. Dalglish has worked as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Party for UN-Habitat in Kabul, Afghanistan between October 2010 to December 2014. He also became the Chief of Party until the end of his mission in July 2015 from December 2014.According to Nepal’s law, Dalglish will be sentenced to jail for 15 years and has to compensate to the victims too.
Peter Dalglish is the founder of Street Kids International, and is a leading authority on working children, street children, and war-affected children. He was arrested by Nepali police in connection with a pedophilia investigation.
One of the world’s leading experts on humanitarian work with street children and children affected by war has been arrested on pedophilia charges.
Canadian humanitarian worker Peter Dalglish, who helped found the charity Street Kids International, was taken in by police in Nepal on Sunday (April 8), Xinhua news agency reported.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police said they wanted to question Dalglish over claims he was involved in pedophile activities in Kavre district, around 50 kilometers north of the capital, Kathmandu.
An initial investigation claims the 60-year-old had offered children foreign trips and better education before sexually abusing them.
My Republica reported that two children, aged 12 and 14, had allegedly been abused by Dalglish and rescued by authorities.
CIB chief and Deputy Inspector General of Police, Pushkar Karki, said that an organization outside the country had tipped off the police about Dalglish.
“Under the guise of community worker, claiming to educate poor kids and provide necessary support, he had been sexually exploiting these children. We have developed a sound network to track down and arrest pedophiles entering Nepal. We had been following Dalglish’s activities for the last two weeks after we were tipped about his activities,” he said, according to the Kathmandu Post.
Dalglish had been running the Himalayan Community Foundation in the country since 2015. Prior to his stint in Nepal, he had worked for a number of United Nations agencies and was the U.N.-Habitat country representative for Afghanistan.
He was also part of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response in Liberia until January 2016 and has been advisor to the World Health Organization to help tackle the spread of the disease.
In 1994, Dalglish was appointed by Pierre Trudeau as the first director of Youth Service Canada, the Government of Canada’s civilian volunteer youth corps.
He is a founding member of the board of directors of Ashoka Canada, and is the recipient of three honorary doctorate degrees.
Dalglish is the recipient of a Vanier Award, Fellowship of Man Award, and the Dalhousie Law School Weldon Award for Unselfish Public Service. He was selected by Junior Chamber International in 1988 as “one of the 10 outstanding young people of the world.”
Street Kids International (or Street Kids) is a Canadian-based non-governmental organization founded by Peter Dalglish, Chris Lowry and Frank O’Dea in 1988.[1]
In 1988, Frank O’Dea would found, alongside Peter Dalglish of Street Kids International, whose main objective is for kids who grow up on the street to lead better and safer lives. Initially founded as a Canadian charity, Street Kids International has since expanded its operations into many foreign countries.
In January 2015, Save the Children and Street Kids International announced that they will become one to help more children and youth tackle the cycle of poverty by building sustainable income-generating opportunities.
Save the Children inquiry over response to harassment claims
APR 11 2018
Brendan Cox resigned from his role at Save the Children after complaints
Save the Children is to be investigated by the regulator over how it handled serious allegations of misconduct and harassment against senior staff.
The inquiry will focus on how the charity dealt with complaints that Justin Forsyth and Brendan Cox, its former chief executive and policy director respectively, sexually harassed young women employees.
The Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry after receiving “new information”, it said last night. It is concerned that the charity may have withheld the full extent of allegations from the regulator in 2015 when the alleged incidents were first reported. It is a blow to Save the Children, which has commissioned its own review of its working culture. Kevin Watkins, the chief executive who was a trustee at the time of…
Peter Dalglish
I am a child activist, and I believe that all children have the right to be protected from exploitation and abuse. I travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan on behalf of an Amsterdam-based organization, HealthNet International
Save the Children whistleblower warns it should not have taken SIX years for anyone to quit over ‘inappropriate behaviour’ after chairman Sir Alan Parker resigns amid cover up claims
19 Apr 2018
Sir Alan Parker has resigned as chairman of charity Save the Children
Sir Alan said there was an urgent need to rebuild confidence in the sector
The former PR man’s ten-year term of office was due to end in eight months time
Sir Alan Parker, pictured, has resigned as chairman of Save the Children as a result of the charity’s handling of allegations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by senior staff
A whistleblower at Save the Children has complained it took six years for anyone resign over claims of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ at the charity.
Chairman Sir Alan Parker resigned last night following claims of a high-level cover-up of allegations against two executives at the charity’s UK arm.
Chief executive Justin Forsyth and policy director Brendan Cox have both quit over claims against them in recent weeks. Sir Alan faces no allegations personally.
But whistleblower Alexia Pepper de Caires today blasted the failure of the charity to intervene sooner, including after a report on misbehaviour in 2015.
Ms de Caires, who left the charity that year, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There was no culpability at the time and I’ve seen very little since then.
‘I haven’t seen enough evidence of the culture changing.’
She also said she was ‘curious about why it’s taken six years’ for someone to step down ‘who was in a position of power at the time’.
Ms de Caires told Today: ‘In my view this is not complex at all, this has always been very simple.
‘The message that we know and live and breath is to value women equally, which we have not seen at Save the Children’.
Sir Alan Parker resigned following claims of a high-level cover-up of allegations against two executives at the charity’s UK arm.
It comes a week after the Charity Commission said it was carrying out a statutory inquiry into Save the Children over the claims.
The watchdog is looking at whether the charity adequately reported what it knew about allegations against former chief executive Justin Forsyth and policy director Brendan Cox.
He also brought in his own lawyers to help with the cases instead of using the charity’s legal advisers.
As a result, formal investigations were abandoned and both men left discreetly.
Sir Alan has always denied a cover-up of the allegations.
The source said: ‘There were HR procedures that were in place to deal with Brendan and Justin.
‘Lawyers were contacted … then Alan came in, in both cases within 48 hours, saw the advice of Save the Children’s lawyers, ignored that advice and quickly brought in new lawyers.
‘HR were totally across it and said we have to deal with this, but Alan wasn’t happy … they did not follow Save [the Children]’s HR protocol. After Brendan left, the investigation into what he did just stopped.
‘The original lawyers’ letters are in the safe at Save [the Children] and the Commission are going to see them.’
Sir Alan is founder and chairman of the PR firm Brunswick. Gordon Brown is godfather to his youngest son, and when David Cameron left No10 he lived briefly at Sir Alan’s London home.
A 2015 report found Sir Alan’s ‘very close’ relationship with former Save the Children boss Mr Forsyth may have affected how he responded to complaints. Three women employees accused Mr Forsyth of inappropriate behaviour, for which he said he had apologised. He allegedly sent inappropriate texts and commented on what young female staff were wearing. It was claimed if the women did not reply, he would continue to pester them. Allegations were also made against Mr Cox, the charity’s former director of policy. He stepped down after admitting he had ‘made mistakes’.
Brendan Cox, pictured, was policy director with Save the Children until his resignation in 2015
Sir Alan was chairman of trustees at Save the Children UK when Mr Forsyth and Mr Cox left in 2015. He then went on to chair the board of Save the Children International.
The leaked 2015 report found that Sir Alan was ‘less than supportive’ when harassment claims were made by women working for the charity.
It described how Save the Children’s head of HR alerted Sir Alan to the issues. He said Sir Alan had said: ‘Justin Forsyth is very important to the organisation; people behave very differently when they’re abroad; they would have been tired; they would have needed some mutual support; what were the complainants doing by agreeing to go to his hotel room in the first place.’
The report said the head of HR was ‘frustrated’ by Sir Alan’s response ‘which he feared was a result of Sir Alan Parker and Justin Forsyth being close’.
One complainant was quoted as saying: ‘It’s more about who Alan is, and having Alan and his best mate Justin sort of talking to each other about how best to handle these girls.’
Two months ago Mr Forsyth admitted ‘personal mistakes’ over the claims he sent young women a barrage of text messages. The former aide to Tony Blair, who went on to become deputy executive director at Unicef, said he had engaged in ‘unsuitable and thoughtless conversations’ which he accepts ’caused offence and hurt’.
He faced three complaints between 2011 and 2015, the year he left the organisation. He later resigned from his job at Unicef.
Mr Forsyth also faced questions over whether he protected Mr Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox, after he was accused of inappropriate behaviour towards women.
Mr Cox admitted he had behaved in a way that caused women ‘hurt and offence’.
In 2016 alone, Save the Children investigated more than 200 complaints of misconduct against staff.
Last month, protesters from the Women’s Equality Party interrupted a Save the Children board meeting to call for Sir Alan’s resignation.
Alexia Pepper de Caires, a former employee of the charity, read out a statement saying men at Save the Children UK had ‘disempowered women, sexualised their presence in the workforce and minimised their experiences’.
Sir Alan was due to leave in December but ‘felt it right at this moment to bring forward his succession’, the charity said. Announcing his resignation, he wrote: ‘Given the complex mix of challenges the organisation and the sector is facing, it is my view that a change is needed.’
He added: ‘In Save the Children UK we dealt with some unacceptable workplace behaviour, involving harassment, in our head office in Farringdon in 2012 and 2015. These issues are now subject to further review by the Charity Commission.’
Pernille Lopez, on behalf of the Save the Children Association and its international board, said: ‘We would like to thank Alan for his immense contribution to Save the Children over the past ten years.’
Who is Sir Alan Parker? The multi-millionaire PR guru who goes on beach holidays with the Camerons
Sir Alan Parker is a remarkably well-connected PR mogul who can claim allegiances across the political divide.
The son of a former British Rail chairman, he is reputed to be worth £130 million thanks to the success of Brunswick, the UK’s biggest financial PR firm, which he founded in 1987.
Before turning his hand to public relations, Sir Alan worked on an oil rig and managed rock bands.
Sir Alan Parker, pictured here with Samantha Cameron, is a well-connected PR mogul
A rebellious teenager, his anti-Establishment attitude meant he was denied a place at Oxford despite an excellent academic record. His unconventional approach to business is said to persist in his tendency to kick off his shoes during meetings.
Sir Alan, 62, started Brunswick in his parents’ front room in 1987, but the firm now boasts many high-profile clients, including EMI, Pearson, Reuters and Time Warner. It is thought to have advised more than a quarter of FTSE 100 listed firms.
Said to be a natural Labour supporter, Sir Alan was involved in attempts to rebrand Gordon Brown’s public image during his ailing premiership. Mr Brown is godfather to Sir Alan’s son, William.
But the PR guru has also holidayed with David Cameron. He and the former Tory leader were pictured hitting the beach together in South Africa. Samantha Cameron is an ambassador for Save the Children.
Sir Alan later lent one of his properties – a £16.8 million seven-bedroom townhouse in Holland Park – to Mr Cameron and his family after they left Downing Street.
The PR mogul was among business leaders who accompanied Mr Cameron on a trade mission to China in 2013 before being knighted for services to business, charitable giving and philanthropy.
In 2001, Sir Alan’s 24-year marriage to Caroline, an artist, ended in divorce. In 2007, he married Jane Hardman, who had worked at Brunswick. Both Mr Cameron and Mr Brown were guests at the wedding.
One of Sir Alan’s siblings is Nathaniel Parker, the actor best known for playing Inspector Lynley in the BBC crime series. His other brother Oliver is a respected director.
He is said to have use of a chauffeured Bentley and collects art by Sir Henry Moore as well as rare books. A keen angler, he owns half a £1.8million salmon beat – a stretch of river with fishing rights – on the Tay in Scotland.
Alan Parker, son of Sir Peter Parker, the Labour-supporting former boss of British Rail.
Parker junior has inherited his father’s taste for rubbing shoulders with politicians. At Parker’s wedding to his second wife and former Brunswick employee Jane Hardman, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown were guests.
The business has been good to Parker. He has a collection of Henry Moore sculptures, owns a stretch of the Tay in Scotland for salmon fishing and is estimated to be worth more than £100 million. Brunswick represents Charter, the engineering firm that has agreed to a £1.5 billion takeover approach from rival Colfax.
Richard William Huckle (born 14 May 1986) is a convicted British serial sex offender. He was arrested by Britain’s National Crime Agency after a tip-off from Australian Police and convicted of 71 counts of serious sexual assaults against children while posing as a teacher, photographer and devout Christian in Malaysia.[3]
Mariza Abdulkadir, interim executive director of the Malaysian charity Protect and Save the Children Association, told the Mail: ‘Yes, of course we have asked why no-one stepped forward to stop him. We cannot understand why there was no collaboration between the NCA and our own police.
She first met Huckle at Heathrow airport in a group of gap year backpackers heading off to do voluntary work in Kuala Lumpur in 2006 through travel agency Gap Challenge.
Sammie took this snap with Huckle and pals during gap year. She bumped into Huckle after Malaysia at gap year reunions and mutual friends’ weddings
He used his links to a Christian church in north London and Station Road Baptist Church in Ashford, Kent as a “gateway” to abusing children in Malaysia.
Ashford Baptist will soon be running the Alpha Course.
Gryllis
On 6 June 2016, however, the National Crime Agency referred itself to the police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, due to the fact that they were aware of Huckle’s continued attendance at two churches in the UK up until the time of his re-arrest in January 2015 but did not contact them until sentencing had already begun. The IPCC will look into whether the NCA had acted appropriately and whether more could have been done to determine whether Huckle abused any children in the UK through his relationship with the churches.[29][36]
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Former Celtic Boys Club coach Frank Cairney probed by US cops over ‘sex attack’ on player during trip
26 Jul 2019
CELTIC Boys Club paedophile Frank Cairney is being probed by US cops over an alleged sex attack.
Detectives in New Jersey are looking into an assault said to have taken place during a summer tour.
Cairney led Boys Club trip to US in 1991
The investigation comes as former Celtic chairman Jack McGinn claimed he urged boys club officials to alert police after being told Cairney, now 84, abused a teen during the 1991 trip — 30 years before he was brought to justice
US police chief George King said: “The Kearny Police Department detective bureau is reviewing this information and is in consultation with the Hudson County prosecutors office.”
Cairney, of Viewpark, Lanarkshire, led a party of 20 teenagers and five adults who were based in the town during a visit to mark the 25th anniversary of the boys club.
Ex-club official Jim McNally reportedly contacted Celtic at the time after learning of the alleged abuse in the States.
He then went to Celtic Park where he claimed Mr McGinn showed him a copy of Cairney’s resignation letter.
The document was said to have suggested that a promotion at Cairney’s day job had left him unable to sufficiently carry out his duties as boys club coach.
Asked last week if that was an accurate account of the meeting, ex-Hoops chairman Mr McGinn said: “It could be, or it could be vaguely different.”
It is understood cops in Scotland were never told of the alleged US incident.
Celtic FC has failed to contact survivors of systemic sexual abuse at its feeder club despite launching its own investigation into the scandal two years ago, a senior lawyer has claimed.
Last month Peter Lawwell, the club’s chief executive, announced club insurers had appointed a “wholly independent and experienced lawyer” to delve into the evidence of child abuse at Celtic Boys Club that has led to four former coaches being jailed.
In a statement he said: “We respect any claimants’ rights and out advisers will communicate with them and their representatives directly in the proper manner, respecting their rights to confidentiality.”
Football coach Bob Higgins jailed for 24 years for abusing trainees
12 June 2019
A former youth football coach has been jailed for 24 years and three months for abusing young players.
Bob Higgins sexually touched and groped 24 victims, most of them trainees at Southampton FC and Peterborough United.
In May, Higgins, 66, was found guilty at a retrial of 45 counts of indecent assault between 1971 and 1996. He was convicted of another count last year.
Judge Peter Crabtree called Higgins a “predatory, cunning” serial sex abuser who “carefully groomed” the teenagers.
Higgins’ victims told Winchester Crown Court of suicidal thoughts and relationship problems later in life.
An emotional statement, read by Dean Radford on behalf of the victims on the steps of the court, said Higgins’ “arrogance was his downfall”.
“You can call us brave, you can call us courageous – we were not – we were the unlucky ones for falling into the entrapment of Higgins’s manipulative, deceitful and sexual behaviour,” it said.
During Higgins’ trial, prosecutors told the court he was “idolised” by trainees, who viewed him as a mentor and father figure.
Victims said they were abused during post-exercise soapy massages, in Higgins’ car while he played love songs on the stereo and at his home where he cuddled with boys on his sofa.
‘Severe psychological harm’
Judge Crabtree said Higgins had shown “not one jot of remorse”.
“They believed you held the key to their futures,” he told the defendant.
“You normalised cuddling and stroking, which paved the way for more intimate abuse.
“For many the impact extended to their performance on the field or to turning their backs on a football career. Some of them suffered severe psychological harm.”
Higgins made no reaction as the sentence was passed.
The allegations arose after the NSPCC set up a dedicated helpline for people who had encountered childhood abuse within football.
It was launched after a number of former footballers, including Billy Seymour, spoke on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme in November 2016.
On Tuesday, his mother Jean read his victim impact statement, written before his death, to the court.
Addressed to Higgins, it said: “I am sick to my stomach of giving you any more thought. I have been a broken man. You have debilitated my whole life.
“The mist is clearing. I can see some light at the end of the tunnel.
“I will beat the hating of you in my soul. This is closure. Goodbye, Bob Higgins.”
Mr Radford had given evidence as a character witness because Higgins was found not guilty of abusing him at a separate trial in the early 1990s.
Reading the victims’ statement, he said: “There were so many warning signs out there but no-one would listen – that let this monster walk free and carry on abusing.
“We believe that many people must have known what was going on, the truth will come out in the end.
“Today is not just about us complainants and witnesses who have suffered through this nightmare, it’s the wives, girlfriends, sons and daughters who have suffered with us.”
He also paid tribute to their “dear friend” Billy Seymour.
“We did it Billy – just like you said we would, you can now rest in peace.”
‘Further allegations’
Det Ch Insp David Brown, of Hampshire Constabulary, said the conviction was “testament to the bravery of those who came forward to give evidence”.
“There can be no understanding of the damage that individual has caused to the lives of the people who stood with us through the criminal trial”.
He said the force was “assessing a number of reports” of further allegations against Higgins.
Southampton FC offered an “unreserved apology” to his victims last week.
In a statement, the club said it recognised boys under its care “suffered exposure to abuse when they should have received protection from any form of harm”.
During his time as a coach, Bob Higgins worked with young footballers who would go on to become national heroes and household names.
But others were not so fortunate.
Some were haunted by their ordeals, and gave up on football entirely.
Such was Higgins’s hold over those he abused, many felt unable to say anything, even to close family members, for up to 30 years.
Former Celtic chairman claims ‘no knowledge’ of his business links to Boys’ Club sex beast Jim Torbett
Kevin Kelly denies he was a director of the Trophy Centre which was the firm run by convicted paedophile Torbett..
10 JUN 2019
Former Celtic chairman Kevin Kelly has claimed ignorance of his business links with Celtic Boys’ Club beast Jim Torbett.
And Kelly, who was vice-chairman of the club when it investigated and then cleared boys’ club “leaders” of any wrongdoing – and was also president of the boys’ club – has told the Daily Record he has “no knowledge of the past”.
Speaking for the first time since the abuse scandal emerged, he said he had no idea that beasts Torbett and Frank Cairney were preying on children over decades on his watch.
The Daily Record revealed last month details of a 1986 probe by the Celtic FC board into allegations of boys being taken to weekend tournaments that did not exist, boys being taken out socially and boys being late home from training.
It appeared to be at odds with Celtic’s claim that the boys’ club was “entirely separate” from Celtic FC and that the club had first learned of allegations against boys’ club predators in the 1990s.
Four paedophiles linked to the boys’ club have been convicted of preying on children in recent months.
At the time of the 1986 probe Kelly, now 81, was vice-chairman of Celtic FC, president of Celtic Boys’ Club and worked for Torbett at his Trophy Centre business.
When we visited Kelly at his home, he was reluctant to discuss the abuse scandal. Asked about the 1986 probe, he said: “I’ve nothing to say about that.
“The club are looking into all these things, so I’m quite happy about that.
“No, sorry about that. As I say I’m quite happy with what’s gone to the police and everything.”
We put it to Kelly the 1986 probe by Celtic FC had cleared Torbett and Cairney of any wrongdoing and that Celtic FC had then endorsed the pair by branding the claims as “scurrilous” and saying they should be “buried once and for all”.
Many of Torbett’s victims were abused after he had been cleared by Celtic FC. Kelly said: “I’m quite happy for the club to do whatever they have to do. Those who committed crimes are in jail and that’s where they should be. That’s all I’ve got to say.”
When we asked about his directorship of the Trophy Centre – Torbett’s company – he said: “I wasn’t a director.”
We put it to him that he has a legal listing as a director of the company.
He said: “Look, I’ve no knowledge of the past, I’m sorry about that.”
Asked if he had knowledge at the time of what was going on, Kelly said: “Not at all, I’d never have joined it if I knew that.
“A lot of it is conjecture and it’s taken the police a long time, and I’ve been told by the police to stick by my statement and not to talk to anyone else until it is all resolved.”
Records show Kelly became a director of the Trophy Centre in October 1989. Torbett was first convicted of sexually abusing three boys in 1998 and jailed for two years.
But Kelly remained a director of the Trophy Centre until 2005.
Boys’ club founder Torbett was jailed in November for six years, former general manager Cairney was jailed in January for four years, fellow boys’ club coach and Celtic FC man Jim McCafferty, 73, was jailed for six years and nine months, while former chairman Gerald King was convicted of preying on children at a Glasgow school, but avoided jail.
Records also show that Kelly and Torbett were the sole directors of a now dissolved company – Panrole Ltd – set up in April 1991.
Helene Gray, 71, who’s son Andrew was a victim of Torbett at Celtic Boys’ Club, said: “There are many who held authority who continue to deny and deflect from what my son and many other young boys suffered whilst in their care at Celtic Boys Club. Their silence and denial is sickening.”
Andrew died after an accident on holiday aged 41. His testimony helped convict Torbett.
The club’s response to the crimes involving the former boys club coaches was last week criticised by two MSPs.
And both have issued fresh criticism after receiving a letter from Mr Lawwell.
Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwel
James Dornan, the SNP MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, told BBC Scotland he wants more clarity on what the investigation has involved.
He said: “If nobody has spoken to victims about their experiences and what they would like to see to overcome those experiences and how those experiences came about then that’s not an investigation.
“If what the investigation is about is how they can legally prove that Celtic Boys Club and Celtic Football Club are separate entities then that’s a sham.”
‘More than a club’
Asked about his reaction to the scandal as a fan of the club, Mr Dornan said: “I would much rather be here having this conversation about any other club in the world than having it about Celtic.
“I grew up to believe that Celtic was more than a football club, and I like to believe it still is, but this and the way the board have handled this.
“In one way, I’m glad that my dad is not here to see that Celtic are behaving in this way on what is probably the most important issue that club has ever faced.”
Conservative MSP Mr Tomkins tweeted his reaction to the letter.
He wrote: “I know of no reason why legal investigation into what Celtic FC knew about the abuse at the boys club (and when they knew it) needs to be in secret.
“Nothing in Celtic’s letter to me undermines my belief that these matters require to be ‘independently’ investigated and that, if necessary, Celtic will have to establish and administer a compensation scheme for victims of abuse.
“Finally, having an unnamed lawyer secretly investigating a matter does nothing to help, guide or support the victims and their families. It is their rights and interests that no one should overlook in this matter.”
Mr Lawwell has written to both MSPs, saying it is “important that we clarify a number of issues which appear to be misconceptions at present”.
And he told Mr Dornan: “We believe that your criticisms, which suggested that we were not a caring club and that we were not taking our responsibilities seriously was both unfair and misguided”.
In the letters released to the Press Association, Mr Lawwell stated: “The first misconception is that the club is doing nothing and abdicating responsibility. That is simply not true.”
Instead he claimed legal processes meant the club was “constrained” in what it could say publicly, describing it as being “highly frustrating for all”.
‘Proper manner’
But he also insisted it was not appropriate to discuss sensitive legal matters “through newspapers or on social media”.
The Celtic chief executive said: “Some time ago our insurers appointed a wholly independent and experienced lawyer who is investigating and dealing with this matter on behalf of the club.
He added: “We respect any claimants’ rights and out advisers will communicate with them and their representatives directly in the proper manner, respecting their rights to confidentiality.”
Celtic will “ensure that we continue to meet all our obligations”, Mr Lawwell stressed.
The chief executive also claimed that in the “very delicate and of course tragic set of circumstances” Mr Dornan’s letter had “appeared to disregard the importance of the due process of law”.
Sympathy for victims
He added: “Unfortunately legal processes are slow, and are also generally confidential. We have had to balance all of these factors in how was have addressed the issues to date.
“While we recognise that this issue is in the public domain we do not consider that means that we should deal with the matter through the media, but rather through the legal system.
“We would stress that we regret that the incidents took place and reiterate our sympathy for all victims who suffered abuse. We are following legal advice and respecting an ongoing process.
“The matter continues to receive our full attention and that we take all our obligations, including legal, very seriously.”
But solicitor Patrick McGuire, who represents survivors of abuse, again accused the club of “too little, too late”.
He said: “If Celtic have been carrying out a covert investigation why did it take the intervention of two MSPs to bring it to light?
“Why did they not set the record straight when survivors and campaigners started demanding answers and actions more than a year ago?”
He also asked why such an investigation was needed given the outcome of the court cases.
Jimmy Savile was a guest of Celtic in 1987 and was hailed as a “staunch supporter”, only months after a club dismissed allegations of widespread abuse as “scurrilous”.@ProfTomkins
My office has received several letters from constituents calling for a public inquiry into Celtic boys club. We are looking at the matter very carefully. This story would appear to strengthen the case for a full inquiry
Cross-border ‘paedo ring’ between Celtic Boys Club and Barry Bennell being investigated by SFA and FA
Vile McCafferty admitted preying on ten teenage boys between 1972 and 1996 — including one attack carried out at Celtic Park
23rd May 2019
AN ALLEGED paedophile ring between Celtic Boys Club pervs and Barry Bennell is to be “investigated by the Scottish and English FAs”.
It’s reported that the footie authorities are probing a “partnership” between Jim McCafferty and the monster.
McCafferty has been caged
McCafferty admitted preying on ten teenage boys between 1972 and 1996 — including one attack carried out at Celtic Park.
Meanwhile pervert Bennell was convicted of 50 abuse charges relating to 12 lads under his wing at Crewe Alexandria and Manchester City from 1979 and 1991.
A source close to the Independent Review of Sexual Abuse in Scottish Football told The Times: “The partnership between McCafferty and Bennell is included in the investigation.
“There will be full disclosure.”
A final report from the review was delayed last year to avoid prejudicing criminal proceedings.
Bennell was also caged
It’s understood that it’s set to contain evidence that McCafferty took youngsters from Glasgow to tournaments in the northwest of England where they were introduced to Bennell.
And according to the Times, the information has been shared with the English FA.
Lawyers are convinced that McCafferty was part of a network of abuse – which also involved boys club founder Jim Torbett and Bennell.
Patrick McGuire, a partner with Thompsons Solicitors, said: “It was our survivor clients who were able to present the evidence of links between McCafferty and Bennell, and McCafferty and Torbett.
“There is clear evidence of trips being organised in both directions: Bennell bringing boys up to Scotland and McCafferty taking boys’ clubs on trips to the Greater Manchester area.
The ex-starlet told how he travelled south to play against teams run by disgraced former coach Bennell, 65, who was caged for 31 years in 2018.
Bennell was said to be a “pied piper” who told boys he’d make their footie dreams come true.
A judge described him as the “devil incarnate”.
The victim — who was also molested by Frank Cairney, 83, while at Celtic Boys Club — said: “The fact McCafferty was taking teams to England and playing tournaments that Barry Bennell was involved in is not a coincidence.
Gerry Mccann was Celtic club physio from 1990s +. Celtic boys club had AT LEAST 4serial connected paedos +links to Bennell.
Why hasn’t the Celtic Paedo link been chased?
Was McCann blackmailed over the Celtic boys abuse? Did he piece together comments?
Was the “holiday” arranged through ‘friends’ that.. included links to the Paedo-in-place??
Was Maddie drugged?
The “its OK dear she won’t know she’ll be asleep” “they just want photos” excuse? … But it went wrong.
Was Gerry McCann’s/Celtic’s medicine chest the source of any drugs possibly used to dope kids groomed&raped by the boysclub paedo ring.?? Especially on ‘trips’.
Football coach Bob Higgins guilty of 45 counts of indecent assault
Former Southampton and Peterborough coach convicted of offences against 23 boys
A former football coach who helped launch the careers of a string of household names has been found guilty of sexually abusing schoolboy players.
Bob Higgins, who worked with hundreds of youth players, was found guilty of 45 charges of indecent assault against teenage boys at Bournemouth crown court.
The jury found him not guilty of five counts of indecent assault and were unable to reach a verdict on the final count. He showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out and he was convicted of offences against 23 victims.
He was convicted at an earlier trial of an offence against one other victim. The judge, Peter Crabtree, discharged the jury and thanked them for their service. Higgins will be sentenced at a later date at Winchester crown court.
He indecently assaulted them at training camps, at home when his wife and son were under the same roof, in his car, and during “soapy” massages after training.
Higgins, 66, denied the offences, claiming the allegations were false memories or lies. His mask slipped once when, while giving evidence, he conceded he may have become sexually aroused while massaging boys.
Complaints about Higgins were first made 30 years ago but, even though the police and football authorities knew of the serious concerns about him, he continued to work in the game until the Guardian exposed widespread football abuse in 2016.
It can now be revealed that:
• More than 100 former schoolboy players have said they were abused by Higgins. The most serious allegations involving boys as young as 11, and involving 24 youngsters, were put before the jury at Bournemouth crown court.
• Police believe there may be more victims who have not contacted them. They are still keen to hear from anyone else who was indecently assaulted by Higgins.
• Higgins kept letters, pictures and witness statements in his attic as “trophies” from boys he had abused.
• Detectives believe Higgins committed offences in Sweden during a youth football competition but he cannot be prosecuted there because of legal restrictions.
• Higgins had close links with another coach accused of sexual abuse against children, Kit Carson, who worked with Higgins at Peterborough. Carson died in a car crash on the morning his trial was due to begin in January.
• Famous names that came up in Higgins’s trial included the England internationals Alan Shearer and Dennis Wise. There is no suggestion they were victims.
A spokesperson said: “Following the conviction of Bob Higgins … it will now be possible for investigations into what the clubs and the FA did or did not know about Higgins to be concluded.”
The senior investigating officer, DCI Dave Brown, of Hampshire police, said: “Higgins was a great coach. The boys would do anything for him and he exploited that position. He identified vulnerabilities of the boys he coached and used his position to groom them so he could fulfil his own sexual needs. Boys worshipped Higgins as a father figure. He was clever and manipulative, a typical predatory paedophile.”
Asked why Higgins had been able to carry on working with children after complaints were made, he said: “You have to look at what the DBS [disclosure and barring service] and checking processes were at that time. There are very different safeguarding processes now. The fact he would be a risk would be identified and it would be highly unlikely he would find himself in a position where he could continue to offend against young people.”
He described the victims as incredibly brave. “I hope it gives others who may be victims the confidence to come forward. We will treat them with dignity and respect. I’m sure there are more that haven’t come forward,” he said.
Many of the victims described Higgins as god-like, their mentor and their father figure. Several spoke of their inability to make a complaint against him earlier because they feared it would be the end of their dreams of a career in football.
The court heard Higgins was acquitted at a trial in the early 1990s of a series of indecent assaults, including against the former professional Dean Radford who waived his right to anonymity to give evidence as a witness in the current proceedings.
The public gallery was charged with emotion as the chairman of the jury announced Higgins was guilty of six charges in relation to the former Southampton trainee Billy Seymour who died in a car crash earlier this year. His evidence against Higgins was presented to the jury through videos he had given to police.
In a joint statement issued through the police, the victims in the Bournemouth case said: “When Bob Higgins returned to court eight weeks ago, he gave a clear message to us all with his continued refusal to accept responsibility for what he did to us as children. However, that message made us all stronger and more determined.
“The verdicts from the jury after hearing all of the evidence mean that Mr Higgins’ arrogance and lies have finally caught up with him. At last, after all these years, we can finally get a sense of closure and try to move on from this nightmare.
“On behalf of everybody who’s taken part in the trials, we would like to thank everyone involved in the case for having faith and belief in us.
“We would particularly like to thank the prosecution and investigation team who must have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours putting this jigsaw puzzle together.
“But, most of all, we must thank our loved ones, wives, girlfriends, sons, daughters, mums, dads, brothers, sisters and close friends who have supported us right through to the end. It must have been difficult for them also.”
Referring to Seymour, they concluded: “We did it Billy, love you our good friend and brother xxx”.
Claire Booth, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Many young boys dream of becoming a footballer and training for a prestigious team.
“Bob Higgins preyed on and abused young boys – some of who adored him – and in doing so tainted and shattered the dreams of many.
“Being scouted by such a talented, renowned coach was something no boy would have turned down. Sadly it meant growing up with this terrible secret, which for some was all-consuming.”
Paedophile Celtic Boys’ Club coaches Gerry King (far left), Jim Torbett (centre) and Frank Cairney (far right) and former kitman Jim McCafferty, front right, and the statement in the Celtic View in 1986 saying the abuse claims were scurrilous
Celtic FC cleared Boys’ Club bosses over ‘scurrilous’ abuse claims in 1986
Victims, families and lawyers call for action after Daily Record reveals statement printed in The Celtic View after a club investigation.
17 MAY 2019
Celtic FC investigated and cleared Celtic Boys’ Club “leaders” of wrongdoing after complaints in the 80s, the Record can reveal.
The club’s probe described abuse claims as “scurrilous” and said those “placed under a cloud” would go to court if necessary to make sure the stories “are buried once and for all”.
Concerns were voiced in the 80s about boys being taken out socially when no matches were scheduled, arriving home late, and being taken away to tournaments that did not exist.
But the club’s probe described abuse claims as “scurrilous” and said that those who had been “placed under a cloud” would go to court if necessary to make sure the stories “are buried once and for all”.
The Record can reveal Celtic FC were aware of claims surrounding the boys’ club as far back as 1986.
The Celtic View article confirms that the Celtic FC board thoroughly investigated claims of inappropriate behaviour at the Celtic Boys’ Club
On Tuesday, a former kitman for Celtic, Hibs and Falkirk was jailed for six years and nine months for sexually abusing young footballers over two decades.
Youth coach Jim McCafferty was revealed as a serial abuser more than two years ago following a confession when confronted by the Record.
McCafferty’s imprisonment comes in the wake of Celtic Boys’ Club predatory paedophiles Jim Torbett and Frank Cairney being jailed for sexual offences on boys spanning more than 20 years.
Torbett, 71, was jailed for six years in November for the systematic sexual abuse of boys from 1986 to 1994.
A third CBC official, Gerald King, 66, was convicted of a string of sexual offences against children at a school in Glasgow.
Earlier this year he was given a three-year probation order.
The revelation of the club’s 80s investigation appears to be at odds with Celtic FC’s present stance that the boys’ club is a totally separate organisation, and that it was first made aware of allegations of improper behaviour in the mid-90s.
Helene Gray, 70, the mum of Torbett victim Andrew Gray, said of the development: “This is horrendous and shocking.”
On Tuesday, a former kitman for Celtic, Hibs and Falkirk was jailed for six years and nine months for sexually abusing young footballers over two decades.
Youth coach Jim McCafferty was revealed as a serial abuser more than two years ago following a confession when confronted by the Record.
McCafferty’s imprisonment comes in the wake of Celtic Boys’ Club predatory paedophiles Jim Torbett and Frank Cairney being jailed for sexual offences on boys spanning more than 20 years.
Torbett, 71, was jailed for six years in November for the systematic sexual abuse of boys from 1986 to 1994.
A third CBC official, Gerald King, 66, was convicted of a string of sexual offences against children at a school in Glasgow.
Earlier this year he was given a three-year probation order.
The revelation of the club’s 80s investigation appears to be at odds with Celtic FC’s present stance that the boys’ club is a totally separate organisation, and that it was first made aware of allegations of improper behaviour in the mid-90s.
Helene Gray, 70, the mum of Torbett victim Andrew Gray, said of the development: “This is horrendous and shocking.”
Click to play
Convicted paedophile Jim Torbett at a Celtic Boys’ Club event
Andrew bravely gave a statement before his tragic death aged 41 in an accident in Australia. The information helped convict the pervert in November.
Patrick McGuire, a partner with Thompsons Solicitors, who are representing the victims, said: “These new revelations uncovered by the Record go further than ever before in disproving the ridiculous assertion that the boys’ club and Celtic were separate organisations.
“The former directors of Celtic have got to be clear about what they thought they were investigating back in the mid-80s.
“The survivors my team represent deserve answers from the club about these investigations and they continue to be shocked and insulted that the board maintain that the boys’ club and Celtic FC are separate organisations.
“The survivors must receive an official apology from the club and be properly compensated for the terrible things that happened to them when, as children, they were under Celtic’s care.
“This is the morally right and decent thing to do but if Celtic continue to ignore us, as I have said before, we will see them in court.”
Kenny Campbell, another of Torbett’s victims – who waived his right to anonymity – said of our probe: “This makes me sick to the pit my stomach. It is a stunning development.”
Boys’ club general manager Frank Cairney, 83, was convicted in December last year and jailed for four years after sexually abusing eight boys.
He wrote in the Celtic View in December 1986 of his gratitude for the “tremendous support” he received from Celtic Park during the “recent difficult times”.
At the time of the 1986 investigation by the Celtic FC board, their then vice-chairman Kevin Kelly was also president of Celtic Boys’ Club.
He was also an employee of Torbett at his trophy business in Glasgow’s Shawlands.
At the boys’ club AGM in 1987 – just months after the allegations came to light – Kelly said that because of the way “true friends” had rallied round, the “criticism” of the boys’ club had made it stronger.
Torbett was previously jailed for two years in 1998 for abusing three former Celtic Boys’ Club players, including former Scotland international Alan Brazil, between 1967 and 1974.
At that trial, former Celtic photographer and boys’ club chairman Hugh Birt claimed Torbett was fired in 1974 after child abuse allegations arose.
But Torbett returned to the fold in the 80s.
Celtic FC’s investigation into the conduct of Celtic Boys’ Club “leaders” came after parents raised their fears.
The then boys’ club chairman Birt, who passed away five years ago, resigned because he believed the issue was not being dealt with properly.
The statement Celtic FC issued in Celtic View
Here is the statement Celtic FC issued in its own newspaper, the Celtic View, in December 1986, in response to claims in our sister paper the Sunday Mail.
The statement was reproduced the following month in the Celtic Boys’ Club magazine.
“A Sunday newspaper recently carried a story which cast a shadow over the Celtic Boys’ Club in general, and some of the leaders in particular.
“It also included a clear inference that the Celtic Football Club had not taken appropriate action with regard to the allegations contained in the article.
“In actual fact, the Celtic Board investigated the rumours and interviewed the men concerned in depth and could find nothing to substantiate the stories that were being circulated.
“During the course of the last 10 days, Celtic Football Club and the boys’ club have been in receipt of hundreds of letters and phone calls from boys and their parents, past and present, stating their complete support and backing of all involved with the boys’ club.
“It must be clearly emphasised that apart from this newspaper article, inspired by the former chairman of the boys’ club, not one single complaint has been received by any other person with a Celtic connection.
“The boys’ club leaders who have been placed under a cloud as a result of these rumours have instructed their lawyers to take the appropriate course of action and, if necessary, to go to a court of law to make sure these scurrilous stories are buried once and for all.”
In 1986, he said: “It appears the Celtic board want to look in the other direction in the hope the troubles will go away.”
But in an article published in the club magazine, the Celtic View, in December of that year, Celtic FC rubbished a story in the Record’s sister paper, the Sunday Mail, about the abuse.
It had listed complaints from parents about boys being kept out late, taken out socially when there was no game, and going to non-existent tournaments.
But the Celtic View stated: “In actual fact, the Celtic Board investigated the rumours and interviewed the men concerned in depth and could find nothing to substantiate the stories that were being circulated.
“The boys’ club leaders who have been placed under a cloud as a result of these rumours have instructed their lawyers to take the appropriate course of action, and if necessary to go to a court of law to make sure these scurrilous stories are buried once and for all.”
On the Celtic board at the time were chairman Jack McGinn, vice-chairman Kelly, Chris White, Tom Grant and Jimmy Farrell.
Helene revealed yesterday that the complaints in the 80s matched Torbett’s pattern of abuse when he preyed on Andrew.
She said : “This was exactly what Torbett did to Andrew. It is the first we have heard of Celtic holding an investigation as far back as that. To think it made Torbett’s position stronger is sickening.”
Kenny added: “I love Celtic. But people need to know the truth. For Celtic FC to claim they are separate from the boys’ club is total nonsense and this information uncovered by the Record shows that.”
Last night, Celtic FC made no comment on our revelations.
Following Torbett’s conviction last November, the club again claimed the boys’ club was not part of Celtic FC and did not refer to the investigation in the 80s.
It said: “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.”
A club source said yesterday: “It is not true to say that the investigation in 1986 is at odds with our statement released in November.
“That statement referred to the specific allegations against Torbett which led to his conviction in court. These allegations first emerged in the 1990s.”
Former Celtic kitman Jim McCafferty jailed after pleading guilty to sex offences
Police officer says McCafferty ‘used football to prey upon’ his victims
14 May 2019
Pervert youth football coach and kitman Jim McCafferty was sentenced to six years and nine months today after pleading guilty to a string of child sex offences stretching back 25 years.
McCafferty, 73, was involved in football in Scotland and Northern Ireland from the 1980s.
A total of 27 men who were coached by him took a claim against the former kitman and 10 claimants appeared on the lengthy indictment.
His crimes were all sexual and he was described as “physically intimidating” and overbearing.
Lord Beckett told Edinburgh High Court McCafferty that his actions had been “manipulative” and his offending had had a detrimental effect on his many victims.
Frank Cairney is the third former Celtic Boys Club coach to be convicted
A former manager of Celtic Boys Club has been jailed for four years after being convicted of nine charges of sexually abusing young footballers.
Sentencing Frank Cairney, the sheriff told the 83-year-old former coach he was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
During his trial the court heard that Cairney’s victims had suffered badly from the abuse, which dated back to the 1980s.
Sheriff Daniel Kelly praised the “courage” of the victims.
Cairney was acquitted of similar charges 20 years ago.
Following his conviction in December, a man who accused Cairney of abusing him in the early 1970s, said justice had finally caught up with the “evil paedophile”.
Both Jim Torbett (left) and Frank Cairney (right) have been convicted of abusing children at Celtic Boys Club
The man, whose identity is protected under the law, said Cairney had used his standing at Celtic FC to gain access to innocent young boys and abuse them in the most horrible way.
Some of the abuse took place in the dressing room at Celtic Park.
After sentencing he told BBC Scotland, Cairney had been given four years but his victims got a life sentence and they would take their experiences to the grave.
“When I saw him in court in December, he looked evil. I haven’t been able to get that image of him out of my head,” he said.
The man, who is in his late 50s, said he would wanted the authorities to ask if sentences handed down to men like Cairney were sufficient.
“The sentences have to be stricter so that we can protect our vulnerable,” he said.
‘Great respect’
Cairney is the third former Celtic Boys Club coach to be convicted of child sex abuse in recent months.
In November, Boys Club founder Jim Torbett was jailed for six years, while another coach, teacher Gerald King, was also convicted of abusing boys at a school.
After the conviction of Torbett, Celtic expressed “deep regret” for the victims but stressed the boys club was a separate entity.
The club made a similar statement on Thursday following the conviction of Cairney.
“Although Celtic Football Club is an entirely separate organisation to Celtic Boys’ Club, we wish to express our deep regret that these incidents took place, as well as our sympathy for the victims who suffered abuse,” it said.
“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”.
The victim of Cairney the BBC spoke to had previously said that when he played for the Boys Club, they were regular visitors to Celtic Park and used to sweep the terraces there.
He said: “Celtic FC have been in denial of the association with the Boys Club. It’s appalling; please stop it.”
Dead football coach Michael ‘Kit’ Carson was ‘paedophile ringleader’
January 13 2019
An Irish football coach who died last week on the day his trial for sex abuse was due to begin was at the centre of a paedophile ring and may have abused hundreds of young boys during a 30-year career, according to one of his victims.
Michael “Kit” Carson, 75, was due in Peterborough Crown Court on Monday to face 12 counts of indecent assault and one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, but was killed when his car hit a tree between Cambridge and Newmarket in an act that may have been deliberate. The car was heading away from Peterborough.
Is the reason police DID NOT act on the names of Victims that Barry Bennell they already given them in 1998 when I came forward in 2013 because they knew the true scale of this & left the cork firmly in the bottle ? My case was then dropped Maybe they thought I would go away ?
Barry Bennell: Police missed chance to snare paedophile after admitting abuse in 1998
EXCLUSIVE: The footie coach owned up in a jail interview to the crimes against nine boys – but officers failed to contact the victims
12 Jan 2019
Paedophile football coach Barry Bennell was allowed to walk free after police failed to contact nine boys he admitted abusing in a 1998 jail interview.
The fiend is expected to die behind bars after getting 30 years last February for a sickening catalogue of crimes.
But evidence that victim David Lean gave the Sunday People suggests he should have got a lengthy term sooner.
UK Police began probing Bennell, 65, in 1994 after he was jailed for child sex crimes in the US.
Detectives given the names of nine alleged victims in 1997 said they traced those they could but none wanted to make complaints.
Bennell was jailed again in 1998 for abusing six lads.
After requesting an interview in jail the same year, he confessed to attacks on the other nine.
But police have admitted they did not “revisit” the victims.
And when the case was sent to the CPS without checking if any would be willing to testify, it was decided no further action be taken.
Bennell was released six years later and remained free until 2015, when he was jailed for abusing former Preston North End defender David.
David, 12 when he suffered his ordeal, said: “It’s sickening. Now I’m left wondering if he could have got a much longer sentence much earlier.
“How do we know he didn’t attack more kids after he was released?”
Bennell victim Ian Ackley, 50, who spoke out in 1997, said of the police admission: “It’s a huge injustice and an insult to the victims. These boys could and should have been approached and given the opportunity to pursue this.
“Are you telling me if a murderer confessed to another murder, police wouldn’t follow it up? It’s their job.
When David went to police in 2013, he was originally told Bennell would not be charged as he was the only new victim and he had already been jailed for similar crimes.
He challenged the decision and Bennell was finally charged.
But he only learned of the 1998 confession after the 2018 trial.
Cheshire Police apologised last year after admitting contacting the boys would have helped his case.
David said: “I was stunned and angry. I went through two years of hell trying to get the police to charge Bennell.
“I could have been spared this if they’d just spoken to the boys.”
David, of Preston, Lancs, met Bennell in 1979 at Butlin’s in Pwlleli, North Wales.
He said: “I was besotted with football. He told me I was a star of the future and he had links to Man City.”
Parents Margaret and Martin let him stay with Bennell for a football course in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that year.
David, a dad of two, said: “Bennell didn’t leave me alone. He was pulling me into him, making me massage his groin. Then we went to bed and it got really weird.”
Bennell was eventually convicted of four attacks over two nights.
At the time David was left feeling it was his fault – especially when Bennell turned up unannounced at his home.
He said: “My mum told me to take him upstairs and show him my trophies. He wasn’t aggressive.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t tell what you did to me.’ I blamed myself and thought I was gay. I didn’t think I could tell anyone. He’d been my hero.”
David didn’t tell of his abuse, even when a 1997 documentary unmasked Bennell.
He said: “Mum confronted me after the programme and I told her nothing happened.
“She said, ‘Thank God, I’m not sure I’d have been able to cope.’ I promised myself I wouldn’t disclose while she was alive. I have to live with the fact almost all of Bennell’s victims were abused after me. There may be over 100 I could have stopped.”
When Margaret died of cancer in 2013 David went to police without even telling his wife Teresa. He said: “Telling officers was emotional but it was when I got back to my car it hit me. I sobbed.”
He then confided in his family but was dismayed to get a letter saying it was not in the public interest to prosecute.
His complaint sparked a case that changed guidance on historic child sex crimes.
A panel suggested prosecutors reconsider and Bennell was charged in 2014, pleading guilty the day of his Chester crown court trial in May 2015.
He got two years and the football abuse scandal erupted the next year .
Stars speaking out on their ordeals included ex-Crewe Alexandra player Andy Woodward.
David was given this certificate from Bennell at a Butlins soccer coaching scheme
Other players, including Manchester City youth star Gary Cliffe, had read about David’s case and told police their stories. Bennell was convicted of abusing 12 victims last February.
Gary, 48, got in touch with David to hail him as an “inspiration”.
David, who works for amateur side AFC Fylde, contacted police after last year’s trial and was finally told of the confession.
When he demanded answers, officers confirmed a decision was made not to contact the boys.
David was told: “Those who were ‘admitted’ to had not been revisited after that interview… whether or not to do so was an individual senior investigating officer decision.”
The interview transcript was stored but an officer probing David’s case “did not appreciate its relevance”.
Cheshire Police accepted “this material was in its possession and these boys could and should have been contacted in 2013”.
David, training as a counsellor to help other abuse victims, said: “I fear there are a lot of people who have been abused by Bennell who will not get justice. And I can’t help but wonder if he could have got a 30-year sentence much earlier.
“Instead, he was free while people like me lived with the hell of what he did to us.”
Kit Carson, ex-football coach accused of abuse, dies in traffic collision
Seventy-five-year-old due to stand trial accused of sexual abuse of 11 boys over 30 years
Jan 8 2019
A youth football coach and scout credited with helping launch the careers of several professional players has died in a car crash on the first day of his trial for sexual offences against 11 boys.
Kit Carson, 75, had been due to stand trial at Peterborough crown court in Cambridgeshire on 12 counts of indecent assault and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. The offences were alleged to have happened between 1978, when Carson was 35, and 2009.
Carson’s trial was due to begin on Monday morning but the prosecution asked for proceedings to be adjourned for 24 hours.
On Tuesday, Jeremy Benson, prosecuting, told the court Carson had died on Monday morning at 9.44am – 16 minutes before the case was listed to begin.
Benson said no other vehicle was involved in the incident and an investigation was being carried out. The prosecutor said Carson’s wife, Pauline, identified her husband’s body on Monday afternoon. The case was formally discontinued.
Police said the crash took place at Bottisham, near Cambridge, which is about 40 miles from the court building.
Carson, whose full name was Michael Sean Carson, was arrested in Cambridge in January 2017 and charged in March 2018.
One theory police were investigating to explain why he was so far from court was that he was confused over the start date of his trial.
A Cambridgeshire police spokesman said: “Police have identified a man who died following a single-vehicle crash on the A1303 at Bottisham yesterday morning (7 January).
“Michael Carson, 75, of Cambridge, was driving his red Mazda 3 at about 9.45am when it left the road and crashed into a tree. Emergency services attempted to save Mr Carson’s life but he was declared dead at the scene a short time later.
“No other vehicle or person was involved in the collision. Mr Carson was due to stand trial at Peterborough crown court, beginning yesterday, on multiple sexual assault charges. The victims have been informed and efforts are being made to contact all the witnesses.
“Anyone who saw the collision or has dash cam footage should call 101, quoting incident 100 of 7 January.”
Carson was the academy director at Peterborough United football club from 1993 until 2001 and a number of players he coached there went on to have careers in the Premier League.
The majority of the alleged indecent assault offences are said to have taken place between 1992 and 2000.
Before working at Peterborough, Carson was at Norwich City from 1983 until 1993, and had connections with other junior teams. On his LinkedIn page, he described himself as a football consultant and scout for a Finnish club. Carson left Peterborough to become head of talent development at Cambridge United in 2001 and remained there until 2005.
The first two alleged indecent assaults are said to have taken place between September 1978 and September 1980.
According to the particulars of the offences, the first alleged indecent assault happened at a hotel in the north of England. A further eight allegedly took place in or around Peterborough.
The incitement offence allegedly happened between February 2008 and February 2009 in Cambridge.
Carson had denied the offences.
Bail conditions had included Carson being barred from coaching children in the UK or travelling abroad to coach young people, and from involvement in scouting under-18s.
Gerald King: Ex-Celtic Boys’ chairman spared jail after being found guilty of child sex abuse
Jan 7 2019
A FORMER Celtic Boys’ Club chairman convicted of sexually abusing four boys and a girl while he was employed as a teacher has been spared jail.
Gerald King, 66, taught and coached football at a primary school in the north of Glasgow during the 1980s.
One man, now 43, told how King exposed himself to him when he was getting changed before a football game and told prosecutor Adele Macdonald: “I was really embarrassed and uncomfortable”.
He told the jury: “I felt as though it was something I couldn’t escape from.”
King’s conviction last month came only weeks after Celtic Boys’ Club founder Jim Torbett was jailed for a second time for abusing three boys.
A former manager of the boys’ club, Frank Cairney, 83, was found guilty the following week at Hamilton Sheriff Court of abusing teenagers between 1965 and 1986.
After his trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court, King was convicted of five charges of using lewd and libidinous practises towards the five victims between August 1984 and April 1989.
He was also found guilty of taking indecent pictures of children in February 1987.
Today, shamed King – who was also a coach at Celtic Boys’ Club – was given a three-year probation order.
He will be supervised throughout his time on the order and must carry out 240 hours unpaid work. King will also be on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
King’s victims were between nine and 13-years-old at the time.
In evidence, he admitted taking two pictures, one of four boys in a shower with no clothes on which was later printed in the school magazine with ‘censored’ over their private parts.
He also said he took a second picture of one of the boys with no clothes on, but claimed both were entirely innocent.
The former coach was found guilty of abusing eight boys while running St Columba’s Boys Guild in Viewpark, Lanarkshire, and the under-16s team at Celtic Boys Club.
After the verdict, one abuse survivor said: “Finally justice has caught up with Frank Cairney who as everyone now knows is an evil paedophile.
“He used his high standing at Celtic FC though his work with the boys clubs to gain access to innocent young boys like myself and abuse them in the most horrible way.
“Some of this abuse was carried out within the Celtic Park dressing room as well as in his car. I’m glad Cairney will now pay for his crimes and this brings a small amount of closure to myself and other victims.”
Cairney was coach at Celtic Boys Club
The Scottish Sun understands the abuse relates to Frank Cairney forcing boys to strip naked in the dressing rooms of Celtic Park before whipping them with heavy, wet towels leaving their bodies marked.
It’s also understood he submerged naked boys in ice cold metal baths while he stood leering over them.
Cairney joined Celtic Boys Club in 1971 after he was approached to run the side by Hoops legend Jock Stein.
But he used the role to prey on and molest young players, including incidents in a church hall and at Celtic’s Barrowfield training ground.
Former Celtic Boys Club boss found guilty of sex abuse
5 December 2018
Gerald King coached football at a primary school in the north of Glasgow during the 1980s
A former Celtic Boys Club chairman has been convicted of sexually abusing four boys and a girl in the 1980s.
Gerald King, 66, was coaching football at a primary school in the north of Glasgow when he carried out the crimes.
King was convicted of five charges of using lewd and libidinous practises towards the five victims between August 1984 and April 1989.
The case comes just weeks after Celtic Boys Club founder Jim Torbett was jailed for abusing three boys.
After his trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court, King was told by sheriff Johanna Johnston QC: “You have been convicted of serious sexual offences against pupils when you were in a position of trust as a teacher and football coach.”
One victim, now a 43-year-old man, told how King exposed himself to him when he was getting changed before a football game.
He told prosecutor Adele Macdonald: “I was really embarrassed and uncomfortable”.
He told the jury: “I felt as though it was something I couldn’t escape from. ”
Indecent pictures
He was also found guilty of taking indecent pictures of children in February 1987.
King’s victims were between nine and 13 years old at the time.
In evidence he admitted taking two pictures, one of four boys in a shower with no clothes on which was later printed in the school magazine with ‘censored’ over their private parts.
He also said he took a second picture of one of the boys with no clothes on, but claimed both were entirely innocent.
King had denied the charges.
Another victim, now 41, described King stripping off in front of him before a football game.
Miss Macdonald asked: “How did you feel when you were standing there and he was in front of you in the same room naked?”
He answered: “Embarrassed.”
Deferred sentence
Sheriff Johnston deferred sentence until next year and continued King’s bail.
Defence counsel Gavin Anderson will give defence mitigation then.
King had worked at Torbett’s company, the Trophy Centre, but previously denied being close to him.
During his trial, Torbett named King as one of the coaches at the boys club.
Torbett was first put behind bars for two years in 1998 for abusing three former players.
Torbett was said to have been sacked from the club in 1974 when allegations surfaced against him, but was later welcomed back in 1980 until 1996.
Jim Torbett victims’ lawyer has ‘evidence’ Celtic knew about child abuse before the 90s
Patrick McGuire who is representing 10 former Celtic Boys’ Club players has questioned Celtic’s claims.
9 NOV 2018
A lawyer representing victims of pervert Celtic Boys’ Club Jim Torbett says he has evidence officials knew about the abuse before the 90s.
Patrick McGuire, whose Glasgow firm are representing 10 former Celtic Boys’ Club players, questioned Celtic FC’s claims about when they learned of the allegations.
He said: “When was it that Celtic Football Club knew, or ought to have known, about what was going on and when should that club have taken action? Was it in the 90s? I have evidence to the contrary.”
Torbett was jailed for six years on Monday for sexually abusing three boys over an eight-year period.
He was previously jailed for abusing boys in 1998.
The 71-year-old was said to have been booted out of the boys’ club in 1974 by then Celtic boss Jock Stein.
But he was allowed back after Stein left in 1980.
They expressed “deep regret” over Torbett’s crimes but have repeatedly insisted the club is a separate entity from the boys’ club.
But McGuire added: “We are asking Celtic, in their own right, for their own past wrongs, to do the right thing.”
An abuse victim’s sister said the club were trying to dodge responsibility over Torbett.
Andrew Gray gave a statement to police about his ordeal at the hands of Torbett but tragically died last year in a swimming pool accident in Australia, aged 41.
Andrew Gray who was abused by Jim Torbett when he played for Celtic Boys’ Club
His sibling Michelle, 43, said: “We have yet to receive as much as a message of condolence in respect of Andrew’s death, never mind the abuse he suffered. To say that they were two separate clubs is nonsense.
“If that was the case, then why did Andrew play at Parkhead and have the contact that he did with the board and the first team players?”
The club said they had taken steps to develop a new code of conduct and procedures to protect young people.
Celtic Boys Club founder Jim Torbett guilty of abusing boys
5 Nov 2018
Celtic Boys Club founder Jim Torbett has been jailed for six years after being convicted of sexually abusing three boys over an eight-year period.
Torbett, 71, was found guilty after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. He had denied the charges.
Two victims had been in his under-14s football teams, while the third was abused by Torbett at the age of five.
Lord Beckett told Torbett: “Yours is some of the most corrupting behaviour I have ever heard of in these courts.”
He added: “Your depraved conduct towards innocent children has blighted their lives.”
The judge told Torbett that Celtic Boys Club had given opportunities to hundreds of aspiring young footballers.
But he added: “You used the club as a front for child sexual abuse.”
There were tears in the public gallery as the verdict was announced, and emotional scenes in the foyer of the court as those affected by the case embraced each other.
Jurors had heard that Torbett, of Kelvindale, Glasgow, targeted the schoolboys between August 1986 and August 1994.
His victims included youth players Kenny Campbell and Andrew Gray, who had waived their right to anonymity.
Mr Gray died last year, but statements he gave to police before his death were read out during the trial.
The third victim said he had been abused as a five-year-old when he visited the Trophy Centre in Glasgow, which was owned by Torbett.
Ex-football coach Jim Torbett on trial accused of historic sex abuse of four young boys in Glasgow
Torbett, 71, denies a total of nine offences of sexually abuse allegedly committed between August 1985 and August 1994
22 Oct 2018
A MAN went on trial today accused of historic sexual abuse of four young boys.
James Torbett, 71, from Glasgow, denies a total of nine offences of sexually abuse allegedly committed between August 1985 and August 1994.
Defence QC Tony Graham lodged a special defence of alibi in relation to a charge alleged to have taken place between June 1985 and June 1986.
Torbett is alleged to have first sexually abused the boys when they were aged four, 12, 12, and 13.
The offences are alleged to have taken place in a number of locations including Barrowfield Football Ground in Glasgow’s London Road, at Torbett’s home, a dormitory in France as well as training facilities in Glasgow’s west end and factory premises at The Trophy Centre in Pollokshaws, Glasgow.
Prosecutor Sheena Fraser said: “The trial is set down for 10 days, but it may be less than that.”
The independent review into child sex abuse allegations in football has been delayed indefinitely because of a pending retrial and further allegations in the Barry Bennell case.
The scandal has been described as one of the biggest crises in the history of the Football Association.
“Due to the ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions it has not been possible for all those who want to speak to the review to be able to do so,” said Clive Sheldon QC, who is leading the investigation.
“Whilst I had hoped and expected to complete my review this autumn, I believe this extension will ensure many more individuals who want to engage with the review will be able to do so.
“It is essential that the review is as comprehensive as possible.”
It is not known how long the delay will be as it is dependent on the criminal matters being resolved.
In February, Bennell was sentenced to 31 years in prison for abusing 12 boys, seven of whom were linked to Crewe Alexandra.
Another coach, Bob Higgins, was found guilty in July of indecently assaulting a young trainee.
He was found not guilty of another count of the same offence. The jury in his case did not reach verdicts on 48 other counts of the same charge and was dismissed.
Sheldon was asked by the FA in 2016 to look into historical sexual abuse in the sport following a series of allegations by former players.
The review is looking into what the FA and clubs knew and did about allegations of child sexual abuse between 1970 and 2005.
Sheldon has been in “close and constant co-operation” with Operation Hydrant – the police operation looking into the issue – and had hoped to submit his final report at the end of September.
“However, the retrial of Bob Higgins, and the fact that there is an ongoing investigation into allegations against Barry Bennell, has required Mr Sheldon QC to review this position,” police said.
A statement added that Sheldon had “decided that he should not finalise his review until he has had the opportunity to speak to more individuals associated with the re-trial of Bob Higgins and the outcome into the police investigation into allegations against Barry Bennell, and to receive and analyse any other information about abuse in football that may emerge over the coming months”.
Jailed football coach Barry Bennell may face further abuse charges
6 Sept 2018
Police get go-ahead to put together a case for CPS
Trial judge questioned merits of more criminal proceedings
Barry Bennell, the former football coach who is serving a 30-year prison sentence as an “industrial-scale child molester”, is facing the possibility of more criminal proceedings for the sexual abuse of players from the junior set-ups of Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra.
Detectives investigating Bennell’s crimes are putting together a case for the Crown Prosecution Service with a view to imposing charges relating to some of the alleged victims who are still waiting to hear whether their complaints will go to court. As of January, 86 cases were outstanding, with at least 97 people – though possibly more now – reporting Bennell on the back of the interview Andy Woodward, the former Crewe footballer, gave to the Guardian in November 2016, detailing the years of abuse he suffered in the club’s youth system.
Ex Celtic youth coach Jim McCafferty, 72, jailed for three years and nine months after pleading guilty to eight counts of sexual assault
13 Aug 2018
McCafferty, formerly of Raby Street in Belfast, will serve half the sentence in custody and the remaining half on licence
A former Celtic Football Club youth coach has been jailed for three years and nine months after admitting eight counts of sexual assault.
Jim McCafferty, 72, initially pleaded not guilty to a series of sexual offences against the same boy over a three-year period before December 2015, but changed his plea to guilty on the morning his trial began at Belfast Crown Court in May 2018.
During sentencing, Judge Patricia Smyth told McCafferty that what he had considered “a bit of fun” had had a significant impact on his victim.
McCafferty, formerly of Raby Street in Belfast, will serve half of the sentence in custody and the remaining half on licence.
The offences took place over a three-year period from December 2012 to December 2015 when McCafferty was aged from 66 to 68 and his victim was aged between 14 and 16.
Judge Smyth said: “You abused trust placed in you by his family… assaulting him in your home and his home. The impact on your victim and his family has been significant.
“There are other factors in the victim’s life that had rendered him vulnerable.”
Judge Smyth also told the court that McCafferty had only apologised to his victim because he had been advised to and said he continued to regard his behaviour as having been “a bit of fun for the victim”.
McCafferty, who lived in Glasgow before moving to Northern Ireland in recent years, will remain on the sexual offenders register for an “indefinite period” and has been banned from working with children in any capacity.
FA sex abuse inquiry finds no evidence of conspiracy or cover-up
26 July 2018
The man leading an investigation into historical sex abuse for the
Football Association has found no evidence of an institutionalised conspiracy, the BBC understands.
Clive Sheldon QC began his independent inquiry in 2016 following a series of allegations by former players.
He hopes to submit his final report at the end of September, and it is now unlikely he will conclude there was organised abuse or a cover-up of the kind alleged in other institutions like the Church of England.
However, Sheldon is still expected to find that there were failings by both individuals and clubs, and next month he will write to those he intends to comment on, giving them a chance to defend themselves.
The legal process of giving criticised witnesses the right to respond – known as ‘Maxwellisation’ – is expected to last around a month.
An inquiry spokesman said: “Over the summer the review team will be writing to institutions and individuals to provide them with an opportunity to respond to comments Clive Sheldon QC may make about them in his final report to the FA board.
“The review team are expecting to send those letters out shortly and will expect to hear back within weeks.”
It is thought around 12 clubs will form the basis of Sheldon’s findings, likely to include the likes of Crewe Alexandra, Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa.
All the clubs from whom he requested a ‘structured report’ into how they handled allegations of abuse have now cooperated with the inquiry.
In March, Crewe said they would scrap plans for their own independent review into abuse by former coach Barry Bennell.
In February, Bennell was sentenced to 31 years in prison for abusing 12 boys, seven of whom were linked to the Cheshire club.
So far Sheldon has met 35 victims, and reviewed the testimony of more than 100 individuals.
Investigators have sifted through 13,000 documents in the FA archives – adding up to 1.3 million pages – as part of their search for data relating to safeguarding procedures and child protection cases.
Some 500 case management files – not all relating to child abuse – are thought to contain relevant information.
The inquiry team has also had access to documents held in the archives of the Premier League and the English Football League.
Ian Maxwell was responding to an 18-month investigation which found child protection policies are “not fit for purpose” and must change to prevent future cases of abuse.
The most recent police figures from March showed 849 alleged victims had come forward since former Crewe player Andy Woodward first spoke to the Guardian newspaper and the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme about the abuse he suffered.
Operation Hydrant, the specialist police unit in charge of the operation, has identified 300 suspects and a number of court cases involving professional clubs are under way.
FA sex abuse inquiry finds no evidence of conspiracy or cover-up ( Do people believe this ? )
Ex-football coach faces retrial over indecent assault charges
23 July 2018
Former football coach Bob Higgins is to face a retrial after a jury found him guilty of one count of indecent assault and not guilty of another but failed to reach verdicts on the remaining 48 charges.
The 65-year-old, from Southampton, Hampshire, was convicted of the single charge by the jurors following an eight-week trial at Winchester Crown Court.
Higgins was found guilty of indecently assaulting complainant M, one of 24 alleged victims, in his car. He was cleared of an alleged assault on complainant G during a training session.
Judge Jonathan Fuller QC thanked the jurors for their service and told them: “I am going to discharge you from giving verdicts on the remaining counts.
“Thank you very much for the efforts and hard work you have put into this case over the last eight weeks.”
Adam Feest QC, prosecuting, told the court that a retrial is likely to be held on the remaining counts in February 2019.
Higgins, who ran the schoolboy coaching programmes for Southampton Football Club and Peterborough United, was accused during the trial of 50 counts of indecent assault against 24 complainants dating between 1971 and 1996.
Bob Higgins trial: Coach denies using gifts to groom boys
10 July 2018
A former football coach has denied using gifts and threats to “manipulate and groom” trainees in order to sexually abuse them.
Bob Higgins, 65, told a jury he was never alone with any youth player at Southampton or Peterborough United over the course of nearly two decades.
Under cross-examination, he denied putting trainees “under his spell”.
At Winchester Crown Court, Mr Higgins denies 50 counts of indecent assault against boys between 1971 and 1996.
Most of the 24 alleged victims are former youth players at the two clubs.
Prosecutor Adam Feest QC told the court the defendant was a “manipulative person as far as… trainees are concerned”.
‘Second dad’
He threatened one alleged victim with the police and gave another a piece of football kit to gain his affection, Mr Feest said.
The defendant denied the suggestions.
He accepted though his relationship with boys could be “intense, in a football way”.
“You would know which boy’s father was away, which boy came from a troubled background,” Mr Feest said.
Mr Higgins said some called him “second dad” because “that was how they felt”, but he denied selecting boys to abuse.
Mr Feest suggested the ex-coach had “supreme influence” over “teenagers desperate to be professionals” through his power to recommend them for contracts.
Asked about soap-water massages given to trainees, Mr Higgins said he learned the technique from a TV programme about former England and Leeds United manager Don Revie.
‘Lot of soap’
“Did you ever stop to think, ‘Is it appropriate for me to be massaging a young naked boy in this way?’,” Mr Feest asked.
“No,” Mr Higgins replied.
“You accept there was a risk of touching a boy in an intimate place?” the prosecutor continued.
“I might have brushed them. There was a lot of soap on the player,” Mr Higgins said.
James Torbett: Glasgow pensioner on trial accused of sexually abusing boys at football ground
26 June 2018
A pensioner has gone on trial accused of sexually abusing boys at a football ground and training facility.
James Torbett, known as Jim, faces 12 charges of abusing six boys, aged from four to 17 on the dates in question, one of whom has since died.
The alleged abuse spans from 1970 to 1994 and is said to have taken place at various locations including Barrowfield Football Ground in London Road and Scotstoun Football Training Facility, both Glasgow.
Abuse is also alleged to have occured at a a further football training facility in Bristol, school premises in Scotland, at a dormitories in France and Belgium, at factory premises in Shawbridge Street in Glasgow, at locations in Blackpool and London and in motor vehicles.
The 71-year-old from Glasgow denies all the charges against him, which include inducing boys to perform sexual acts and placing money in the mouth of one alleged victim.
Torbett is also accused of grabbing hold of the private parts of a boy aged between four and six and threatening him, and on another occasion making him perform oral sex.
He is further accused of removing the clothes and underwear of a boy aged 11 or 12 at Barrowfield Football Ground and watching him and two other boys enter the showers.
He has lodged a defence of abili for one charge, of sexually abusing the same boy in a vehicle on the M8 motorway in Glasgow between dates in 1985 and 1986, claiming to have been in New York on that occasion.
The trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard agreed evidence that the police seized mobile phones from Torbett and one alleged victim in May last year, which have now been forensically examined.
The court also heard the alleged victim who has since died provided six statements to the police.
The trial, before Judge Tom Hughes, continues today.
‘Trusted’ Newcastle United football coach abused 19 children over 24 years – enforcing ‘no pants’ rule on young players and telling one boy ‘you want to play football, this is what happens’, court hears
George Ormond accused of 29 child sexual offences between 1973 and 1998
23 May 2018
A ‘trusted’ youth football coach at Newcastle United is accused of abusing 19 children over a 24-year-period, enforcing a ‘no underpants’ rule at training and telling the youngsters they wouldn’t be believed if they told anyone.
George Ormond, 61, is accused of 29 historic child sex offences and abusing his position of power between 1973 and 1998.
He denies the charges and faces trial by jury at Newcastle Crown Court.
The court heard he told young players: ‘You want to play football, you want to play for me, this is what happens. Tell anybody, they won’t believe you, I am trusted more than you.’
Ormond denies sexually assaulting young boys throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, , with 19 former youngsters under his care making accusations against him in a trial that will last six weeks.
The court heard Ormond helped to run a successful boys’ team in the Newcastle area and progressed to Newcastle United’s youth set-up in the 1990s.
Kitman Jim McCafferty’s sordid sex abuse allegations go back 20 years
The coach and kitman has been linked to sex abuse as far back as two decades ago andwas a potential suspect in the brutal murder of a teenager footballer.
7 DEC 2016
Jim McCafferty was considered by police as potential Lawrence Haggart murder suspect
Jim McCafferty has never been convicted for his crimes against boys.
But the coach and kitman was linked to sex abuse as far back as 20 years ago.
In 1996, the Record revealed he quit his role as kitman at Celtic over mysterious “allegations”.
Then in 2005, police papers revealed he’d been considered a potential suspect in the hammer murder of Hoops starlet Lawrence Haggart.
Jim McCafferty leaves Celtic in 1996
McCafferty worked at a number of youth football clubs and junior sides before he began scouting for Celtic in the late 80s.
During that time, he acquired a number of talented young players from Northern Ireland for the Hoops.
He later became the club’s kitman in 1994 and was involved in their youth side in 1995-6.
But allegations into teen sex abuse led to his resignation from the club and flight to Ireland. It came in the wake of the Celtic Boys Club scandal when former player Alan Brazil lifted the lid on sex abuse decades earlier.
Weeks after the 1996 story about McCafferty emerged, Celtic youth star Lawrence, 14, was murdered and set alight in his own home. Convicted paedophile Brian Beattie was later convicted of the crime.
Jim McCafferty quits Falkirk job in 2005
McCafferty eventually returned from Ireland and joined Hibs as kitman. He later joined Falkirk in the same role.
But sister paper the Sunday Mail revealed McCafferty quit the Bairns after the claims caught up with him.
Secret police documents also showed he was once a potential suspect in Lawrence’s murder.
The report said McCafferty was a regular visitor to the Haggart home in Larbert, Stirlingshire, and had phoned the house on the day of the murder.
But police were criticised for their mishandling of the case.
COPS FRAME SHAME; Secret police report slams murder squad officers who tried to fit up 12-year-old for the death of his brother.
25th August 1998
A SENIOR police officer has claimed detectives faked diaries and planted evidence in a bid to frame a 12-year-old for the murder of his older brother.
A secret police report released last week brands the murder squad who investigated the death of 14-year-old Lawrence Haggart criminal and incompetent.
The report by James Mackay, the then assistant chief constable of Tayside Police, shows officers became so obsessed with nailing Lawrence’s young brother Dennis for the crime that they ignored the true killer – serial paedophile Brian Beattie.
Lawrence was battered in his own home as he lay sleeping on the sofa and then set on fire by Beattie.
The report says detectives found a hammer and petrol in Beattie’s van – but accepted his alibi that he had been out cruising for gay sex in Edinburgh.
The Mackay report reveals how police# Faked entries in an official diary of the murder inquiry at a later date.
Failed to carry out basic searches of paedophile killer Brian Beattie’s criminal record.
Contaminated the crime scene and destroyed evidence.
‘Discovered’ a hammer sitting in the Haggart family’s kitchen – after their home had already been searched NINE times.
Did not even consider a sexual motive for the murder.
Lost a possible murder weapon and ignored another in the killer’s car.
The shocking report was ordered after claims police attempted to frame Lawrence’s brother Dennis for the killing It has remained secret for seven years but was released last week to Lawrence’s dad Larry under new Freedom of Information rules.
Lawrence was battered by killer Brian Beattie who had simply walked in to the family home in Larbert, Stirlingshire.
But police wrongly suspected Lawrence’s brother Dennis.
In his report Mackay includes the damning statement: ‘Clearly there were matters of a disciplinary nature and also aspects of the murder investigation which may have been considered criminal.’
The Mackay report reveals a catalogue of astonishing incompetence by the murder team led by Detective Superintendent Jim Winning and Inspector John Bunyan.
They spent almost 18 months trying to pin the murder on Dennis and his older brother John, then 16. They did question Beattie – but ignored his track record for attacking boys in their homes.
A new team, led by Superintendent Joe Holden, was appointed and they nailed Beattie who is now serving a minimum of 15 years. Winning retired through ill-health while Bunyan had his knuckles rapped.
The report suggests police planted a potential murder weapon – a hammer – in the Haggart house to fit in with their theory that the killer was his brother.
The report says: ‘On 22 March 1996, two officers recover a hammer. This apparently significant find came after the house had already been searched nine times. They found a hammer with a head hair adhering to it. At the time this was a potential murder weapon and a significant find.
‘The officers who searched the kitchen on 18 March were confident the hammer was not there during their search.’
One detective sergeant who made the bizarre ‘find’, Bob Beveridge, was disciplined with colleague Alan Stewart and later booted out of CID.
Mackay also reveals how detectives faked entries in their own diary of the murder inquiry. They blundered by referring to Lawrence as ‘the deceased’ before his death.
Mackay states: ‘There are four references to the ‘deceased’ Lawrence Haggart purporting to be made on 16 March 1996 but he did not die until the following day.
‘Retrospective entries had been made which further compromises its contents and integrity.’
Mackay reveals how officers lost a piece of green metal which may have been used to murder the teenager.
Officers claimed they had logged it with a production room at Falkirk police office but staff there denied it.
Mackay also slates the decision to name Dennis as the person responsible for the murder in a report to the fiscal.
He said: ‘Police information against Dennis Haggart was devoid of any evidence.’
The team did not even consider the likelihood the killing was sexually motivated. Mackay states: ‘A pair of pants was the only article being worn by Lawrence Haggart at the time of his discovery.
‘This article was never sent for examination.
‘This was a significant oversight particularly when these pants yielded a number of hairs when examined during the review inquiry.’
The document also reveals how Beattie, finally convicted of the murder, was a walking timebomb.
He was jailed in 1994 for breaking into a house in Stenhousemuir and indecently assaulting and abducting a young man. While in jail, Beattie ‘spoke of ‘wishing he had killed the young man afterwards so that he wouldn’t get caught In June 1994 social workers warned Beattie was ‘considered a very high risk of reoffending’.
Officers knew of his history of sex attacks on male youths and fire-raising.
Mackay says: ‘No checks were carried out on Beattie during the murder inquiry.
‘It was not until January 1997 that Beattie’s criminal record was accessed.’ Beattie was quizzed by police and two officers searched his car and caravan but ignored a petrol container and a hammer.
The officers then went to Lawrence’s home where they took samples and risked contaminating the scene.
Fire officers were in the living room for 90 minutes after the blaze – destroying fingerprint and footprint evidence.
Police photographs of the scene showed a glass bottle in the kitchen.
Mackay says: ‘Beattie is known to have struck a previous victim over the head with such a bottle yet this fact appears to have been overlooked.’
The force has made a public apology and paid pounds 20,000 compensation to Dennis and John.
But they refuse to release sections of the report dealing with the criminal probe against murder squad officers.
Last week Larry Haggart appealed against the decision to keep secret the final pieces of the Mackay report
The Mackay report:
The secret police report condemns the way murder squad officers investigated the death of Lawrence Haggart. Assistant chief constable James Mackay revealed how they#Faked entries in official diary of the murder inquiry at a later date.
# Failed to carry out basic searches of paedophile killer Brian Beattie’s criminal record.
# Contaminated the crime scene and destroyed evidence # ‘Discovered’ a hammer in the Haggart family’s kitchen – after their home had already been searched NINE times. #Did not even consider a sexual motive for the murder.
# Lost a potential murder weapon and ignored another in the boot of the killer’s car
THERE was anger last night after it was revealed that the police officer who led the original, discredited inquiry into the murder of young footballer Lawrence Haggart is to escape punishment.
30 “Lifers” get early release from prison each year
May 13, 2012
But families of victims are furious about the early release policy.
The father of Lawrence Haggart spoke out after it was revealed his son’s killer was released after just 15 years, despite having been handed a life sentence.
Larry Haggart said it would be his “worst nightmare” if he ever came in contact with paedophile Brian Beattie, who killed Lawrence in their family home in Stirlingshire, 1996.
Helping Larry Haggart’s family led to trial, claims cleared man. A TYCOON cleared of rape claims he had to undergo the ordeal of a High Court trial as payback for helping a murder victim s family.
Chelsea issue secret payout to alleged sexual abuse victim of former scout
• Victim was allegedly abused by ex-chief scout Eddie Heath • Club reached out-of-court settlement and details not disclosed
17 May 2018
Chelsea have become the first club to issue a payout to an alleged victim since the full extent of football’s sex abuse scandal was exposed but risk drawing criticism for not making the compensation deal public.
The club have reached an out-of-court settlement with a junior player who was allegedly abused by Chelsea’s former chief scout Eddie Heath but declined to comment on the specifics of the deal. They have previously been condemned for paying £50,000 to another former player, Gary Johnson, in effect to buy his silence.
Chelsea would not disclose how much money was paid to the alleged victim, who claimed Heath sexually abused him at the club’s old training ground in Mitcham, south London. The payment was made by the club’s insurers rather than directly by Chelsea. Heath died in the mid-1980s but former Chelsea players have since come forward to allege he abused them in the showers after training sessions and games.
He was said to have cynically targeted boys with single mothers and offered to give them a lift to and from the training ground to allow himself the opportunity to carry out the abuse. He became known as the “man in the van” because he would drive young players around on such a regular basis.
Chelsea will be keen to avoid appearing like they are attempting to conceal any compensation payments after they were widely denounced for making Johnson sign a confidentiality clause. Johnson, who went on to play for the club’s first team, said he was abused by Heath hundreds of times in the 1970s. He approached Chelsea in 2015 looking for compensation and alleged the club attempted to sweep the incident under the carpet. They offered him £50,000 and made him sign a confidentiality clause, in effect paying for his silence.
Legal experts have predicted the final cost of compensation for abuse victims across British football could reach more than £100m. As of 31 December 2017, the number of football sex abuse victims was 839 with 294 alleged suspects and 334 clubs impacted. Those figures are according to Operation Hydrant, the police investigation into allegations of non-recent child sex abuse.
In February the former football coach Barry Bennell was jailed for 30 years after being found guilty of subjecting junior players from Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra to hundreds of sexual offences. The trial cost £750,000 but Manchester City have already spent over £1m on their own inquiry. They have received claims from a number of Bennell’s former players and hired two of Manchester’s biggest legal firms. Gary Cliffe, who waived his right to anonymity, is one of the people taking legal action against the club.
City also had a representative for their own legal team inside Liverpool crown court observing during every day of the Bennell trial. Bennell has appealed against the sentence and a date for an appeal hearing is being fixed. City have also been in contact with the family of Mark Hazeldine. Hazeldine, who had been a youth star at City and was previously coached by Bennell, took his own life in 2006. His family and friends have said that they fear he was abused when Bennell took him alone to Spain aged 12.
The Football Association is conducting its own internal review concurrently, led by Clive Sheldon QC. The aim is to find out what officials and clubs knew about potential abuse and when, looking at documents from 1970 to 2005. It is reviewing 6,000 files flagged as relevant during an initial review of more than 3,000 boxes from the FA’s archive. The governing body has also taken the accounts of more than 100 survivors of football-related abuse and received contributions from over 50 other relevant people. Chelsea declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.
Rangers abuse claim victim told to contact liquidators for compensation
16 May 2018
A former youth footballer who says he was sexually abused by a Rangers coach has been told by the club he should pursue his complaint with liquidators.
The man claims he was abused within the Ibrox stadium by Gordon Neely who was head of youth development in the 1980s.
But the alleged victim has been told by lawyers for Rangers that the duty of care is not with the current owners.
The man, who is in his 40s, was offered help in accessing counselling services, but no apology was made in correspondence from the club’s lawyers.
Alleged abuser now dead
An email sent to the solicitors of David – not his real name – explained: “You will understand that there have been many changes affecting Rangers over the last several years.
“The company which owned Rangers Football Club…. which you refer to as owing duties of care to your client will have been the company then called The Rangers Football Club PLC and now called RFC 2012 Limited.
“That company is currently in liquidation but we do have the liquidators’ contact details and can provide that information if it will assist.”
Last year the BBC revealed a catalogue of alleged abuse by Neely at various clubs, but he died in 2014 before facing justice.
He was in youth development at Hibs in 1983 and then moved to a similar role at Rangers in 1986.
That is where he came into contact with 11-year-old David.
He spoke to the BBC about his boyhood dream of playing at Ibrox: “I came from a working class family to be invited in your full Rangers tracksuit and shown about the stadium, walking up the marble stair case. It was a huge, huge event for me and my family.”
David trained at the club for three years, but he said his encounter with Neely in his youth would have a terrible and lasting impact on his life.
‘My life basically fell apart’
He explained: “[An] injury I was carrying was having a detrimental effect on my game and I was basically summoned to Gordon Neely’s room, within the confines of Ibrox.
“He asked me to lay up on top of like a blue medical table, sort of dark, dark blue and he started rubbing my thigh, even though my injury was my hamstring.
“That happened for a minute or two, discussing the in and outs of why I wasn’t playing so well. He then asked me to stand up and bend over the medical table and take my shorts down.”
David says he was then sexually assaulted by Neely.
He added: “I’ve racked my brain for years and years to think ‘was this a normal thing to do?’ Obviously I know now that it’s not.
“My life basically fell apart that night. Everything changed, everything changed that night. The heart went out of me for playing football, academically I stopped doing so well at school.”
Almost two years ago, David, who is a season ticket holder at Ibrox, spoke to a solicitor about the alleged abuse and was advised to make a claim against Rangers.
Rangers’ lawyers said the club offered its “deepest concern”, however, it made it clear that any compensation claim would be for the liquidators of the company which had previously owned the club.
David told the BBC: “My issue’s always been that they may be a …different legal entity, but they’re still the same club. And although they don’t have the same maybe liability legally, certainly morally they’re still the same club.”
A statement from Rangers Football Club said they would “co-operate fully” with all those who had a “genuine interest” in seeking to protect children and “addressing the wrongs” of what had happened in the past.
‘Cheap and nasty attacks’
It said that both the Scottish FA and Police Scotland had been informed of the matter.
The statement added: “It is vital matters are dealt with sensitively and with proper care and regard for those involved.
“We will not respond to questions that seek to turn allegations of desperate and deplorable conduct from three or more decades ago into cheap and nasty attacks on Rangers Football Club, and those of its employees who now have to attend to such difficult matters.”
I’d like them [Rangers] to realise the impact that it’s had and get an apology off them face-to-face. That’s my real goal.”
David, who says he was abused aged 11
Pat Mair from Scottish charity Talk Now which counsels victims of sexual abuse has worked with adults who suffered in childhood.
She said: “The survivors are looking for acknowledgment, they’re looking for communication with the football clubs where they were abused.
“The abuse happened at Rangers Football Club but they are not taking any responsibility and it’s as if they’re not accountable for it.”
David said he wanted “someone from Rangers” to contact him so he could tell them his story.
He went on: “And I’d like them to sit there and listen to me and realise the impact that it’s had and get an apology off them face-to-face. That’s my real goal.”
Former Southampton youth football coach, 64, faces 50 charges of historic sexual abuse of 24 victims
Bob Higgins, 64, denies historic sexual offences against boys under the age of 17
Southampton Magistrates’ Court heard alleged offences date from 1970 to 1996
Alleged offences are against boys he came into contact with through football
28 April 2018
Former Southampton youth football coach Bob Higgins will face 50 counts of historic sexual offences against 24 victims, a court heard today.
The 64-year-old denies all the offences, relating to his time as a coach at Southampton and Peterborough United spread over 30 years.
Higgins is alleged to have committed the offences, which include indecent assaults and attempted indecent assaults, against boys who he mainly came in to contact with through football.
Today at Salisbury Crown Court, Wilts, it was heard the former coach will face 50 counts of historic sexual offences against boys under the age of 17.
All the alleged offences are said to have taken place over a 26 year period between 1970 and 1996.
Higgins, of Southampton, Hants, was not required to attend the pre-trial review hearing today.
Prosecutor Adam Feest QC said Higgins’ defence team would be making an application to split the case in to three parts before the trial began.
He said: ‘We understand the defence will make an application of severence.
‘This will be an application to split the trial into three.’
Judge Jonathan Fuller QC said he would hear the application from Charles Gabb, defending, and any arguments against this from Mr Feest on May 24 at Bournemouth Crown Court, Dorset.
Several police forces in the UK launched wide-ranging investigations into sexual abuse in football in November and a dedicated NSPCC helpline for football received 860 calls in its first week.
Southampton FC has cooperated with Hampshire Police as part of Operation Quantum since a ‘significant and complex investigation’ began in December, when several players came forward to allege they were abused.
It is not known whether these allegations of abuse were related to Higgins.
In a statement released in December, the club said: ‘Hampshire Police and Southampton Football Club are committed to working together to investigate any historical allegations that may be brought to light in the Hampshire area.
‘The club has informed Hampshire Police that we will offer our full support to any investigation they undertake, for as long as it takes, and with our full focus.
‘The club works closely and tirelessly with the Premier League to promote the safeguarding of children and young people who are under our care or using our facilities, and their well-being is paramount to all staff.’
Football coach Kit Carson pleads not guilty to child sexual offences
Scout, 74, faces multiple charges over alleged offences between 1978 and 2009
Kit Carson leaves Cambridge magistrates court where he pleaded not guilty. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
A youth football coach and scout credited with helping launch the careers of several professional players has appeared in court charged with sexual offences against 11 boys.
Kit Carson, 74, pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of indecent assault and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
The offences are alleged to have happened between 1978, when Carson was 35, and 2009.
Seven of the indecent assault charges relate to boys under 14 and four under 16. The incitement charge involves a boy aged between 13 and 15.
Carson, whose full name is Michael Sean Carson, was arrested in his home city of Cambridge in January 2017 and charged in March this year.
He was the academy director at Peterborough football club from 1993 until 2001 and a number of players he coached there went on to have careers in the Premier League.
The bulk of the alleged indecent assault offences are said to have taken place between 1992 and 2000.
Before working at Peterborough, Carson was at Norwich City from 1983 until 1993, and he has connections with other junior teams. On his LinkedIn page, he described himself as a football consultant and scout for a Finnish club. Carson left Peterborough to become head of talent development at Cambridge United in 2001 and remained there until 2005.
The first two alleged indecent assaults are said to have taken place between September 1978 and September 1980.
According to the particulars of the offences, the first alleged indecent assault happened at a hotel in the north of England. Another eight allegedly took place in or around Peterborough.
The incitement offence allegedly happened between February 2008 and February 2009 in Cambridge.
Carson stood in a glass-fronted dock at Cambridge magistrates court to confirm his name, address and date of birth.
Asked how he pleaded to the 12 charges, Carson replied: “Not guilty.”
Bail conditions were kept in place, which include Carson being barred from coaching children in the UK or travelling abroad to coach young people, and from involvement in scouting under-18s.
The magistrate told Carson the court had declined jurisdiction and he would next appear at Peterborough crown court on 15 May. Reporting restrictions were not lifted.
Bennell showed no remorse during his trial. He called no defence witnesses. He offered no evidence in his defence. He didn’t come to court apart from sentencing when he largely stared at the floor. He strung out the legal process and seems hellbent on doing the same again.
Truthseeker@thewakeupcall09
Just the tip of a very large iceberg
One of William McAlpine’s fellow directors at Fairbridge in Scotland was James Torbett of the Celtic boys club scandal
Ex-Celtic coach James Torbett to stand trial charged with historical sex abuse of SIX boys
6 Apr 2018
FORMER Celtic Boys Club coach and founder James Torbett is to stand trial charged with historic sexual abuse of six young boys.
The 70 year-old today faced the allegations during a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow.
Torbett, of the city’s Kelvindale, faces a total of 12 charges spanning from January 1970 to August 1994.
The boys mentioned are said to have been aged between four and 14 when Torbett is first accused of abusing them.
A number of locations are listed on the indictment including Barrowfield Football Ground in Glasgow’s London Road, where Celtic used to train.
Offences are said to have occurred at Torbett’s home, dormitories in Belgium and France as well as training facilities in Glasgow’s west end and Bristol, England.
Prosecutors also list “factory premises” known as The Trophy Centre in the city’s Pollokshaws.
Torbett’s QC Tony Graham today pled not guilty on his behalf to the charges.
Judge Lady Stacey set a trial due to begin in June. The case could last up to 10 days.
Whilst Gerry McCann was the Celtic doctor in the mid 90’s, Celtic youth player Lawrence Haggart was murdered / died on the 17th March 1996. Tommy Burns was Celtic manager from 1994 until 1997. Jim McCafferty was the Celtic scout / youth coach / kitman from 1990 until (May) 1996.
Is it ok to let the Countries biggest paedophile within sport, to strut around Butlins grooming & sexually abusing boys in the late 70s & 80s & not hold any type of inquiry into a Butlins Holiday Camp? He was at certain stages of this period there resident coach !#BarryBennell
Michael ‘Kit’ Carson: Ex-football coach charged with abuse of 11 boys
2 March 2018
Michael “Kit” Carson has worked as a coach and scout for a number of clubs
A former youth football coach and scout has been charged with indecently assaulting 11 children.
Michael “Kit” Carson, 74, was charged in connection with a football abuse probe in Cambridgeshire.
He is accused of 11 counts of indecent assault and one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, all involving boys under 16.
The alleged offences happened from 1978 to 2009. He will appear at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on 17 April.
Mr Carson has worked for clubs including Peterborough United, Cambridge United and Norwich City.
He joined the Canaries as youth manager in 1983, working with children aged nine to 16, before joining Peterborough as an academy director 10 years later.
In 2001, he moved to Cambridge United as head of youth development, a post he retained until 2006, when he left to join Histon FC.
Mr Carson has also worked extensively in Finland – where he began coaching youth teams in 2012 – and took UK youth teams on competitive tours of the country.
Crewe ‘burying heads in sand’ after reneging on promise to conduct independent inquiry into Barry Bennell’s crimes
Crewe Alexandra have abandoned plans to launch an independent inquiry into serial child sex abuse perpetrated by the club’s former youth coach Barry Bennell
2 March 2018
Victims of Barry Bennell have accused Crewe Alexandra of “burying their heads in the sand” after the club reneged on their promise to conduct an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse by its jailed youth football coach.
The League Two club issued a 925-word statement on Friday afternoon in which they said they would no longer be launching a planned internal review after claiming there was no need to “duplicate the thorough inquiries” of Cheshire Police, whom they said had found no evidence that anyone at Crewe knew about Bennell’s offending.
Crewe also appeared to question the veracity of claims by the club’s former managing director, Hamilton Smith, that he had reported a complaint of abuse by Bennell in the late 1980s by saying nobody at the club, including current chairman John Bowler and director of football Dario Gradi, had any recollections of Smith ever raising the matter.
In a further move to discredit Smith, the club also questioned why he waited until 2016 to report his concerns to the police, and 2001 to the Football Association, by which time Bennell had already been convicted of offences.
It was alleged this week that Bennell was fired by Crewe in January 1992 shortly after he was confronted by parents about his behaviour, rumours of which were claimed to be widespread at the time.
But Crewe said the police investigation “concluded that there was no suggestion that Bennell was dismissed by the club for anything other than football-related reasons” and added that an “extremely thorough” investigation by Cheshire Police had persuaded them to pull the plug on the independent review they promised in November 2016. By contrast, Manchester City are more than a year into their own internal review.
One of Bennell’s victims, Andy Woodward, whose interview with The Guardian at that time gave others the strength to come forward and triggered a wave of allegations that culminated in the coach’s trial at Liverpool Crown Court, reacted furiously to Crewe’s statement and accused the club of hiding behind the police. The statement also made no comments on allegations by the BBC this week that a Crewe employee was asked to remove pornography from the home computer of then manager Gradi in 2001. Gradi has always denied any wrongdoing.
“This statement speaks for itself,” Woodward said. “Once again the victims come last, after the reputation of the club. What has happened has ruined mine, my family and many, many others that played for the club as vulnerable children. I’m bitterly disappointed with their response, but I’d rather focus my energy on driving change, so no club can let this happen again, than dwell on the past.
“Crewe had a moral responsibility to investigate their own failings. Instead they seem to want to bury their heads in the sand and, if nothing else, at least people can now see the way the club operate.
“As far as I know, they have not asked to speak to any of the former players from this harrowing court case to learn about how this scandal happened and what could have been done to prevent it. A police investigation, looking for possible crimes, is entirely different to an independent inquiry being set up to investigate what went wrong and make sure it never happens again. For the many victims, this is just another kick in the teeth but, as shocking as it is, nothing should really surprise us about Crewe any more.”
Woodward’s sentiments were echoed in a statement by The Offside Trust, the charity set up by some of Bennell’s victims to support survivors of child sexual abuse in sport. “We believe that these clubs have a moral responsibility to open their doors to a truly independent investigation,” the trust said. “If clubs having nothing to hide, they should not shirk from this duty.
“The healing process for survivors will not be easy. But it is made more difficult when individuals and institutions refuse to properly address the past and fail to demonstrate any empathy and remorse. We sincerely hope that clubs will acknowledge this and agree to appropriate independent scrutiny.”
Dario Gradi: Ex-employee claims Crewe asked him to wipe pornography from then-manager’s computer
Feb 27 2018
Dario Gradi took charge of Crewe in 1983
A former Crewe Alexandra employee claims that in 2001 he was asked by a senior official at the club to help wipe pornography off the home computer of then-manager Dario Gradi, the BBC has learned.
According to a statement given to the NSPCC in 2011, the man – who does not want to be identified – was told that Gradi had been hosting a group of young Irish Under-13 players at his house and they had been viewing the material on his computer.
He says he was “amazed” that Gradi was allowed to host boys “in this manner”, especially after Crewe’s former youth coach Barry Bennell had been convicted of child sex crimes in 1994 – and again in 1998.
The man told the NSPCC “it all seemed odd” and he raised his concerns with the club’s chairman John Bowler, but he dismissed the behaviour as “quirky and nothing more”.
In 2011 the former employee reported his “concerns” about the alleged incident – which occurred in July 2001 – to the NSPCC and also spoke to Cheshire police.
In November 2016 after fresh allegations were made about Bennell, the former employee contacted the NSPCC for a second time, and again spoke to the police.
In a statement, Cheshire Police told the BBC: “In December 2012 Cheshire Police received reports regarding concerns about material on a computer.
“Following enquiries, it was established that no criminal activity had taken place. The person who made the report was updated at the time.”
When approached by the BBC and asked to confirm what steps to safeguard young players had been taken after Bennell’s 1994 and 1998 convictions, Crewe declined to comment.
Earlier this month, former Manchester City and Crewe coach Bennell was found guilty of 50 counts of historical child sexual abuse and sentenced to 31 years in prison.
He and Crewe have always maintained they did not know about any abuse by Bennell until allegations surfaced in 1994, and did not receive a complaint of sexual abuse by him.
The informant – who is now aged 47 and no longer works in football – has now approached the FA’s independent Sheldon Inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse in football.
In a statement, the NSPCC said: “We would not confirm details of whether a specific contact was made to our helpline, because the service enables adults to report in confidence any concerns or worries they have about a child.
“However, we refer any contacts that indicate a child is at risk or in danger to local authorities such as police or social services, as we did with almost three quarters of the 66,218 calls our helpline received last year.”
Why in the Barry Bennell case of 98 did the CPS prosecuting office now LORD Carlile allow Bennell to plead guilty to just 23 specimen charges. Around just 50% of the Charges! Even though he was already a convicted Paedophile? As such serve just 6 years of 9 !!!
So many questions that need answers ! FA, CPS, POLICE, BUTLINS, TAXAL EDGE, CLUBS !!
Former Celtic kit man appears in court on child sex abuse charges
Jim McCafferty pleaded not guilty to three charges after being reprimanded in custody for over a year.
24 FEB 2018
Former Celtic kit man Jim McCafferty has pleaded not guilty to three charges of child sex abuse in court.
The 72-year-old appeared in the dock in Belfast after spending 444 days on remand in HMP Maghaberry in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.
McCafftery used a walking aid to get into court 11 at Laganside courts, and wearing a brown v-neck jumper and gray sweat pants, he sat with his head bowed occasionally with a female guard at his side.
He pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual assault on a boy.
The first charge was intentionally touching a male under the age of 16 without consent at some time between December 6, 2012 and December 8, 2013.
Additional medical reports have been ordered and a date for trial was set for May 21.
McCafferty, who is from Motherwell but has been living in South Belfast in recent years, will remain on remand in Maghaberry Jail until trial.
McCafferty was arrested after walking into a Belfast police station in December 2016 following a series of revelations in the Daily Record.
McCafferty worked at Celtic more than 20 years ago.
He was a kit man for other Scottish clubs, including Falkirk and Hibs, before moving to Northern Ireland.
McCafferty also coached at youth clubs in West Lothian.
How can the same regime still be in charge at Crewe after Barry Bennell made it into football’s house of horrors? For sake of the abused and their families, for the good of his club, Dario Gradi should have quit long ago
Barry Bennell found guilty of 43 sex offences and will be sentenced on Thursday
It is clear the fight for justice to be served will not end with Bennell’s sentencing
Hard questions need to be asked of Crewe and how they approached the scandal
18 February 2018
Before Barry Bennell is sentenced tomorrow at Liverpool Crown Court, it would be fitting and just if some of the survivors of his abuse were allowed to address him one last time in the way some of the survivors of the actions of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastic team doctor, stood up to eviscerate him in a US federal court this month.
Bennell is scum. He is human trash. I hope the judge hands him a sentence that ensures he lives the rest of his life in captivity for the way he used football as a cover to ruin so many young lives, crush so many dreams and tear apart so many families.
Boys became men and lived with the horrors of what he had done, unable to share their secrets because of feelings of shame and guilt. Some — we will never know how many — killed themselves because of this monster in football’s midst.
Our legal system does not make provision for it but how right it would seem to see courageous men such as Andy Woodward and Steve Walters, whose bravery in coming forward and waiving their anonymity did so much to bring Bennell to justice, confronting him with the reality of what he had done. It was an ordeal for Nassar to hear the wrenching testimony of those he had betrayed. It would be the same for Bennell.
I understand that those instincts to see Bennell suffer just a slice of the humiliation he inflicted upon so many others should quickly be superseded by a determination to make sure the conditions that enabled him to roam free at Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra must never be recreated in the modern-day game.
But it is also clear that the fight for justice to be served properly will not end with Bennell’s sentencing. This is just the start. As soon as he is sent down, many, many hard questions need to be asked of Crewe, in particular, and the way they have approached the scandal that has befallen them. Their response, from start to finish, has been less than impressive. In fact, it has been pathetic.
Questions need to be asked of City, too, and it is already clear that their actions at the time of the abuse in the Eighties left much to be desired. The regime that was in place at the time failed in its duty of care to players. Some of the most distressing, disturbing testimony of recent days suggests that Bennell even abused young players as they lay sunbathing on the pitch at Maine Road.
But even though City have different owners now and an entirely different hierarchy, they have accepted their responsibilities. They have instituted a QC-led inquiry into themselves, investigators have already devoted 4,000 hours and £1million to it and they have uncovered another alleged paedophile with whom they have ‘potential historic connections’.
So far, at least, they have done their best to shine a light on the darkness of the past. Their manager, Pep Guardiola, also spoke movingly on Friday of ‘the terrible history’ that had unfolded and the horror he felt about what had happened.
Crewe’s situation is different. Dario Gradi, the man who was instrumental in bringing Bennell to the club in 1985, is still the director of football. It was left to the Football Association to suspend him in December 2016 after a new wave of revelations about Bennell’s activities while he was a youth coach at Gresty Road emerged.
More than that, John Bowler, who has been a director at Crewe since 1980, is now the club chairman. He has been the club chairman since 1987. Crewe said in November 2016 that they would hold an independent review ‘at the earliest opportunity’ but, 15 months on, it appears that it has still not begun.
Only last week, the Daily Mail revealed that Gradi wrote a glowing character reference for Bennell even after he had been arrested for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in Florida in 1994. There is no suggestion he knew Bennell was abusing children but he knew that children stayed at Bennell’s house. Bennell was even paid expenses to take boys home during his seven years with the club.
Crewe Alexandra director of football Dario Gradi (right) faces questions about why he provided a character reference for serial paedophile Barry Bennell (left)
And Hamilton Smith, a Crewe board member from 1986 to early 1990, said in November 2016 that he was so concerned about Bennell that he had arranged two management meetings in the late Eighties to discuss an allegation against him. The second of these, he said, was in Gradi’s office and was attended by Gradi.
Common sense dictates, surely, that these facts alone and the innuendo surrounding Bennell’s activity that was widespread in the game ought to have tempered Gradi’s and the club’s support for Bennell in the face of such serious charges. It did not.
‘We suffered because of a disgusting predator,’ said Walters last week. ‘But we also suffered sometimes because the sport we loved decided that the reputation of a coach, club or a sport was put above the protection of children. Our abuse is punctuated by the failure of adults to protect innocent children, the failure of adults to act when abuse was reported, the failure to be vigilant and brave.’
So many of Bennell’s crimes happened when Gradi and Bowler had prominent roles in the running of the club and the management of the club’s youth system and yet somehow both men are still in their posts at Crewe. That fact, alone, beggars belief. They may not have known what Bennell was doing but they still bear a heavy responsibility for the lives that were ruined. Unwittingly, Gradi and Bowler empowered Bennell. Parents trusted the club with their boys and the club let them down. It let them down spectacularly.
For the good of the club, for their own dignity, for the sake of the parents who are still coming to terms with what happened to their boys at Crewe, for the sake of those who were abused, Gradi and Bowler should have resigned by now, like any decent men would have.
At the very least they showed an appalling lack of judgment by allowing Bennell to work at the club. Even on Friday, as Guardiola was talking about the horror of what had happened in front of the world’s press, Bowler was sticking to a frosty no comment when Channel 4’s Keme Nzerem spoke to him on his doorstep. The club’s lack of public regret for what happened has been grotesque.
Even the official statement Crewe put on the club website made no apology for what happened. Instead, it featured a long, rambling attempt to try to cover themselves for what had happened and, bizarrely, a boast that Woodward had been unsuccessful in an attempt to sue the club for compensation 16 years ago.
Once more, that was insensitive at best and unfeeling, inappropriate, uncaring, brutal and stupid at worst. There will be plenty of time for the club to look out for themselves but the day when crimes against so many children once in the club’s care were proved was most definitively not that time. They do not understand the gravity of what has happened.
It is time Crewe Alexandra got real. Gradi presided over the most successful time in the club’s history. That is true. But it is also true that while he was in charge, Crewe played host to one of the most prolific paedophiles in English legal history. That is what will be remembered. Not the fact that the club won a few promotions.
And in the future, when we look back at reports of Gradi’s ‘much-vaunted youth system’, we will do so with a sick feeling in our stomachs and the grim knowledge that, behind the facade, Crewe was English football’s equivalent of a house of horrors.
When we look back at reports of Gradi’s ‘much-vaunted youth system’, we will do so with a sick feeling in our stomachs
I can save the Government millions ‘re an inquiry into Bennell……. Were FA warned & aware ? Yes ! Were Clubs warned & aware ? Yes ! Did CPS get it wrong in some many ways from 97 onwards ? Yes ! So Wonder where this will go now ?
Manchester City ‘ignored warnings’ and kept Barry Bennell in youth set-up
Feb 15 2018
• Bennell continued scouting and coaching for City, abusing countless boys • City youth coach Steve Fleet urged club in 1970s to keep away from Bennell • Bennell convicted of a total of 50 offences against 12 boys
Manchester City, one of the clubs most seriously implicated in the Barry Bennell sexual abuse scandal, have been accused of putting hundreds of boys in danger after it emerged they were warned by one of their own coaches in the late-1970s it was “general knowledge” he was a risk to children.
Bennell, who is facing complaints from another 86 former footballers, continued scouting and coaching for City’s junior teams, raping and molesting countless boys in seven years connected to the club, even though high-ranking officials had been warned to keep away from a man who now faces the rest of his life in prison and has been described as having “almost an insatiable appetite” for young boys.
The revelations leave City facing a number of questions now Bennell has been convicted of 50 counts of sexual abuse against 12 victims. Bennell, 64, will be sentenced on Monday after admitting seven of the charges, with the jury returning guilty verdicts for the other 43 offences.
Cries of “yes” came from the public gallery at Liverpool crown court where six complainants sat with family members as the final verdicts were read out on Thursday and some were in tears. Bennell sat muttering to himself and shaking his head.
The first victim to initiate these proceedings, Gary Cliffe, has waived his anonymity to speak exclusively to the Guardian about the hundreds of occasions when he was abused, aged 11 to 15, in City’s set-up.
Police documents from the 1990s question whether City were later involved in a cover-up, with one of the detectives investigating the case suggesting the club’s priority was to avoid damaging publicity, and the Guardian has seen a written admission from another former employee in which he acknowledges that “suspicions about him [Bennell] were aired on many an occasion.”
An investigation by this newspaper has also led to a taped interview in which Bennell states he had to leave his coaching role at Crewe Alexandra, the club he joined after City, because a complaint had been made against him, raising further questions about why he was not reported at the time. Crewe provided references for his next job and have been the subject of a police investigation as well as being a major focus of the Football Association’s independent inquiry.
However, it can now be revealed that Bennell was identified as a risk long before joining Crewe and that one member of City’s staff, the youth-team coach Steve Fleet, put his own job on the line when the club’s directors wanted to give the man they called “the star-maker” a full-time role as youth development officer.
Bennell was not given the job but, despite those warnings, he remained in City’s set-up, coaching at their old training ground and even abusing boys while sunbathing on the pitch at Maine Road, the club’s former ground, before moving to Crewe in 1985. He is now being identified as potentially the worst paedophile, in terms of the number of boys affected, there has ever been in sport, having preyed on young footballers for almost a quarter of a century before he was arrested on a club tour to Florida in 1994. A second trial is now likely as the police go through the complaints from other former players, mostly from Manchester City and Crewe.
Len Davies, who spent many years working for City as a youth-team scout, has admitted one of England’s major football clubs was “beguiled and hoodwinked” and police documents recall a number of senior staff, including the chief scout Ken Barnes, being “quite evasive” and not prepared to explain why Bennell had left the club, other than citing “irregularities”.
Cliffe, now 47, is convinced City ought to have reported Bennell and removed him from the club’s junior system if there were any concerns about his relationship with young boys. “If those in positions of responsibility had challenged Bennell, hundreds of wrecked lives could have been saved,” he said. “They buried their heads. They had a duty of care and they failed dramatically.”
City are holding a QC-led inquiry and have identified another alleged paedophile – now deceased – with whom they have “potential historic connections”. They named him on Thursday night as John Broome, a part-time scout. They said they believed he was not connected to Bennell and were investigating his alleged offences. The club are facing the possibility of large-scale legal action. Fleet’s evidence shows Bennell continued to work in football for around 15 years after they were warned to avoid him.
“I was an FA coach at the time and at all the coaches’ meetings, at Everton, the Cliff [Manchester United’s old training ground], City and lots of places, whenever the talk got round to Barry Bennell it was never good,” Fleet said. “People would say he was ‘dodgy’ and if his name was brought up everyone would just shake their heads. It was general knowledge and I could see it with my own eyes. He nauseated me. I just knew – instant intuition – that the rumours were sound, that he wasn’t right and that he wouldn’t be good for the club.
“When Ken Barnes and other people at the club tried to fetch him in I told them I didn’t want anything to do with it. ‘He’s a star-maker,’ Ken said, ‘and he finds good lads,’ and that was true because Bennell was a very good scout. But I also knew he was a risk. In football, like any sport where there’s young people, there are perverts and I wouldn’t even let him into our coaches’ room. I felt so strongly about it I put my job on the line.
Barnes died in 2010 and his daughter, Karen, says it would be wrong to suggest he did not take the matter seriously enough. “I can unequivocally state that my father was absolutely and utterly appalled to hear about the abuse suffered. He also complained bitterly that much of what he said when interviewed for Dispatches had been edited. My father was a considerate and honest man, to which any of the footballers who knew him will attest.”
According to police files, the detectives investigating the 1994 case found Barnes “very cagey” and “played his cards close to his chest”. Muir said he had heard rumours about an incident involving Bennell and volunteered a boy’s name. Barnes, however, would not give a proper explanation about the “irregularities” that meant Bennell leaving for Crewe.
“He [Barnes] wasn’t really prepared to go into them at all,” Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Elvey of Crewe CID says in evidence provided to the Florida police. “We found they were quite evasive at the club. It was quite a lengthy interview. Obviously we were probing to try to find out why he [Bennell] left the club and basically I got the impression that Mr Barnes didn’t want or Mr Farrell really didn’t want to tell us. Bear in mind they are quite a prominent professional club and possibly wouldn’t want any sort of media attention drawn to the club.” Farrell declined to comment to the Guardian.
Davies, who died seven years ago, admits in a 2000 book that whereas Fleet “did not ever accept him [Bennell] as a person or coach” other people at City, including himself and Barnes, drastically misjudged the situation.
“Most of us at Manchester City, including those responsible for the enhancement of junior football, were held in awe at the coaching ability of Barry Bennell. I think the majority of us … were taken in and let down. Hundreds of people, and all the kids who played for him, trusted him. I only hope that the boys and their parents who suffered will forgive us in that we, too, were beguiled and hoodwinked by this terrible person.” Davies adds that “inquiries about his behaviour never revealed his paedophiliac mentality until it was too late”.
Crewe are also under intense scrutiny and a number of victims have called for the longstanding chairman, John Bowler, and the director of football, Dario Gradi, a figurehead at the club for more than 30 years, to resign since Andy Woodward and another former player, Steve Walters, told this newspaper what happened to them, instigating what the FA chairman, Greg Clarke, has described as the biggest crisis he can remember in the sport. Gradi has been suspended by the FA, though no official reason has been given.
Crewe said in November 2016 they would hold an independent review “at the earliest opportunity” but, 15 months on, have still not started it, claiming an unnamed authority told them to hold off until the criminal case was over. City, in stark contrast, say they received no such advice.
Both clubs have been asked by the Guardian if they want to comment about the new revelations and Crewe will also have to explain why Bennell was allowed to continue in his job when their former managing director, Hamilton Smith, has turned whistle-blower to reveal he instigated top-level talks, involving Bowler and Gradi, in the late-1980s because of an allegation against a man who has since described himself as a “monster.
Bennell was even paid expenses to take boys home during his seven years with the club and Gradi, the Guardian can reveal, was one of the people who supplied character references – his written on Crewe letter headed paper – when his colleague and friend was awaiting his 1994 court case in Florida.
In a statement, City offered “heartfelt sympathy to all victims for the unimaginably traumatic experiences they have endured. No one can remove their suffering or that of others who suffered sexual abuse as children as a result of their involvement with football. All victims were entitled to expect full protection from the kind of harm they endured.”
In a statement following the verdict, Crewe Alexandra said the club wanted “to reiterate that it was not aware of any sexual abuse by Mr Bennell, nor did it receive any complaint about sexual abuse by him, either before or during his employment with the club”.
It said that the club cooperated fully with the police in relation to Bennell’s prosecution in 1997 and with the recent investigation. “As a result of their investigations, the police found no evidence to corroborate that the club was aware of Mr Bennell’s offending,” said the statement.
It added: “The club wishes to make it absolutely clear that had it had any suspicion or belief that Mr Bennell was committing acts of abuse, either before, during or after he left the club’s employment, the club would have informed the police immediately
Barry Bennell found guilty of sexually abusing youth footballers
Ex-Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra coach convicted on charges covering 1979 to 1990
The former football coach Barry Bennell has been found guilty of multiple sexual offences against boys whom he targeted in the youth football set-ups of Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra.
Bennell, 64, was convicted of 36 charges at Liverpool crown court and the jury has asked for more time to consider further counts. He was found not guilty of three charges.
He had denied the allegations, which relate to 11 boys, who were aged eight to 14, from between 1979 and 1990, when he was renowned as one of football’s more successful youth team coaches and talent spotters.
Bennell, who appeared in the court via video-link, had already pleaded guilty to seven charges involving three boys and has previously served three prison sentences in England and the US.
He was described by the prosecution as a “devious paedophile” who had “pretty much unfettered access” to young footballers, but his defence had argued that the alleged victims made up the claims for attention and possible compensation.
Gary Speed ‘one of four men coached by Bennell who went on to take own lives
Ex-Wales manager Gary Speed was one of four men who went on to take their own lives after being coached by Barry Bennell, a court has heard.
A victim – who Bennell admitted abusing in 1998 – said he had tried to contact the parents of Speed to tell them about the abuse after reading that they had struggled to get closure because they had no explanation for his death.
Speed died by apparent suicide in 2011, aged 42.
“Four people from teams I have played with, with Bennell, have taken their own lives,” he told Liverpool Crown Court.
“Whether they have taken their lives due to Barry solely I don’t know but all I know is how it’s had an impact on me and how it could impact on other people.”
The victim was speaking at the trial of Bennell who denies 48 offences of child sexual abuse against 11 complainants between 1979 and 1990.
Speaking about contacting other alleged victims of Bennell, the victim said: “When people are breaking down on the phone, on the verge of suicide, when you hear of people who have taken their own lives”.
He told the court that he knew of other former youth players who had been left “destitute” and with alcohol problems.
Barry Bennell Trial, day four: Trial continues after Bennell called alleged victim’s allegations ‘impossible’
January 11, 2018
The sex abuse trial of former football coach Barry Bennell enters its fourth day today, after the first alleged victim gave evidence yesterday.
The testimony, provided via video, said that Benell, a scout for Manchester City at the time, was “touchy” with the alleged victim when he first met the coach at the age of about 11.
The complainant said Bennell had a set of bunk beds next to his own bed in the room above the video shop he ran, adding that “he always put music on in the bedroom. It was panpipe music.”
Following a break for lunch the alleged victim was cross-examined while sitting behind a screen, with talkRADIO reporter Alex Dibble saying there was some “definite tension” between him and the defence.
The court also saw a recreaction of a police interview with Barry Bennell, in which the defendant said his first alleged victim was “the one that got away with it” by not being groomed.
Bennell also called some of the claims against him “ridiculous” and said he’d never do some of the things alleged while there were other boys in the bed at the same time.
The defendant even described some of the testimony of the first alleged victim as “impossible”, saying he “would never do something like that”.
Bennell has already admitted seven sexual abuse charges, but denies a further 48, relating to 11 complainants.
Former football coach Barry Bennell pleads guilty to child sex offences
Former football coach Barry Bennell has pleaded guilty to seven child sex offences at Liverpool Crown Court.
The 63-year, ex-Crewe Alexander coach admitted six offences on the first day of his trial, which is expected to last eight weeks.
A reporting restriction on a guilty plea to a charge of indecent assault entered by Bennell at an earlier hearing was lifted by Recorder of Liverpool Judge Clement Goldstone QC.
Bennell, who was charged under the name Richard Jones, is still due to stand trial for 48 offences including 35 counts of indecent assault, 11 counts of buggery and two counts of attempted buggery.
The charges he will stand trial on relate to 11 complainants and allegedly took place in the 1970s and 1980s, when the alleged victims were boys aged between eight and 15.
Bennell entered the pleas when he appeared via videolink in court wearing a grey jumper.
A jury is expected to be sworn in for his trial on the outstanding charges later on Monday.
James Rennie 38, lived in Marionville Road, Meadowbank studied physics at Heriot-Watt University, Became LGBT group worker in 1997, LGBT (Tollcross area of Edinburgh) chief exec by 2003. It was within the offices of LGBT Youth Scotland that Rennie accessed the Hotmail account “kplover” he used to view & distribute vile images of children. Rennie also sat on the board ofYouthLink Scotland “Lothian and Borders Police have been clear that their investigations concerned James Rennie personally“
Neil Strachan 41, jailed for 3 yrs in 1997 for repeatedly molesting a boy. former Celtic Boys Club official started preying on the boy when he was only five, after befriending his parents. Strachan quit as secretary of Celtic East Boys Club after he was caught. The abuse had gone on for two years, shared a flat with partner Colin Slaven
John Murphy a trained teacher working part-time as a DJ in a gay bar & receptionist in gay sauna, lived Westmoreland Street, Govanhill. In 1995, Murphy, then assistant principal drama teacher at Claremont High School,East Kilbride
Nov 2011Abuse ringleader James Rennie has minimum sentence cut
One of the ringleaders of Scotland’s biggest paedophile network has had his minimum prison sentence cut by four-and-a-half years by appeal judges. Rennie was ordered to serve a minimum of 13 years in jail. Appeal judges {Lord Clarke & Lord Philip} have reduced that to a minimum of eight-and-a-half years before he can apply for parole.
I am sure that colleagues will want to join me in welcoming to the public gallery a number of visitors from LGBT Youth Scotland, including Jamie Rennie, the chief executive, and Martin Henry, the convener of its board. I want to give a particularly warm welcome to Sarah Rowlinson, who is one of the Philip Lawrence awardees. She is also a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament and was recently appointed as the vice convener of the LGBT Youth Scotland board. I am certain that the members who attended the LGBT Youth Scotland reception that I hosted in the Parliament last year will recall the exceptional speech that Sarah Rowlinson made on that occasion. I welcome and congratulate our visitors. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/martin-henry-83955273https://archive.is/ucxtP
Report from Sr. Anna Tommasi from Malawi on her visit to Scotland as a result of chaplain Miss Patricia Roberts spending some time in Malawi.
A visit to Scotland was completely out of my dreams, but God’s plans are full of surprises, sometimes pleasant to our human taste, sometimes hard to accept. It was a great joy to meet Fr. Brian Gowans, Vice President of ICCPPC, in his own country. Together we went to the Scottish Parliament and after a guided visit we had lunch with two Scottish Members of Parliament whom I had accompanied in a visit to Zomba Maximum Security Prison and Chichiri Prison here in Malawi. Mr Michael Mathieson and Mrs Maureen Watt welcomed us to have lunch with them although it was a very busy and important day in Parliament.
With Fr Brian I also visited two very special prisons: Polmont Young Offenders, where he was chaplain for some years, and Castle Huntly Open Estate, where he is working at present.
External Affairs Minster announced the successful applicants for £7m of funding of projects in Malawi including grants to Christian Aid and Tearfund. In a subsequent Chamber debate Michael Matheson highlighted the work of Father Brian Gowans, a prison chaplain with SPS and expressed a desire to see work moving forward between the SPS and the Malawian Prison
I qualified in Social Work in 1974 and in 1993 was awarded the degree of Master of Philosophy (Child Protection Studies) at Dundee University. My professional career has been spent in child and public protection both in the local authority and until early 2008 with Lothian and Borders Police as Executive Officer of Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Child Protection Office. I am currently National Manager of Stop it Now! Scotland – the national programme for the prevention of child sexual abuse.
I serve on a wide range of national and Government Working Parties on Child and Public Protection including as Chair of the National Steering Group for Safeguarding in Sport; Vice Convenor of the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse; Chair of the Safeguarding Commission of the Conference of Religious in Scotland; member of the Police Scotland Offender Management Strategy Group; member of the National Investigative Interviewing Strategic Oversight Group and Chair of the Joint Investigative Interviewing Practice and Development Group. Until April 2013 I was also Safeguarding Adviser to the Catholic Archiocese of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh and Chair of the Archdiocesan Risk Management Group. In 2011 I was a member of a small delegation of safeguarding experts which met with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to discuss safeguarding in the Catholic Church. I have been a visiting lecturer/consultant at the Scottish Police College for over 20 years, a training provider to the Jusicial Institute and am a member of the Scottish Executive Committee of the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers.
I have delivered training programmes to law enforcement and other agencies across Eastern Europe and Scandinavia and tom conferences and events in Europe and the USA.
With Deacon Jamie and Archbishop Cushley are the priests of the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh present at today’s Mass in Rome: Fr Nicky Welsh, Fr Brian Gowans, Fr Scott Deeley, Fr Michael John Galbraith, Fr Daniel Doherty, Fr Kevin Douglas and Fr Andrew Garden.
It really is remarkable on so many levels how deeply ignorance runs in the
Catholic Church. Commenting on any lesbian and gay issues is not a matter of
“sexual morality” since being gay or lesbian isn’t a thing a person DOES but
what a person IS. It is an identity not an activity. Every time the clergy
open their mouths on these matters they effectively condemn PEOPLE not actions
and it is this that has been their downfall…their complete inability to
understand this simple fact. But even if the discussion was about gay sex (with which the church appears to be preoccupied) the doctrinal position that all sexual activity outside
heterosexual intercourse within marriage and capable of conception is of course so utterly absurd, so unnatural, that it really beggars belief. Sexual behaviour that is predicated on consent, care, growth, reciprocity and authenticity is a dynamic of Creation – whether or not it is capable of be getting children. If it is part of Creation it is part of God. …. or at least the vernacular of God. And this leads to the stupidest stumbling block of them all….the Church’s utterly unfounded and ridiculous notion that
homosexuality is a choice. This idea seems to have been plucked out of nowhere and is so remote from any scientific or human reality that it is the modern equivalent of believing the world is flat. No wonder even older Catholics are turning away. The Church continually fails to connect with ALL our lives … not just young people. In a world where the Good News is so desperately needed the Church instead gives nothing but bad news in spade loads. Sounding more like a bitter doctrine of hate the Church’s teachings, as well as many who espouse them, have become toxic. The words of bishops are often now like vinegar to the wounds of Christ….spiteful, vindictive, and cruel. I am taking a long rest from my faith and it is doing me a power of good…..the less rubbish I have to listen to the more God’s voice is audible. So the Irish people have done the right thing…..not for their gay citizens but for everyone….they have asserted a new freedom….the ability to think, and choose, and act for themselves.
Martin Henry. Edinburgh
Martin Henry is connected closely with James Rennie head of a large paedophile network and is convenor of his Board
He went on to run Stop it Now having access to young paedophiles
He contacted Ilene asking for contacts with young men for a BBC programme that doesn’t exist
He is actively involved in the archdiocese in Edinburgh – Cardinal O’Brien
He was able to become actively involved with the police (LOTHIAN & BORDERS)
Friends with Father Brian Gowans also connected to Archdiocese in Edinburgh
Father Brian Gowans worked in St Frances Xavier possible 1985
It has been claimed that a witness stated “it’s still going on” (it meaning the paedophile ring) & that Martin Henry (man in the shiny suit at parliament film on you tube) is the top man. THE ringleader
Martin Henry runs STOP IT NOW which is a “course” thingy for YOUNG PAEDOPHILES!
Stuart Allardyce, is the National Manager of Stop it Now! in Scotland & oh look, Lothian & Borders police AGAIN
In 2006, Farmer donated £100,000 to the SNP to help fund their campaign for the 2007 Scottish Parliament general election. Farmer commented at the time that it was not an indication of his political allegiance but that he wanted the SNP to be able to compete financially with their better-funded political opponents. Farmer repeated his endorsement for the SNP in the 2011 election.
The bloke ADMITTED he’s a paedo!! Surely Salmond should been pleased O’Brien was no longer in such a powerful position? But he obviously wasn’t as he couldn’t wait to sing his praises, even going so far as to pay tribute to Cardinal Keith O’Brien following his resignation
Oooh, & going back to the Hibs subject for a second, what about Hibernian Chairman Rod Petries? What does he know about O’Brien being a CHILD RAPIST? Cause he was SO PALLY wi Keith O’Brien (who was a regular at Easter Road) that they christened Hibernian“O’Briens 11”
He loves his Footie & his First Ministers doesn’t he?? Coincidentally, football & politics are the two places that PAEDO ARE FREE TO RUN RIOT RAPING KIDS!
Father Denis O’Connell was bestest friends with Savile who he originally got to know through mummy Savile. Jimmy was a frequent visitor to the Parish of St Patrick’s in Kilsyth during the period when he had a hit TV show ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ or was in between presenting ‘Top of the Pops’ or hosting a show on Radio 1 . You could always tell when he was in Kilsyth as his white jaguar car was parked outside the Parish House. Denis O’Connell fairly got about, working in Edinburgh, Kilsyth, Lennoxtown, Aberdeen & Methil in Fife. He also worked for the BBC in London! (BBC?! NUFF SAID!)
Kilsyth Chronicle 1972
The website I got a lot of the pictures from has unfortunately removed a lot of the Savile ones. BUT the didn’t remove the description!! Which I screen-shotted & archived
SAVILE, O’CONNELL & CELTIC’s JOCK STEIN
CELTIC PAEDO
As stated at the start we have one of the paedo ring NEIL STRACHAN 41,
“Jailed for 3 yrs in 1997 for repeatedly molesting a boy. former Celtic Boys Club official started preying on the boy when he was only five, after befriending his parents. Strachan quit as secretary of Celtic East Boys Club after he was caught. The abuse had gone on for two years, shared a flat with partner Colin Slaven”
King was at Celtic Boys Club with JIM TORBETT, who got two years’ jail in 1998 for abusing three former players, including future Scotland striker Alan Brazil, between 1967 and 1974.
Torbett was said to have been sacked from the club in 1974 when allegations surfaced against him. But this week, fresh claims were made that he abused more youngsters after returning to Celtic Boys Club for a spell in the 1980s and 90s. He denies the new allegations.
King also worked at Torbett’s company, the Trophy Centre, but denies being close to him.
He said: “Everybody has got different teams. I worked there for about a year but only on a Saturday afternoon.”
About his time as chairman of the boys’ club, he said: “That was about eight years ago. We left that to the younger ones – we did our stint.”
King’s association with Celtic Boys Club dates back to the early 1980s. In 1982-83, he helped run the under-12 team which won an invitational event in Rotterdam, Holland.
we have KEVIN KELLY & JOCK STEIN BOTH reported to have KNOWN & done nothing & BOTH of whom were pals wi SAVILE. We also have GERARD KING, JIM TORBETT,JIMMCCAFFERTY, HUGH STEVENSON & NEIL STRACHAN
& STRACHAN LINKS MARTIN HENRY TO THE CELTIC PAEDO RING THROUGH JAMES RENNIE WHO HENRY WORKED ALONGSIDE FOR YEARS AT LGBT OFFICE IN EDINBURGH
& HENRY IS HEADING THE FOOTBALL ABUSE INQUIRY
NUFF SAID! & IF THAT ISN’T ENOUGH, THERE’S A WITNESS CLAIMING HENRY IS THE LEADER OF THE RING…
Is she, as I believe, a relative of Marianne Faithfull? I can’t find/haven’t found any details of her family other than she was born in S.Africa in 1910 to a nurse and an army officer. Reason i wonder if they are related is because the Faithfull’s are a BIZARRE family, & when I say bizarre, I mean it in an utter bastards kinda way!!
Marianne’s maternal grandfather had aristocratic roots, in the Habsburg Dynasty, & her maternal grandmother was Jewish.
Marianne’s great great uncle was Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the 19th century Austrian nobleman whose erotic novel, Venus in Furs, spawned the word masochism!!
Her grandfather invented a sexual device called a Frigidity Machine that was designed to give women orgasms. He tried it out on her mother, Eva, Baroness Erisso, a dancer and actress descended from the Sacher-Masoch long line of Austro-Hungarian aristocrats.
Marianne’s father was Major Robert Glynn Faithfull
Marianne’s father was also an MI6 agent and he just so happened to be the “interrogation officer” in charge of Himmler after Himmler had given himself up to my Grandad!! Himmler was alive & well for HOURS with my Grandad, but he was dead VERY quickly as soon as RG Faithfull & co got hold of him!! Isn’t it amazing that whilst RG & Himmler were inside the SPECIALLY PREPARED HOUSE, the cyanide capsule that WAS NOT in Himmlers mouth, not only managed to kill him but also broke his nose too?!!
You can read more about Himmler’s death here & more about Marianne & co here
A 61-year-old man from Glasgow has told the BBC he was sexually abused on a football trip to Manchester United in the late 1960s.
James, who wants to keep his anonymity, believes he was “trafficked” to English football clubs by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic order which ran his school.
He said he was repeatedly abused by the brothers at his primary school.
In a statement, Manchester United said it had found no information relating to the Marist Brothers in its review.
The Old Trafford club looked into historical abuse as part of the English FA’s inquiry, led by barrister Clive Sheldon QC.
It is looking at the way clubs or the FA dealt with concerns over child sex abuse between 1970 and 2005.
Initiation ceremony
However, James said he thought his abuse happened on a trip in 1969, when he was 12 or 13.
James told the BBC he was in a group of “elite” young footballers who were selected by his school to take part in a tournament in Manchester.
The boys were taken to Old Trafford and the club’s training ground, where they played matches and toured the stadium, the boot room and directors’ offices.
James said he had visions of becoming a Manchester United player like his heroes George Best and Bobby Charlton but he said he was taken from the hostel where the boys were staying and sexually abused.
He said he did not know who abused him but he was taken outside as part of an “initiation ceremony”.
“It was non-consensual sex,” he said.
“Adult and a child.”
James said he did not know if other young footballers were also abused.
“None of us ever spoke about it,” he said.
According to James, he was not aware at the time that it was abuse.
It was portrayed as part of the “football journey” of going down to the club and possibly becoming a professional footballer.
He said: “I believe I was forced to do it because of my previous experience. I thought there was no escape, I had to take the action.”
His previous abuse was at the hands of the Marist Brothers who ran his primary school, the Sacred Heart Primary School in the east end of Glasgow.
James said he was regularly beaten around the lower body by branches with thorns, belts or by hand for not knowing the answers to questions about the Mass.
He told the BBC he would soil himself when he was beaten and his sister would be sent for to take him out of class.
Grooming process
“That then led to an increase in the abuse which began by befriending you, telling you that you weren’t a bad person, you were a good person,” he said.
“All part of the grooming process, then on to sitting on the knee,.
“Then, after the beatings, removing the clothing to make sure there were no marks.
“And then other sexual activity.”
The beatings stopped when James moved to high School.
But a more sinister form of abuse began, he said.
James said he was sent to the former Fort Augustus Abbey Roman Catholic boarding school
He was also sent to Pluscarden Abbey. Both were run by the Benedictine order.
He said he was abused by monks there.
James said he was also abused when his football team were sent to English football clubs.
“I realise now I was trafficked,” he said.
“I didn’t realise that at the time.
“But there is a link between the abuse in the primary school – the Marist Brothers.
“A link to the Marist Brothers sending me to Fort Augustus and Pluscarden to the Benedictines and the Marist Brothers then sending me to the football clubs.”
He said: “My understanding was these clubs were more or less looking at us for potentially signing for the clubs.
“The type of player I was playing football with went on to be professional football players, to be professional football managers and professional coaches at the highest level in the Scottish Football Association.”
Internal investigation
Manchester United said: “We have no knowledge or records of any allegations of this nature.
“However, If we are provided with further details and they allege involvement of anyone connected with the club, we will of course investigate further and involve all appropriate authorities.”
The Marist Brothers no longer run schools in Scotland but they maintain a house in Glasgow.
In a statement the order’s lawyers said it took all allegations against it seriously, and referred them to police and an internal investigation.
It said: “The allegations in question were investigated by the police, and the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Service confirmed our clients have done all that is possible regarding the allegations made.”
“James wants the public to know about the scandal of the historic trafficking of children round the UK.
“He wants more survivors of sexual abuse to come forward so that the perpetrators of this abuse and the institutions that protected them are held to account and we will continue to support him as he campaigns to achieve this.”
Priest, Father Paul Moore , convicted 20 years after first confessing
14 March 2018
Moore was sent to Fort Augustus after allegedly admitting child abuse to the bishop
An 82-year-old Catholic priest who confessed to his bishop more than 20 years ago that he had abused young boys has finally been convicted.
Father Paul Moore has been found guilty of sexually abusing three children and a student priest in crimes spanning more than 20 years.
One of his victims was just five years old.
A BBC Scotland investigation reported five years ago that Moore had admitted in 1996 that he had abused more than one boy years earlier, and it was initially covered up by the bishop.
The then Bishop of Galloway, Maurice Taylor, did not contact the authorities about the priest’s confession until eight months later. Instead, he sent him to a treatment centre in Toronto.
Bishop Taylor removed the priest from his parish in Prestwick, Ayrshire, and later sent him to Fort Augustus Abbey in the Highlands, which was run by Benedictine monks.
The attached school was by this time closed, but the abbey remained open. That is where Moore joined monk Richard White – who was also a self-confessed paedophile, later jailed for five years for child abuse.
The 2013 BBC documentary Sins of Our Fathers told how Moore was still living in a house which was purchased by the church.
Bishop Taylor said Moore had told him about actions that “occurred years previously”, and that the priest was removed from the pastoral ministry after the admission.
The bishop said: “The initial advice I was given was that since no allegations had been made against Moore but that he had made personal admission to me, I didn’t need to inform the authorities.”
The bishop said he arranged a meeting with the procurator fiscal in Kilmarnock in November 1996.
He said: “The Crown Office informed us in 1999 that they had decided not to proceed with any action but the case remained open.”
It was only when the victims came forward after the BBC documentary that the criminal case was brought.
n 2013, the BBC revealed claims by a former altar boy that he had been abused by Moore.
Two years later, Paul Smyth waived his anonymity to speak to a follow-up investigation.
He said: “I just want people to know the truth, I’m not running away any more.”
Mr Smyth told the BBC how he’d been sexually assaulted on Irvine beach when he was 11.
He eventually told the police what happened in 1997, the year after Moore apparently admitted the abuse to Bishop Taylor.
n 2013, the BBC revealed claims by a former altar boy that he had been abused by Moore.
Two years later, Paul Smyth waived his anonymity to speak to a follow-up investigation.
He said: “I just want people to know the truth, I’m not running away any more.”
Mr Smyth told the BBC how he’d been sexually assaulted on Irvine beach when he was 11.
He eventually told the police what happened in 1997, the year after Moore apparently admitted the abuse to Bishop Taylor.
Also in the 2015 follow-up, the BBC revealed a second man, another former altar server and now in his late 40s, was abused by Moore for several years as a teenager in Ayrshire.
The investigation obtained a copy of a £10,000 cheque given to the man by Moore in 2009.
Moore denied the cheque was “hush money” and says it was meant as a loan.
Moore being shown the cheque by Mark Daly
When confronted, Moore denied that he had confessed any child abuse to Bishop Taylor.
He accepted he was aware the man had made allegations against him, and was asked if he accepted that a payment to an alleged victim may look like “hush money”.
He responded: “Sure, it looks now, I realise that now in these times but it’s not that, it wasn’t hush money.
“In the Bible it says lend without hope of getting things back… as far as I’m concerned he can keep it.”
Asked if the two men were lying about the abuse claims, Moore said: “No, they’re not lying. They think that’s what it is. But it’s not.”
Some of the abuse was alleged to have taken place at St Mark’s Primary School in Irvine
The court case also heard from another man, now in his 40s, who told how Moore sexually assaulted him at St Mark’s primary school in Irvine in 1976.
Nowadays that crime would have been classed as rape.
Another man told of an occasion when he was abused at Irvine’s Magnum Centre when he was still a child.
Moore was ordained in 1960 and served in six different parishes in the south west of Scotland before retirement.
In 1995, he abused a student priest and around the same time he was found to have repeatedly stared at the bodies of young boys in Prestwick swimming pool.
Soon after this he made his confession to the bishop.
Bishop Taylor was told of the abuse in 1996
Bishop Taylor, who is now 92, appeared in court and said Moore had admitted to him in 1996 that he had a desire to abuse minors and he knew it was wrong.
He spoke of abusing boys while they slept and others at a swimming pool.
The bishop was shown personnel records he had taken in 1996 when Moore asked to see him.
He told the bishop he had sexual involvement with two males who had been underage at the time.
SAVILE & THE BBC / SAVILE REPORT “Esther Rantzen heard that Savile was sexually interested in young girls. She first heard about him in the 1970s from a researcher who had come from the BBC from a job in Fleet Street. She heard that the people making a programme about Savile in the ITV series This is Your life had wished to include the parents of a young girl with heart problems for whom Savile had provided financial help. The parents refused to allow that and she said the implication was there was another side to it, which was a darker side. But, she said, this rumour was one of many which ‘swirled around’ at the time in respect of all sorts of famous people.” https://spidercatweb.blog/2016/01/30/bbcs-10m-whitewash-of-savile-scandal-report-clears-tv-chiefs/
Tague Manson Consultancy Ltd. Scotland. Jan 2015 – Present. International. International training, investigations and consultancy
Project Coordinator Stop it Now Scotland. Dec 2013 – Present. Edinburgh. Breaking the Links – group work programme targeting males convicted or arrested for sexual offences involving children.
Safeguarder Children Ist. Aug 2013 – Present.Central Scotland. Independent Safeguarder Childrens Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011
Trainer AECT UAE Aug 2014 – Sep 2014 United Arab Emirates. Delivery of National Intelligence Model to the the five Northern Emirates(Ajman, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain).
Detective Superintendent SCDEA (SICU) Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency. Dec 2009 – Dec 2012. Livingston/ Paisley
Head of the Scottish Intelligence Coordination Unit– SOCG Mapping, Human Trafficking, Prison Intelligence Unit, Scottish Tasking and Coordination Group. Member of SCDEA Senior Management Team, Authorising Officer and OIC SCDEA Intelligence Development Unit.
Chief Inspector Lothian and Borders Police 2008 – 2009 Livingston Operational leadership in critical incidents including high risk missing persons,firearms incidents and murders. Head of Community Teams including funded officers from West Lothian Council.
Detective Chief Inspector Lothian and Borders Police2006 – 2008. Fettes HQ. Deputy Head of Special Branch Force HQ, including Edinburgh Airport.
Detective Chief Inspector Lothian and borders Police 2004 – 2006. Head of Crime Investigations City of Edinburgh.
Company Director Tague Manson Consultancy Ltd Jan 2015 – Present Scotland International training, investigations and consultancy. We provide bespoke training, investigation, case review and consultancy. We have experience in the development and delivery of training to police, local authorities and businesses in the UK. Asia, Western Australia and the Middle East. http://www.taguemanson.com
project manager Stop It Now! Scotland 2011 – Present Scotland
National MAPPA Coordinator Scottish Government 2009 – 2011 ScotGov
Detective Superintendent Lothian and Borders Police 2007 – 2009
Former Crewe youth coach suspended by Football Association
• Suspension follows that of Crewe director of football Dario Gradi • Paul McCann worked for Crewe in the 1980s and 90s
Another former coach from Crewe Alexandra, described as a “long-standing club stalwart” because of his work with their youth-team players, has been suspended by the Football Association.
Paul McCann worked for Crewe in the 1980s and 90s and at one stage was the assistant coach in charge of the club’s youth team.
Dario Gradi, Crewe’s former manager and currently director of football, has already been suspended and the FA has now informed McCann that he is not allowed to work in the sport in any capacity until he receives further notification.
McCann was involved at Crewe during Gradi’s time as manager, working with the reserve team, the youth setup and sometimes refereeing matches involving the younger children.
He left his voluntary role in December 1991 because he was working as a human resources director for Shell UK and had been given a new post in the Netherlands. McCann spent four years in that role and in two decades at Shell he also had a three-year spell in Australia. He has since had similar roles for Centrica and ISG and lives near Chester, with another base in London.
McCann said: “I have not done anything wrong. This process is in place to help the investigation take its due course. I am collateral damage.” Speaking at his home in Great Sutton, Cheshire, earlier he said he had worked for Crewe only as a voluntary coach and never received any payment. He is not coaching currently. The FA has not confirmed the suspension or the reason for it.
McCann is not thought to have worked for another professional football club in England but was involved at Crewe during the years when they were building their reputation for having one of the best production lines of young footballers in the country. One book chronicling Gradi’s long association with the club describes McCann as a “talented coach”, a “long-standing club stalwart” and “one of the key men behind reserve and youth-team football at Crewe”.
Gradi, 75, has held a number of senior positions at Crewe since 1983 but was notified by the FA on 25 November that he was being suspended with immediate effect. It is understood that relates to issues involving Crewe rather than, as initially reported, allegations that he visited the parents of a Chelsea youth-team player to “smooth over” a complaint of sexual assault against Eddie Heath, the chief scout who has been identified as a repeat offender in the 1970s.
Gradi, then in his early 30s, was assistant manager at Chelsea at the time and is said to have told the 15-year-old victim’s family that he knew Heath was “closer” to boys than he should have been. Chelsea never took any action against Heath and the FA’s independent inquiry intends to interview Gradi about what the club knew, and his own particular role.
Gradi has not commented on his suspension but he has always said he did not know of anything untoward at Crewe and the allegations involving Heath were put to him two weeks ago.
“Aside from denying any wrongdoing, it would be inappropriate and unfair on all parties to comment piecemeal through the media at this time in connection with historic allegations,” he said in a statement at the time. “Suffice to say, I will do everything within my power to assist all investigatory authorities into what is becoming a wide-ranging and important enquiry into historic sexual abuse.”
Another former Crewe coach, Barry Bennell, is due to appear at Chester Crown Court next Wednesday to face eight charges of sexual offences against a boy, aged under 15, from another club, from 1981 to 1985.
The FA inquiry will be led by the QC Clive Sheldon and a backup team of investigators to go through what has been described as a “tidal wave” of people coming forward since Andy Woodward’s interview in the Guardian on 16 November, followed by that of another former Crewe player Steve Walters, instigated what the FA’s chairman, Greg Clarke, has described as the worst crisis he can remember in the sport.
At the last count, from figures released on 21 December, 155 potential suspects had been identified in connection with possible attacks throughout the sport on 429 people. Of those, some of the victims were as young as four, and 148 clubs from professional and amateur level have been named.
The allegations being investigated by police span more than five decades and a national sexual abuse investigation called Operation Hydrant is coordinating to avoid duplication and ensure that information about potential offenders and victims is shared across the 43 forces in England and Wales. Police say they have received a 819 referrals, with 605 coming from a hotline set up by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in tandem with the FA.
Former academy director’s file handed to CPS in football sexual abuse inquiry
• Kit Carson was academy director at Peterborough from 1993 to 2001 • Carson, who also worked at Cambridge and Norwich, was arrested in January
Kit Carson worked with players at Peterborough who went on to have careers in the Premier League. Photograph: Peterborough Telegraph
Police have submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service following the arrest of a hugely respected youth football coach on suspicion of child sexual offences.
“Kit” Carson, 74, whose real name is Michael Sean Carson, was arrested in Cambridge in January and questioned on suspicion of indecency with children and indecent assault.
Police had been working with two of Carson’s former clubs, Peterborough United and Cambridge United, since the football abuse scandal was broken by the Guardian last year.
Carson was academy director at Peterborough from 1993 to 2001. Players he worked with there went on to have careers in the Premier League. Carson left to become head of talent development at Cambridge United between 2001 and 2005.
Before Peterborough he was at Norwich City from 1983 until 1993. On his LinkedIn page, he described himself as a football consultant and scout for a Finnish club.
Police have not named Carson, referring to him only as a man in his 70s. But the force confirmed to the Guardian that a file had been sent to the CPS on the man.
One year after football’s child abuse scandal broke, stories are yet to be told
Last November, Andy Woodward bravely shared his story and 12 months on, the full horror is still emerging with 748 victims coming forward
11 November 2017
It wasn’t easy at first to understand the numbers that were potentially involved. It still isn’t, to be honest, when the latest police figures are so mind-boggling – on average, five new victims coming forward every two days – but particularly so at the start, when Andy Woodward was preparing to go public and telling me he was certain there would be many others, hundreds even, who had experienced the same kind of childhood horrors.
What has happened since started as a trickle but quickly turned into what the Football Association chairman, Greg Clarke, has described as a tidal wave. At the time, however, I can remember going to Andy, on the day before publication, to make absolutely sure he was happy to put the numbers so high. His response was that it might even be higher. The story went out. “Difficult knowing how to introduce this one,” I wrote on Twitter. “He’s a brave man and, as of today, he is free of his secret.” And then we waited.
The first six came forward inside five days. By the end of the week it was 11. And on and on. This week brings up a year since Andy became the first former footballer to speak about the sexual abuse he had suffered and the latest police figures, 748 victims, make it easy to understand why at least one force has advertised for retired detectives to help the process of taking statements.
To put it in some kind of context, more football coaches and people connected with the sport, 285, have now been accused of molesting boys than the number of priests and brothers from the Boston archdiocese, 249, who were identified as part of the scandal unearthed by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team.
The victims come from all levels of football and, at the last count, 331 clubs had been “impacted”, meaning they had been named without necessarily being under investigation. Of the victims, 96% are male, the youngest being four years old, and the vast majority of cases happened in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, though some as far back as 1950. Operation Hydrant has had 2,028 referrals and all but 27 relate to football – the others involving basketball, rugby, gymnastics, martial arts, tennis, wrestling, golf, sailing, athletics, cricket and swimming.
It is a lot to take in and, as if all that was not shocking enough, the real number of victims will actually be significantly higher when the figures have not been updated since 28 September and there are so many others who have suffered the same kind of ordeals but chosen not to report what happened.
Many do not think it is worthwhile now their abusers – paedophiles such as Frank Roper, a coach in Blackpool’s junior system, and Eddie Heath, formerly the chief scout at Chelsea – are dead. Others have now reached an age where they have their own children and have elderly parents and, understandably, want to protect their families. Many don’t feel they have the strength to deal with the tortuous, often torturous, process of going through the courts when it can feel sometimes as if there are glaciers that move quicker than the British judicial system.
After a year on this story, I have spoken to almost as many victims who have chosen not to go to the police as those who have. The numbers, again, are frightening and some of the stories that are waiting to be told leave huge questions about what the clubs knew, and what they did about it.
A lot of those stories will have to be held back for now because of the cases being sub judice but suffice to say there is startling evidence of cover-ups, and warnings being ignored, at a number of clubs.
The negligence also appears to be related to money in some cases. One recurring theme is that the people in charge were often reluctant to rock the boat if the person under suspicion was good at his job, potentially making those clubs money. Of everything we have heard over the last year, that perhaps is the most galling part when you stop to think about the number of children it put at risk. Some big football clubs and well-known individuals are going to find it a hard stain to wash out.
Aston Villa certainly need to explain what precisely happened after they were notified about the crimes of Ted Langford, a part-time scout for the club, during the late 1980s and maybe we will also hear from Dario Gradi at some point about his own judgment over the years. Gradi was suspended from all football activities by the FA last November after claims that in his coaching days at Chelsea he visited the house of a 15-year-old youth-team player to “smooth over” a complaint of sexual assault against Heath. Gradi has always denied any wrongdoing but the suspension remains in place, almost a year on, and it is clear the FA wants to distance itself from a man who was once revered for his work in junior football. Gradi was given a lifetime contribution award in 2014 and inducted into the FA Licensed Coaches’ Club Hall of Fame. His photograph has been taken down from the walls of St George’s Park and his name has been removed from the relevant wall display.
Hopefully we will get some more answers when the FA’s independent inquiry, led by Clive Sheldon QC, is published and perhaps, in time, there will also be an explanation from Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, about why his organisation did not do more after the 1997 Dispatches documentary Soccer’s Foul Play made it clear there was a serious problem inside the sport.
Everybody within the game, the media included, needs to look at how this scandal was ignored for so long. Yet the PFA, in particular, has much to answer for when, unlike the FA, it has had very little regime change at the highest level. Taylor has been there since 1981.
Sheldon’s report should be delivered at Easter and you might have seen the story recently about him seeing a counsellor, paid for by the FA, to look after his own mental health when he is being exposed to so many harrowing stories. Fair enough, but it is just a pity, perhaps, that the FA has not been so generous when it comes to the players whose lives have been shaped by the abuse. Many have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and still suffer from anxiety, depression, insomnia and panic attacks. They do at least have support groups such as the Offside Trust and SAVE but many have experienced what a hard-faced organisation the FA can be.
Equally, it might have been an idea if the FA had gone to any real effort to help the victims, or anyone else who might have vital information, to understand how to go about the process of speaking to the inquiry. That, after all, is surely the first starting point of any such investigation: to hear from as many people as possible. Yet if you were to click on the FA’s website – the place, you might imagine, where the process might be explained – there is nothing about it all.
Instead, the FA, acting independently of the barrister, has set up a convoluted and hard-to-locate system whereby the only way anyone can submit evidence is by clicking on the website for Sport Resolutions and going through a link named “Football Review”. Even then, it still doesn’t make it absolutely clear what it is. There isn’t even a helpline, just an email address for “written submissions” and no clues whatsoever why the FA should presume anyone would know this was how it worked.
It all feels so dreadfully typical of the FA and helps to explain why, by mid-October, Sheldon had interviewed no more than 15 victims. Clarke, who has described it as the biggest crisis in the history of the FA, claimed during his calamitous appearance before the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee recently that he had spent 22 hours a day working on the case when the story broke. Perhaps he needed a rest if this was the best he could come up with.
Former football coach Barry Bennell has appeared in court ahead of his trial next year over a string of child sex allegations.
The 63-year-old appeared at Liverpool Crown Court via video link in a preliminary hearing ahead of his eight-week trial on January 8 next year.
He is charged with 55 offences, including 42 counts of indecent assault, 11 counts of buggery and two counts of attempted buggery said to have been committed on various dates between 1979 and 1991.
The allegations against the ex-Crewe Alexandra coach relate to 12 complainants.
During Friday’s hearing the court heard the defendant had previously changed his name to Richard Jones.
Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, said the defendant would now be referred to in the proceedings as Mr Jones.
A further pre-trial hearing will take place on November 24.
Six County FAs fail to respond to questions on football sex abuse
16 October 2017
The failure by some to cooperate with the independent review into the game’s child sexual abuse scandal was laid bare again on Monday night after it emerged six County Football Associations had not responded to requests for information five months after being asked to do so.
The inquiry team, led by Clive Sheldon QC, was forced last week to contact the Football Association itself to ask it to act over what one source branded “inertia” on the part of several counties, something that as of last night had the desired effect on only two out of the six in question.
They had originally been written to on May 11 and given a deadline of June 1 to respond, with those which failed to meet that contacted again on June 21.
The six outstanding counties were also sent reminders more recently to provide information which could be vital to an inquiry which is investigating what FA chairman Greg Clarke has admitted is the biggest crisis he could recall the game facing.
It also transpired that the final report by Sheldon had been delayed until at least Easter after the process of examining up to five million documents in an FA archive proved more arduous than anticipated.
Sheldon and his team, who had originally planned to report early next year, had also managed to interview only 15 survivors of abuse – there are 741 potential victims according to the most recent police figures – and 35 other persons of interest.
Alleged victims spoken to include former internationals, although sources refused to confirm whether Matt Le Tissier, David White and Paul Stewart – all of whom had gone public – had been among them.
Survivors’ stories were said to have been “harrowing”, with Sheldon and his team – as well as victims – requiring counselling as a result.
Meetings were planned yesterday with a further 20-30 survivors, as well as with other persons of interest, with the inquiry restricted in who it could talk to due to ongoing criminal investigations and the upcoming trials of former Crewe Alexandra coach Barry Bennell and ex-Southampton youth coach Bob Higgins.
Sources close to the investigation confirmed suspended Crewe director of football Dario Gradi – who denies covering up abuse claims – had been on a list of intended interviewees but refused to reveal whether he had been spoken to yet.
Former Aston Villa assistant manager Dave Richardson is also a person of interest after the inquiry was told by one victim, Tony Brien, that former England boss Graham Taylor was involved in a cover-up while at the club.
No one approached so far has openly refused to co-operate with the inquiry.
The Bennell and Higgins trials early next year could also limit either what Sheldon says about allegations against each of them in his report or what the FA is able to publish of his findings.
His report is likely to focus on case studies of 10-12 clubs to paint a picture of the game’s handling of claims of child abuse during the years covered by the inquiry, amid the impossibility of speaking to every potential victim and witness.
Police now investigating over 2,000 child abuse referrals in football
• Specialist unit looking into complaints involving more than 330 clubs • Referrals relating to sports other than football reach a total of 27
The specialist police unit investigating child abuse in football has received 142 new referrals since publishing its last updated figures in June and is currently investigating complaints involving more than 330 clubs.
The figures released on Tuesday reveal that information forwarded by police forces to Operation Hydrant up to 28 September amount to 2,028 referrals, an increase of 142 on the previous figure at the end of June.
A total of 688 referrals came from the NSPCC with 1,340 from the police forces that were contacted. The statistics provided from Operation Hydrant reveal that a total of 331 clubs have been impacted since Andy Woodward’s interview in November sparked the now countrywide investigation.
The vast majority of referrals relate to football. However, a number of other sports have also been the subject of 27 referrals. These referrals include basketball, rugby, gymnastics, martial arts, tennis, wrestling, golf, sailing, athletics, cricket, and swimming.
Taylor was a supporter of Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association and a Patron of DebRa. He was a Celebrity Ambassador for the Sense Enterprise Board in Birmingham, and worked to raise both funds and awareness, including running the London Marathon in 2004.[74] He regularly hosted moderated “online coaching seminars” on the DALnet channel. He also supported the Royal British Legion and cycled from London to Paris in 2010 to raise funds for the RBL’s Poppy appeal.[75]
Finding a home for your unwanted football kit in Africa and beyond KitAid is a charity set up by, Derrick Williams MBE, who visited Tanzania on a WaterAid supporters’ trip in 1998. Derrick, being a mad footie fan, was amazed at the reception he received from children and adults in remote villages just because he wearing his favourite football shirt (Watford, Chesham Utd, Liverpool FC to name a few).
After two weeks in Tanzania, a flame was lit in Derrick’s heart and he was on a mission to provide kit and equipment to the bare-footed children playing with footballs made of tied string and plastic bags. Fifteen years on, KitAid has Graham Taylor OBE as its Patron, lots of volunteers and to date we’ve sent out 200,000 kits to children and adults in 40 different countries across the world.
Pictured: Derrick Williams MBE presenting Graham Taylor OBE with a commemorative shirt at KitAid’s 15th year anniversary event.
Taylor was a supporter of Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association and a Patron of DebRa. He was a Celebrity Ambassador for the Sense Enterprise Board in Birmingham, and worked to raise both funds and awareness, including running the London Marathon in 2004.[74] He regularly hosted moderated “online coaching seminars” on the DALnet channel. He also supported the Royal British Legion and cycled from London to Paris in 2010 to raise funds for the RBL’s Poppy appeal.[75]
Taylor was a supporter of Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association and a Patron of DebRa. He was a Celebrity Ambassador for the Sense Enterprise Board in Birmingham, and worked to raise both funds and awareness, including running the London Marathon in 2004.[74] He regularly hosted moderated “online coaching seminars” on the DALnet channel. He also supported the Royal British Legion and cycled from London to Paris in 2010 to raise funds for the RBL’s Poppy appeal.[75]
Watford Football Club’s Community Sports and Education Trust’s patron, Graham Taylor OBE,
Former Cambridge United star in court this morning over a child sex charge
Bryan Boggis has been accused of a sexual offence involving a 12-year-old boy
A legendary former Cambridge United and Aston Villa player who has been accused of gross indecency with a 12-year-old boy will appear in court today (September 5).
Bryan Boggis, 75, is due in Cambridge Crown Court for a plea hearing concerning the alleged sexual offence.
The alleged crime is said to have taken place in Cambridge between July 1, 1968, and June 30, 1970.
On August 8, Boggis pleaded not guilty to a charge of gross indecency with a boy under the age of 14 years old at Cambridge Magistrates Court.
Boggis, of Suffield Road, Gorleston, played for the U’s in the 1960s and is named in a book listing the club’s ‘100 Greats’.
Brian Boggis when he played for Cambridge United
The case forms part of an investigation into non-recent allegations related to football in Cambridgeshire.
A biography of Boggis in 100 Greats Cambridge United Football Club says: “In the early 1960s, the first name put on every team sheet was that of the defender Brian (sic) Boggis.
“He was Mr Consistency and as well as appearing near the top of the list of Southern League appearances for Cambridge United, he also figured in the top twenty appearances for the club since the war.”
Bob Higgins: Ex-Saints coach child abuse charges trial date set
16 August 2017
A date has been set for the trial of a former Southampton Football Club youth coach who faces child abuse charges.
Bob Higgins, 64, of Litchfield Road, Southampton, appeared at Winchester Crown Court earlier charged with 65 counts of indecent assault against 23 boys, all aged under 17.
The alleged offences took place between 1970 and 1996.
Mr Higgins, whose first name is Robert, did not enter a plea but a provisional trial date has been set for 9 April.
Former youth coach Frank Roper accused of abusing 31 young players
A Freedom of Information request revealed 31 people have filed 35 accusations
Several alleged victims have begun legal proceedings against Blackpool
Ex-England player Paul Stewart says he was abused on daily basis for four years
18 August 2017
Thirty-one former footballers including England international Paul Stewart have accused former youth coach Frank Roper of historical sexual abuse.
Several alleged victims have also begun legal proceedings against Blackpool, with whom Roper was closely associated in the 1980s.
Stewart, 52, has claimed that Roper, who died in Stockport in 1995, abused him on a daily basis for four years from the age of 11.
Frank Roper (right) has been accused of abusing 31 former footballers
A Freedom of Information request revealed that 31 individuals have filed 35 accusations against Roper, a former football coach in the North West.
Sportsmail exposed Roper as a serial sexual predator last November. He exploited his power at renowned Manchester youth club Nova and enjoyed strong links with Blackpool.
Stewart, the former Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City striker, said: ‘It’s sad that so many came forward because it meant so many suffered.
‘People will see now how prolific he was, and hopefully the people who suffered will not feel as I have, that the police are only interested in the victims of others.
The former youth coach was closely associated with Blackpool in the 1980s
‘I’m not bothered that he won’t face justice, I never came forward for that. But I’m gutted for those who have reported him and will not see him face justice.’
Roper warned Stewart, who started his career at Blackpool, never to tell anyone of the horrific ordeal or risk his family being killed.
Witnesses revealed how Roper abused children on expensive trips to the Far East, New Zealand and America.
Dino Nocivelli of Bolt Burdon Kemp Solicitors, representing several survivors, said: ‘The number of children who allegedly suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Frank Roper indicates he was a substantial threat to children.
‘What is even more worrying is that this is very likely to only be the tip of the iceberg — Frank Roper was associated with Blackpool for over a decade, he was granted frequent access to children as a result of this and the abuse is alleged to have taken place not just in England but also in Thailand and New Zealand.
‘I have been instructed by a number of survivors to pursue claims against Blackpool Football Club. A letter before claim has been sent on behalf of one of my clients to Blackpool setting out the abuse that my client suffered at the hands of Roper.
‘Blackpool have confirmed receipt of these papers and I am awaiting their response as to whether or not they admit responsibility for the acts of Roper.’
A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: ‘We will continue to support any victims of non-recent sexual abuse and we are working with charities and partner organisations to help provide them with specialist support.
‘GMP will continue to inform victims of any updates regarding their complaints.
‘We understand that reporting such traumatic events is extremely difficult and we will continue to assist any victims in any way that we can.’
Blackpool were approached but declined to comment.
Barry Bennell is to stand trial over child sex offences in January
21 July 2017
Former football coach Barry Bennell is to stand trial next January over child sex offences.
The 63-year-old appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday via video-link, charged with 55 offences, including 42 counts of indecent assault, 11 counts of buggery and two counts of attempted buggery.
The trial is expected to last eight weeks.
The charges relate to 12 complainants and the offences allegedly happened between 1979 and 1991, when the victims were aged between eight and 15.
The former coach wore a black T-shirt and appeared clean-shaven.
Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Clement Goldstone said a pre-trial hearing would be held on October 27 ahead of the trial on January 8 next year.
Bob Higgins, former Southampton youth coach, denies child sexual abuse charges
Higgins faces 65 counts of non-recent sexual abuse against 23 boys
Case to be tried at Winchester crown court
20 July 2017
The former Southampton youth coach Bob Higgins has appeared before magistrates charged with 65 sexual offences against boys as young as 12.
Higgins, 64, was accused of 63 indecent assaults and two attempted indecent assaults between 1970 and 1996. The court was told the alleged offences relate to 23 boys.
The clerk told the court he faced 63 charges of indecent assault between 1970 and 1996 against boys aged under 17 and two attempted indecent assaults against a boy aged under 16 between 1979 and 1983.
He indicated during a three-minute hearing before Southampton magistrates that he would be pleading not guilty to the charges. He will next appear at Winchester crown court on 16 August.
Higgins was a coach in Southampton’s junior system in the 1980s and worked as Peterborough United’s youth-team manager from May 1995 to April 1996 as well as running his own soccer school. He was still involved in football, working with adults at Fleet Town, when the police investigation began last year.
Barry Bennell: Ex-football coach in court on 14 further abuse charges
Ex-football coach Barry Bennell has appeared in court charged with a further 14 counts of sexual abuse.
The charges, which include indecent assault and serious sexual assault, involve four boys who were aged between 11 and 14 at the time.
The former Crewe Alexandra youth coach now faces a total of 55 charges, relating to alleged offences between 1979 and 1991.
The 63-year-old denied all accusations during previous court appearances.
He appeared via video link for the hearing at South Cheshire Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, speaking only to confirm his name, age and that he understood the charges.
He was remanded in custody and will appear at Liverpool Crown Court on 17 July.
Mr Bennell coached a number of junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands, some with associations to Manchester City and Stoke City.
Former football coach Barry Bennell faces a further 14 child sex offence charges
Barry Bennell is facing 55 charges in total
Former football coach Barry Bennell is facing a further 14 counts of non-recent sexual assault on boys aged between 11 and 14.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service the new charges relate to 10 counts of indecent assault and four counts of buggery which were alleged to have taken place between 1983 and 1990.
It follows a string of previous allegations made against the 63-year-old.
A CPS spokesperson said: “Today, 20 June, former professional football coach Barry Bennell, 63, was informed that he has been charged with 14 counts of non-recent child sexual abuse against boys aged 11 to 14 years.”
The former Crewe Alexandra coach will appear via video link at South Cheshire Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday June 28 in relation to these charges.
In total he is facing charges of 55 offences between 1979 and 1991 against young boys.
He has previously denied accusations made against him during a succession of court appearances.
Former football coach appears in court charged with sexual abuse of boys
• John Marshall charged with offences of indecent assault against three victims • Former coach of junior club in Newcastle area denies all eight charges
14 June 2017
John Marshall
A former coach of a junior football club in the Newcastle area in the 1980s has appeared in court charged with sexual abuse of young boys.
John Marshall, 69, from Longbenton, in north Tyneside, has been charged with eight offences of indecent assault against three complainants. The offences are alleged to have been carried out between 1980-85, on victims who were aged 14 or under.
The first hearing took place at North Tyneside magistrates court. The charges against Marshall follow an investigation by Northumbria police into allegations of historical child sexual abuse at football clubs in their locality, Operation Tide.
One of the alleged victims was 12 and 13 at the time Marshall is accused of indecently assaulting him, another of the boys was 13 and the other was 14.
Marshall denied all the charges and was granted unconditional bail. He is due to appear next at Newcastle crown court on 12 July.
Former Newcastle United coach appears in court charged with 29 sex offences against boys and men dating back more than 40 years
George Ormond, faces 29 charges charges relating to 17 complainants
Incidents involving Ormond said to have occured between 1973 and 1988
He did not enter pleas to the charges at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court
9 June 2017
A former Newcastle United coach has been charged with 29 historic sexual offences dating back more than 40 years.
George Ormond, 61, from Newton Abbot, Devon, appeared via videolink for a five minute hearing at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court today.
Wearing black-rimmed glasses, the bearded defendant identified himself in a clear voice.
He did not enter pleas to the 29 charges which relate to 17 complainants, and which were said to have occurred between 1973 and 1998.
He is charged with one count of buggery of a boy of 15, 10 counts of indecent assault on boys under 14, eight on boys under 16 and 10 on males over 16.
He was granted unconditional bail and told he must appear at Newcastle Crown Court on July 7.
Ex-Celtic youth coach to face child sex charge this week
Jun 5 2017
THE case against a former Celtic youth coach and kit man charged with a child sex offence will be heard this week in a Belfast court.
Jim McCafferty, 71, who now lives in Northern Ireland, was charged with engaging in sexual activity with a child aged 13 to 16 between December 2011 and December 2014.
The case will be heard in Laganside Magistrate’s Court, Belfast, this Thursday.
McCafferty – who also worked at Hibernian, Falkirk and with youth teams – handed himself in at a Belfast police station where he allegedly made a confession.
Since last December he has been in protective custody in prison in Northern Ireland Police Scotland launched an investigation into claims he abused young players in Scotland, and evidence was handed over to Northern Ireland’s prosecution service.
Child sex abuse: Eight remaining football clubs respond to abuse inquiry
May 21 2017
Eight professional clubs have responded after initially missing an inquiry’s deadline for giving information about historical child sex abuse in football.
The inquiry, led by barrister Clive Sheldon QC, was started by the Football Association in December after allegations from former players.
Sheldon wrote to every club in England and Wales in January.
The EFL said in a statement it was “very disappointed” to learn eight clubs had missed the 15 March deadline.
Those clubs, which have not been named, had been warned they could face sanctions.
“Having been made aware of the situation, the EFL immediately made contact with the relevant clubs and secured a response,” said the statement.
A final report is not expected to be published until 2018.
Ex-Newcastle youth coach George Ormond faces sex charges
May 19 2017
George Ormond will appear in court next month
Former Newcastle United youth coach George Ormond has been charged with 29 sex offences, police have said.
The 61-year-old, of Newton Abbot, Devon, is alleged to have committed the offences between 1973 and 1998.
He is due to appear before Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on 9 June, Northumbria Police said.
The charges followed an investigation into “non-recent child sexual abuse in the sporting community”, the force added.
Ormond is the first person to be charged as part of Operation Tide, which was set up late last year to look into allegations of child sex abuse at football clubs in the North East.
In November, Newcastle United said it would co-operate fully with the investigation.
Assistant Chief Constable Darren Best said inquiries were continuing.
He added: “We urge anyone who may have been a victim of abuse or has any information about suspected abuse within any sporting community to come forward and report it to us.”
The review into English football’s child sexual abuse scandal is investigating whether a paedophile ring operated in the game, it can be disclosed.
The inquiry into how the Football Association and the country’s clubs dealt with the alleged abuse of schoolboy players between 1970 and 2005 – and whether there was any cover-up – is also examining girls’ football during that period.
Almost six months after it was launched on the back of an avalanche of harrowing allegations at the end of last year, details can be revealed about the scope and status of the review into what FA chairman Greg Clarke admitted was the biggest crisis he could recall the game facing.
As well as looking at whether there was a network of paedophiles abusing young players and investigating both boys’ and girls’ football, that review will:
Examine up to five million documents held in an FA archive.
Investigate the use of gag clauses by clubs paying off alleged victims.
Scrutinise the role of officials from affected teams who also held positions at the FA.
Make recommendations about the governing body’s current safeguarding processes if it identifies weaknesses.
Report any evidence of criminal activity to the police.
Aim to publish its final report early next year.
Led by Clive Sheldon QC, the review was commissioned by the FA after the potential scale of the game’s child sexual abuse scandal became clear.
Its impact was highlighted again on Sunday night when the BBC’s ‘Victoria Derbyshire’ programme won the TV Bafta for news coverage following its emotional interviews with lead whistleblower Andy Woodward and other survivors.
A hotline set up in the wake of the scandal continues to receive calls, while the latest figures from Operation Hydrant, the police investigation into non-recent allegations of sexual abuse, shows it has had 1,432 referrals and has identified 560 victims aged between four and 20, 96 per cent of whom are male.
It has also identified 252 suspects, with 311 football clubs impacted – including several in the Premier League.
More alarmingly still, 46 of 187 alleged attacks since 1996 are said to have occurred between 2005 and 2016, outside the scope of the review.
Sheldon, appointed by the FA after concerns were raised about the independence of its original choice of review head, Kate Gallafent QC, last month completed the first phase of his work.
That involved Sheldon and a team of four barristers laying the groundwork for interviewing witnesses and examining documents between now and the autumn.
Although he has no power to subpoena evidence, anyone who fails to co-operate with the review faces being sanctioned by the FA.
It emerged on Monday night that eight professional clubs were facing that fate after failing to meet two deadlines to respond to a letter from Sheldon requesting any information they have that might be relevant.
As part of his work, Sheldon will seek to establish whether perpetrators acted independently or were part of a local or national paedophile ring, something some victims suspect but others doubt.
Meetings with several individuals have already taken place, including with representatives of survivors’ group the Offside Trust – with one also scheduled with the former players who front it.
Two solicitors and two paralegals have been tasked with locating and examining documents, mainly from the FA’s own archive.
That is in a warehouse containing 9,000 boxes, each filled with up to 1,000 pages, and most of which are not adequately indexed.
That means approximately 5,000 of those boxes being opened and examined to establish whether they contain material pertinent to safeguarding.
The Premier League, EFL and county FAs have also been asked to provide any relevant documents they hold.
The review will seek to compare the game’s approach to safeguarding during the period in question both with that of other sports and other countries.
Although the inquiry will have taken more than a year by the time Sheldon reports, it is understood no constraints have been placed on the cost of it to the FA, which is also fully aware its findings could open the governing body and clubs up to legal action by victims.
Clarke said last year: “When the report comes out, there may well be legal consequences and all of us in the game have to deal with that. Compensation will be a consequence of the facts that emerge.”
Running in parallel with the review is an independent audit of the FA’s current safeguarding practices by the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit.
That audit will not stop Sheldon making his own observations about the status quo if he identifies any weaknesses.
Sheldon had represented the Health Secretary in the high court case that upheld the legality of their (junior doctors’) new contract.
Sheldon is tight-lipped as to his view on the junior doctors’ contract, but admits the case was fascinating, especially given Jeremy Hunt’s direct involvement.
In more than 20 years as a barrister representing public sector bodies, this was not the first case Sheldon has had that he couldn’t put on Facebook “because my friends wouldn’t be happy“. In other words, one that would clash with his other life as the child of Guardian-reading liberal Zionists, and as a former Habonim and BBYO member, who volunteered in Israel during his gap year and spent his student days campaigning for Soviet Jewry. Sheldon’s mother is a Holocaust survivor; “knowing about rights and morality and fighting for justice” has always been central to his endeavours.
Last year the father-of-three won a Government case on the so-called bedroom tax, involving a severely disabled boy living in a specially converted house whose family had been told they didn’t need the extra room.
An active member of New North London Synagogue who has represented Masorti on a number of inter-communal committees, including the JLC, and for the last two years has chaired human rights organisation New Israel Fund UK – his record of defending the “establishment” is perhaps surprising
Background on Clive Sheldon QC – Establishment man
In August 2012, Clive has just represented the Chief Constable of Wiltshire in a judicial review challenge to a misconduct decision made by the Police Appeals Tribunal
Perhaps we will get some clarity when Clive Sheldon QC produces what the FA insists ought to be classified as an independent inquiry.
Sheldon was appointed at the start of December to judge, among other things, if there had been a cover-up and whether the governing body had been guilty of institutional failures.
Yet that, in turn, raises its own questions.However revered Sheldon is in his particular field, how can any inquiry truly be independent when the organisation that is being investigated is also footing the bill?…
Clive Sheldon was appointed Queen’s Counsel in April 2011, and is recognised by Chambers and Partners as a Leading Silk in the fields of Employment Law, Education Law and Local Government Law. Before taking Silk, Clive was for many years a member of the Attorney-General’s ‘A’ Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown.
In his employment practice, Clive specialises in high profile discrimination claims for employers and employees, and disputes involving senior executives and high ranking public office holders. Clive is currently representing the Metropolitan Police Authority defending a series of discrimination claims brought by former Commander Ali Dizaei. Clive is representing the Secretary of State for Justice in a series of claims brought by foreign language interpreters arising from the change to the procurement arrangements for court interpreters.
In his public law work, Clive has particular expertise in matters relating to the police, education, health, local authorities and human rights. Recently, Clive successfully defended the decision of the Secretary of State for Education to convert Downhills School into an Academy. Clive is currently Leading Counsel for a coalition of local authorities, professional associations, schools and students, challenging the GCSE English awards in August 2012. Clive has just represented the Chief Constable of Wiltshire in a judicial review challenge to a misconduct decision made by the Police Appeals Tribunal. Clive regularly advises the Association of Council Secretaries & Solicitors (ACSeS), and local authorities, on standards issues under the Localism Act 2011.
Clive practised for two years as an Attorney with a leading Wall Street firm, where he specialised in commercial litigation, and continues to be a member of the New York State Bar. Clive is also a CEDR trained mediator, and a member of the Professional Complaints Committee of the Bar Standards Board. Clive writes chapters for Tolley’s Employment Law Service and Tolley’s Employment Handbook and Clive speaks regularly on employment and public law issues, including a recent address to the Administrative Law Bar Association on ‘Consultation’.
Football abuse scandal: eight clubs could face sanctions after missing deadlines
• Eight clubs have failed to respond to independent inquiry • Level of non-cooperation is ‘deeply concerning’, says specialist lawyer
15 May 2017
Eight of the professional football clubs contacted by the independent inquiry into the game’s sexual-abuse scandal have failed to respond and now risk disciplinary action unless they tell the investigators what they know, the Guardian can reveal.
The Football Association is ready to step in and has the power to impose sanctions if it considers the clubs who have failed to comply – missing two separate deadlines over the past four months and displaying a level of non-cooperation described as “deeply concerning” by one specialist child-abuse lawyer – are threatening to undermine the investigation into what the organisation’s chairman, Greg Clarke, has described as the worst crisis he can remember in the sport.
The inquiry team, led by Clive Sheldon QC, wrote to every amateur and professional club in England and Wales on 11 January asking them to supply any information that could help relating to the period covered by the review, from 1970 to 2005, and requesting this was done by 15 March at the latest.
Sheldon and his colleagues consider that part of the process to be vital if they are to form an accurate picture of what happened in the past, whether there were institutional failures, who knew and what was done about it. However, the first phase of the investigation has been hindered by the difficulties they have encountered waiting for a number of clubs to cooperate.
The clubs who did not respond within the initial two-month period were contacted a second time and informed that a new deadline had been put in place of the end of April. Yet the fact eight clubs still failed to meet that six-week extension has led to the FA being notified and leaves questions about whether there are still people within the sport who are unwilling to cooperate at a time when Clarke has emphasised the importance of transparency.
“The fact that clubs continue to ignore the FA inquiry and fail to cooperate is deeply concerning,” Dino Nocivelli, a lawyer who is representing a number of the former footballers, told the Guardian. “It clearly shows their disregard for survivors of childhood sexual abuse within football and serious questions have to be asked as to the reasons why these clubs have decided not to engage.”
The last available figures, released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council on 18 April, showed 560 people had come forward citing abuse and 252 suspects had been named since the Guardian began its investigation in November. Around 23% of the reported incidents – with 311 clubs named – related to the sport at professional level and Operation Hydrant, the specialist police unit investigating the matter, had received 1,432 referrals, with almost a third, 457, coming from the north-west.
The inquiry, which will also look into girls’ football, will examine any evidence of a possible network between the offenders.
Sheldon was appointed in December and one part of his investigation will be to examine the reasons why, in 2003, the FA withdrew its funding from a review of child-protection policies, two years into what was supposed to be a five-year project led by Celia Brackenridge, a prominent campaigner and researcher from Brunel University.
Letters have also been sent to every club – a figure close to 20 – linked to the scandal in media coverage to establish if they are holding their own reviews and, if not, asking for the reasons why. Again, the relevant clubs – including Chelsea, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Southampton, Aston Villa, Blackpool and Crewe Alexandra – have been asked to submit their evidence to help Sheldon’s own fact-finding mission, with a view to submitting his report to the FA early next year. The terms of reference state the FA will make public as much as is legally possible.
Chelsea, the Guardian has established, have appointed a QC, Charles Geekie, a specialist in child abuse cases, to examine what happened at Stamford Bridge in the 1970s and the chain of events that led to the club paying one of their former players, Gary Johnson, £50,000 hush money in an attempt to prevent publicity about what happened to him in their youth team. Chelsea admitted in December they now considered that confidentiality agreement to be “inappropriate” and issued a public apology about the way the club had handled the allegations relating to Eddie Heath, formerly their chief scout.
Manchester City, facing the possibility of civil action from a number of their former junior players, have started their own investigation, using two of Manchester’s leading law firms as well as appointing Jane Mulcahy, a London-based QC who is on the national child safeguarding in sport panel and has been involved with the England and Wales Cricket Board’s appeals panel in child-protection cases.
The next stage of Sheldon’s inquiry will last several months and be devoted to interviewing the survivors and key witnesses. He and his team have received professional training to ensure the process is handled delicately and there will be the opportunity for people to speak anonymously, with an introductory link on the Sport Resolutions website.
Mike Hartill, a senior lecturer in sociology and sport at Edge Hill University who has previously been credited with improving child-protection policies in rugby league, is liaising with Sheldon and has produced a report for the inquiry to detail the measures that used to exist in football. The inquiry team has been interviewing various members of staff from previous FA regimes, as well as gathering evidence from a variety of other sources, but has also had to devote a significant amount of time to looking for relevant information from among the 5,000 boxes of FA archives.
As disappointing as it has been that almost one out of every 11 professional clubs has missed the various deadlines, that does not reflect the attitudes of the people who have been asked to take part in interviews. Everybody so far has agreed and it is hoped the FA’s involvement may influence the eight clubs who have let down the process so far.
Celtic is a football club in Glasgow, in Scotland.
Jimmy Savile with Jock Stein, manager of Celtic football club. There is a belief that Celtic football club is linked to a powerful child abuse ring that has operated among top people in Scotland and the USA.15-year-old Lawrence Haggart, a Celtic youth football player, was murdered on 16 march 1996, two days after the Dunblane school massacre.
Alleged abusers Jim McCafferty (left) and Jim Torbett (right)Anonymous writes:
“Lawrence Haggart’s father fears that the Celtic ‘kit man’ Jim McCafferty was abusing Lawrence.
“McCafferty used to visit the lads home, phoned him on the day he was murdered and took him to watch games.”
Jim Torbett (centre)Anonymous writes: “Three other men currently awaiting trial were at Celtic at the same time – JIM TORBETT, Frank Cairney, and Gerard King (Ex-Celtic Boys Club coach & chairman ).”Torbett was in business with celtic directors and was paid £1million from celtic after his conviction in the 90s.”Torbett was a director at Fairbridge, now part of the princes trust, with ex Metropolitan Police chief David McNee, Lord McAlpine’s brother William and Lord McCluskey amongst others.”Liam Brady agreed not to go to the police on an allegation of abuse when Cairney took the youths to New Jersey in 1991…”~~ MURDER MYSTERY – LAWRENCE HAGGART – PART ONE
Lawrence Haggart On 16 march 1996, two days after the Dunblane school massacre, Lawrence Haggart, aged 15, was savagely beaten with a blunt instrument and then thrown at the gas fire in his living room.Lawrence was found unconscious in the living room by his older brother John, aged17.The Murder of Lawrence Haggart, 1996 – The Celtic WikiIncidents, Events and Controversies | About Celtic John Police were called to Lawrence’s house at 1:30am.Lawrence lived in Larbert, in Stirlingshire, not far from Dunblane.Lawrence died in hospital from his injuries.The Murder of Lawrence Haggart, 1996 – The Celtic WikiIncidents, Events and Controversies | About Celtic LawrenceInitial reports suggested that Lawrence was attacked when he answered the door of his mother’s home late in the evening, or, in the early hours of the morning.Police found no sign of a weapon or forced entry. DennisLawrence Haggart’s mother Janet was on a night out and brothers John, 17, and Dennis, 12, were reportedly ‘asleep’ upstairs.The Murder of Lawrence Haggart, 1996 – The Celtic WikiIncidents, Events and Controversies | About Celtic Larry HaggartLawrence’s father Larry lives nearby in Denny.Lawrence had been returning from an evening out with friends at an under-18 nightclub knows as Ziggy’s at Denny.A friend had accompanied him in a taxi as far as Bonnybridge.Lawrence left the taxi at 10.20pm that night and reportedly got home at 11pm.Six months after Lawrence’s death, Lawrence’s father Larry Haggart said that he was planning a private investigation into the killing.Larry Haggart was furious at the lack of progress by police.Larry claimed the investigation into Lawrence’s murder suffered because it came two days after the Dunblane massacre, also in the Central Scotland Police area.A year after the killing, the police had still not found the murderers. Thomas Hamilton – blamed for the Dunblane school shooting of 1996 – The Dunblane school massacre occurred in scotland on 13 March 1996. The official story is that, on 13 March 1996, a mad loner called Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children at a primary school in Dunblane in Scotland. The unofficial story is that Thomas Hamilton was supplying pornography, and young boys, to top people including policemen and politicians; and Thomas Hamilton may have been murdered, to shut him up.In October 1997, it was reported that the police were holding a known child abuser, Brian Beattie, suspected of murdering Lawrence Haggart.Reportedly, Brian Beattie followed Lawrence home.In 1991, Brian Beattie had been jailed for five years for assaults on adolescent boys.He lived just a few miles from the scene of the murder.BUT, initially the police seemed reluctant to pursue Beattie.
Lawrence Haggart was murdered at his home in March 1996In April 1998, Lawrence’s brother John told the High Court in Edinburgh how he dragged his brother from a flaming pyre in the living room of their home.John, said he found Lawrence after being awakened in his smoke-filled bedroom.John says his mother arrived home from a party within minutes
. John Brian Beattie lodged a special defence of incrimination, naming Lawrence Haggart’s 12-year-old brother Dennis as the killer.He also lodged a further defence of alibi claiming he was in Stenhousemuir, Edinburgh and later at his own caravan in Denny, Stirlingshire, on the night of the alleged murder. Lawrence’s funeralIn court, Dennis said he had been proud, not envious, of Lawrence’s success in football.He denied “losing the place” and bludgeoning his brother but agreed that in the weeks after the attack, the police had thought he was the killer.Dennis told the jury that he and Lawrence had shared a bedroom and got on well. Moira. 11-year-old Moira Anderson was last seen boarding a bus in Coatbridge, near Glasgow, Scotland. According to The Sunday Times (Pressure on police to release paedophile dossier), 23 April 2006, Strathclyde Police have a dossier listing members of a child-abuse ring. The dossier is said to implicate senior public figures, including senior police officers and members of the Crown Office and former Scottish Office.A fire officer told the court that two fires had been started deliberately in the room where Lawrence was found dying.Two seats of fire were discovered. One of those was on the living room carpet and the other was on the settee. Both seats of the blaze had been started deliberately.In court, pathologist Professor Busuttil was shown a piece of concrete slab – there had been a number lying outside the victim’s house – and agreed that it could have been used by the killer.Prof Busuttil said: “There were no defensive injuries and no evidence that he (the deceased) was involved in an altercation in which, for example, punches were exchanged. It is very likely he was taken completely unawares and that the incident was short-lived.” Celtic Boys Club, Scotland. In 1996 former Celtic Boys Club player Alan Brazil revealed that when he was 13 years old he was sexually abused by the club manager, Jim Torbett.[2]The court heard that Brian Beattie, 33, was involved in a homosexual encounter in a gay meeting place on the night Lawrence was murdered.Brian Beattie, 33, was interviewed by police while Lawrence was still fighting for his life and told them he was positive he had not been near the victim’s house in Larbert, Stirlingshire, that night.The High Court in Edinburgh also heard how a detective had “stumbled across” a hammer in the kitchen of Lawrence’s house four days after a specialist team had searched the house for a possible weapon but found no hammer.Detective Constable Gordon McGown told the court that on March 16, 1996, he had gone to the Evergreen Trailer Park in Denny where Brian Beattie had a caravan.Brian Beattie agreed to go to Falkirk police station and they tried to establish his movements for the night in question.The court heard that on March 18 a team of police search experts were called into the Haggart family home and during a three-and-a-half hour investigation found a triangular piece of concrete slab on grass outside the house.However, scenes of crime pictures taken two days earlier showed no sign of a piece of concrete.The Murder of Lawrence Haggart, 1996 – The Celtic WikiIncidents, Events and Controversies | About CelticPC Jeffrey Adams told the court that he had been part of the search team and had spent 26 minutes searching the kitchen of Lawrence’s house on March 18. No hammer had been found and in his opinion they would have found a hammer had it been there.Detective Sergeant Robert Beveridge said he had called at the house four days later and come across the hammer in the kitchen.He could not recall who had instructed him to go to the house or what he was told to look for, but thought there might have been a problem with the electricity.The house had been sealed and the inquiry team had taken possession of it.He explained that he had “stumbled across” the hammer which was lying down the kitchen table.He said he was “absolutely positive” the hammer, with a hair attached to it, was there when he went into the kitchen. Stephen Downing spent 27 years in prison for the murder of Wendy Sewell before his conviction was quashed. Coerced false confessionsNorth America2.2.1 Norfolk Four2.2.2 Brown v. Mississippi2.2.3 Central Park jogger2.2.4 Pizza Hut murder2.2.5 Corethian Bell2.2.6 Simon Marshall2.2.7 Jeffrey Mark Deskovic2.2.8 Michael Crowe2.2.9 Gary Gauger2.2.10 Kevin Fox2.2.11 West Memphis Three2.4 United Kingdom2.4.1 Stephen Downing2.4.2 Guildford Four2.4.3 Birmingham SixReportedly, Brian Beattie confessed to murdering Lawrence and allegedly said that the Dunblane massacre might have “triggered something in me”, the jury was told.Brian beattie said: “I keep remembering the fear in his face. I want to go to the grave to say sorry to him.”Detective Sergeant Gordon Munro, 41, said that Beattie was interviewed over a weekend.Beattie reportedly said he had gone in the front door of the Haggart house and, through the glass-paned living room door, saw Lawrence on a couch covered with a blanket or a quilt.”I opened the living room door and stepped in. He got up and said something . I hit him a I can remember his face, I will never forget it.”He fell back on the couch and I hit him again. I keep remembering the fear in his face.”I do not know how many times I hit him or what I hit him with. It’s a blank. I know I never took nothing in with me but my hands were not sore after it so I must have used something. The next thing I remember is running back down the street.”He allegedly said in the statement he had gone back to the caravan and had managed to fall asleep. He got up early the next morning and burned his clothes at a lay-by.Beattie continued: “It was just after Dunblane and I do not know if it was that that triggered something in me. We [Beattie and some of his family] went up there and took flowers.” The UK police reportedly suffer from Third World levels of corruption. GANGSTERS RUN THE UKIn court, Detective Sergeant Gordon Munro denied that Beattie was beaten up in police custody, and maintained that he made a genuine confession to the killing.The court heard that videos featuring the abduction and torture of youths for sexual pleasure were found by police during a search of Beattie’s home.Detective Constable Forrest Sloan, 39, told the High Court in Edinburgh the pornographic material was in a chest of drawers at the home of Brian Beattie, 33, in Ewing Drive, Falkirk.The search of Beattie’s home was carried out on August 23, 1997, when two pornographic videos were found in a front bedroom.Mr Edgar Prais, QC, for Mr Beattie, said “Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the defence calls the police liars.”Of an alleged confession made by Mr Beattie, Mr Edgar Prais, QC, said it was strange that when it was supposedly made the police did not tape record it.Mr Edgar Prais, QC, said that forensic tests were carried out in Scotland and by the FBI Bureau in Washington on behalf of the defence.In all tests, Beattie was eliminated from any connection with the murder scene.In may 1998, Beattie was jailed for life.The Murder of Lawrence Haggart, 1996 – The Celtic WikiIncidents, Events and Controversies | About CelticIn 1984, Beattie had been sentenced to seven years for breaking into premises and for arson.In 1992, Beattie had appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh on a charge of abducting a 16-year-old boy from his bedroom.The 16-year-old victim woke at 3am to find Beattie, who had been released from jail four days earlier, standing over his bed.He covered the boy’s face with a blanket and, after warning him that he had a knife, tied his wrists with a shirt and wire.The half-dressed boy was forced from his home with a T-shirt over his head.Beattie fled after his victim managed to pull the shirt off and saw his attacker.Beattie was jailed but released ‘on licence’ in 1994.Beattie was brought up in Airth, Stirlingshire.He began his criminal life at the age of 11.He spent his early years in a succession of schools and institutions for difficult children.When his mother moved to Redcar, in Teesside, Brian Beattie broke into four homes belonging to elderly widows, stole valuables and set fire to their houses.While in custody, Beattie set fire to his prison cell and attempted suicide by setting fire to himself.After his release in 1988, Beattie moved back to Airth, in Stirlingshire, and in November that year carried out a series of attacks.Beattie would sneak into houses in the middle of the night, after watching for signs that boys lived there.His first victim was a 14-year-old Stenhousemuir boy, but he struggled free and Beattie ran off.In August 1990, a 17-year-old boy sleeping in his home at Falkirk woke to find Beattie holding a pair of scissors at his stomach.Beattie carried out a number of sexual assaults on the boy.The victim remembers Beattie as being “calm, controlled and relaxed”.Three weeks later, Beattie carried out a similar attack on 21-year-old Lawrence Kane while his parents and older brother slept in other rooms in their Stenhousemuir home.Lawrence said: “I can remember waking up and he had his hand over my privates and a knife in my belly. He said if I moved he would slash me.”I managed to push him off me and chased him out of the room…”Beattie struck again in October – with two attacks in five days.He sneaked into a house in Larbert and threatened to kill an 18-year- old boy with a screwdriver before sexually assaulting him.Then he struck at the home of a former Scotland football star and attacked his 14-year-old son.The victim said: “Basically he had a strict routine with all the attacks and the last time he went a step further and ended up killing this boy. I was one of the lucky ones.”Beattie was eventually arrested in connection with some of these incidents but was released on bail at Falkirk Sheriff Court.Six days later, he carried out an assault on a 20-year- old Falkirk man.In February 1991, he was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh to 18 months for the assaults but served only eight months.The Curious Case of the Clown Persecution Service, and the summary Quis Custodiet Custodes?, which sets out the bizarre and suspect behaviour of Strathclyde Police and their continuing refusal to act against a known serial rapist preying on children in the Glasgow area.~~
MURDER MYSTERY – LAWRENCE HAGGART – PART TWO Lawrence HaggartThere is a suspicion that certain violent ‘child sexual abusers’ are given an easy time by the criminal justice system.Think of Jimmy Savile or Marc Dutroux, both of whom the authorities were reluctant to arrest, presumably because they had friends in high places.(The Who’s who of Satanic Child Abuse -)On 16 March 1996, 15 year old Lawrence Haggart was brutally attacked.On 17 March 1996, the frequently convicted paedophile and arsonist Brian Beattie, who lived nearby, was questioned by the police.
Strangely, there appear to be no pictures on the internet of Beattie.
Beattie had a long history of going into houses and sexually attacking boys, and a long history of using violence and setting things alight.
However, Beattie was released after claiming he had been in Edinburgh.
The police failed to check his uncorroborated alibi.
And the police switched their attention elsewhere.
In May 1998, it was reported that an independent inquiry into the police handling of the Lawrence Haggart case was to be carried out by James Mackay, the assistant chief constable of Tayside Police.
Details of his report were not made public.
However, under the Freedom of Information Act, a copy of ‘much of the document’ was obtained.
The report refers to a catalogue of blunders made by investigating officers, including:
1. Faking entries in an official diary of the murder inquiry.
2. Contaminating the crime scene.
3. Destroying evidence.
4. Losing a possible murder weapon.
Sections of the report dealing with an alleged criminal probe against murder squad officers has not been released.
The suspects in the case were Dennis Haggart, the 12 year old brother of Lawrence, and Brian Beattie, a known child abuser who lived nearby.A report was sent to the Crown Office saying there was circumstantial evidence to link Dennis Haggart to the attack.
Detective Sgt Alan Stewart had said that he had evidence that Dennis committed the crime.
The initial police team was led by Det Supt Jim Winning, head of Central Scotland CID.
The team’s theory was that Dennis had bludgeoned his brother to death.
After many months, Dennis’s father complained about the lack of progress being made in the case.
At the end of 1996, Supt Joe Holden replaced Winning.
The change of police staff led to Brian Beattie becoming the central suspect.
Both the scorched couch and the badly burned carpet, at the site of the crime, had been disposed of soon after the murder, with the agreement of the police.
They had not been subjected to any detailed forensic examination.
Supt Holden’s team was left with a series of photographs and a hair found in Lawrence Haggart’s underpants.
Forensic tests in Scotland and at the FBI laboratory in Washington showed that the hair came from Lawrence.
The police had no explanation from Beattie about Lawrence’s palms each of which bore the number 110 written in ink.
Photographs showed the same number ‘gouged’ in his shoulder, apparently using a mortice key.
Strangely, there appear to be no pictures on the internet of Beattie.
In 1992, Beattie appeared in court on a charge of abducting a 16-year-old boy from his bedroom.
The 16-year-old victim woke at 3am to find Beattie, who had been released from jail four days earlier, standing over his bed.
Beattie was jailed but released ‘on licence’ in 1994.
In May 1998, a court in Scotland found Brian Beattie guilty of the 1996 murder of 15 year old Lawrence Haggart.
Celtic youth player Lawrence Haggart was murdered in 1996 by paedophile William Beattie.
Jim McCafferty Celtic kitman at the time and currently remanded in prison in Belfast on sex abuse charges was a suspect as he had phoned the youth on the day of his murder.Gerry McCann was the club doctor at the time.
Lawrence Haggart died on 17th March 1996.
Paedo Brian (not William) Beattie was convicted of his murder.
Tommy Burns (again) was Celtic manager from 1994 until 1997.
Unclear as to exact dates GM (confusion is good”) worked at Celtic.
The dad of murdered Celtic starlet Lawrence Haggart pleaded last night: “Please end our nightmare.”
Tormented Larry Haggart is still praying and hoping for an answer to the mystery surrounding his son’s brutal slaying.
He even launched his own probe into the death, but said: “We are still waiting for news.
“So far there has been only silence.”
He added: “Christmas was very hard for the family. But there are two other boys here and we had to try to make it special for them.”
Lawrence was just 15 when he was viciously attacked in his own living room as his two older brothers slept upstairs at their home in Larbert, near Falkirk.
The night of the attack, March 15, is forever etched on his dad’s memory.
Lawrence died two days later in hospital. His killers had set his feet on fire.
The young soccer star had been tipped to go all the way at Celtic and players, along with manager Tommy Burns attended his funeral in Dennyloanhead, Stirlingshire.
Larry added: “We’re still trying to find anything that could give us a break in his case. I feel the investigation was hampered because of what happened shortly after at Dunblane.”
Ex-Celtic kit man to face child abuse trial Jim McCafferty
May 11 2017
A former Celtic Football Club kit man and youth coach is to stand trial for alleged child sex offences, a judge has ordered. Jim McCafferty, 71, appeared before Belfast Magistrates’ Court charged with eight counts of intentionally touching a boy under the age of 16. The alleged offences were committed in the city on dates between 2012 and 2015. McCafferty, a Scotsman with an address at Raby Street in south Belfast, has been on remand at Maghaberry Prison amid fears for his safety. He was escorted into the dock on a walking frame for the hearing to determine if he has a case to answer. Dressed in a white T-shirt and and grey tracksuit bottoms, the pensioner spoke to confirm he understood the allegations against him. He declined to give evidence or call witnesses at this stage. His solicitor, Stephen Tumelty, did not dispute submissions that a prima facie case has been established. Granting the prosecution application, District Judge Fiona Bagnall returned McCafferty for trial at Belfast Crown Court on a date to be fixed. He is expected to remain in custody until those proceedings get under way. “There is no application for bail,” Mr Tumelty confirmed. The accused was arrested last December after giving an interview to a national newspaper and then walking into a Belfast police station. McCafferty, who previously lived in the Glasgow area, worked at Celtic more than 20 years ago. He was also a kit man for other Scottish clubs, including Falkirk and Hibs, before moving to Northern Ireland around seven years ago
Ex-football coach Barry Bennell is charged with 21 further counts of sexual assault on boys as young as 14 in the 1980s
Charges relate to four complainants, alleged offences between 1983 and 1991
The former Crewe Alexandra coach, 63, has now been charged with 41 offences
Barry Bennell will appear at South Cheshire Magistrates’ Court on 17 May
9 May 2017
Ex-football coach Barry Bennell has been charged with 21 further counts of sexual assault on boys as young as 14.
The charges relate to four complainants with offences allegedly taking place between 1983 and 1991.
In total former Crewe Alexandra coach Bennell, 63, has now been charged with 41 offences relating to eight male complainants.
Ex-football coach Barry Bennell has been charged with 21 further counts of sexual assault on boys as young as 14 in the 1980s
A CPS spokesman said: ‘Former professional football coach Barry Bennell, 63, was informed that he has been charged with 21 counts of non-recent sexual assault on boys aged between 14 and 16 years of age.
‘These are 18 counts of indecent assault, two counts of buggery and one count of attempted buggery.
‘He will appear via video link at South Cheshire Magistrates’ Court on the afternoon of Wednesday, 17 May in relation to these charges.’
Bennell was first charged with eight offences of non-recent child sexual abuse relating to one complainant on 29 November after the Crown Prosecution Service received a file of evidence from Cheshire Police.
On 7 March he was charged with eight more offences relating to two complainants and another four offences relating to one complainant on 9 March.
Bennell, now remanded in custody, worked as a coach for Manchester City, Stoke and junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands.
Support for Africa is no ordinary charity – it was formed to help Africa find a solution in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS and Malaria through education and awareness with an emphasis on prevention. The President and founder of Support for Africa is singer/actress Patti Boulaye. Patrons are The Rt. Hon Sir John Major KG CH, H.E Dr Christopher Kolade (Nigeria) Lord Janner of Braunstone, The Rt. Hon.Charles Kennedy, The Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo, Fredrick Forsyth CBE and Shaquille O’Neal. Celebrity friends include actor Simon Callow CBE, Craig David, Jim Davidson OBE, psychic Uri Geller, footballers John Fashanu and Les Ferdinand to name a few.
Michael Jackson pledges support 14-06-2002
On the invitation of her dear friend Uri Geller, Patti Boulaye travelled to Exeter City FC with Michael Jackson and members of her Golden Jubilee Gospel Choir.
True to form the fans screamed and rushed at Michael when he tried to board the train to Exeter at Paddington station.
Once at Exeter Michael gave a heartfelt address to an estimated ten thousand fans, in which he praised Patti Boulaye and her charity Support for Africa.
He also added that he had come to lend his support to the charity. View some pictures
Michael Jackson Stockpiled Nude Images Of Children, According To Police Report
Authorities seized more than 80 video recordings and computer hard drives, as well as notes, diaries, documents, photographs and audiotapes.
Police discovered Michael Jackson had a large collection of pornography, which allegedly included images of children, animal torture and gore, reportedly used in his bid to seduce young boys. The collection was revealed in newly surfaced documents obtained by RadarOnline that detail a raid on Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch estate in 2003, carried out as part of an investigation into child molestation charges against the singer.
Former Santa Barbara Senior Assistant District Attorney Ron Zonen, who helped prosecute Jackson’s case, told RadarOnline that many of the materials found were used to “desensitize” children.
The police report describes several of the materials found at Jackson’s estate and notes that many of the books and images “can be used as part of a ‘grooming’ process by which people (those seeking to molest children) are able to lower the inhibitions of their intended victims and facilitate the molestation of said victims.”
World famous Uri Geller the co-chairman of Exeter City had organized the event to include his friends Michael Jackson the King of Pop, David Blaine (known for his headline-making daring and death-defying feats of physical and emotional endurance) and also singer Patti Boulaye . During the journey on the train sick children were invited into Uri and Michaels compartment for a private audience, they emerged smiling and clutching autographs from the stars a short time after their arrival in Exeter; the stars gave the football club its biggest crowd in years as filling the stadium.
Michael Jackson- who had asked for his dressing room to be filled with flowers and kept at a temperature of exactly 74 degrees – arrived in a classic Bentley. Leaping from the vehicle, he paraded down a line of disabled children, gently placing his palm on their foreheads.
He then took to the stage and with a burst of giggles told the ‘wonderful people of Exeter’ how delighted he was to be there. Dressed in a black embroidered jacket, he told the crowd from the stage: “We are here to support children with Aids, to help the youngest of them affected by HIV. “We will help them build a better future, all of us working together for them, a future without prejudice for these children and their families. “We must learn to live and love each other before it is too late.” Jackson was accompanied by his close friend Uri Geller who had organised the charitable event and also number of children on the stage. After his appeal for world peace, he accepted an Exeter City football shirt and said he had confidence in a win for England against Denmark. Michael then made a farewell tour of the stadium in the classic Bentley after his 10-minute appearance.
Boulaye is the founder and President of the charity “Support for Africa”, which has built five clinics in rural Africa and a school with HRH Prince Harry’s Charity, “Sentebale”, in Lesotho.
Around 2000 I began raising money through pop concerts to build five healthcare clinics and a school in Africa via the charity Support for Africa.
I didn’t raise enough for all the work I wanted to do, and a donor came forward who lent me £15,000 but with a time limit on the loan. I had to build a clinic in Cameroon within two years. The pressure I was put under to achieve that was uncomfortable. I’ve since learnt that some people think this kind of deal buys them an MBE or something like that.
Boulaye received her OBE in January 2016
I made Prince Charles blush when I was awarded an OBE last year for my charity work building hospitals in Africa. He said: ‘I wish there were more people like you – the world would be a better place.’ I replied: ‘Your Royal Highness, I wish we had two people like you – the world would be even better.’
Patti Boulaye –v- Guardian Newspapers 1999 (recovered substantial damages for British-Nigerian singer who was a Conservative candidate for the Greater London Assembly falsely accused of being a supporter of South African apartheid)
Edward Garnier
One of David Cameron’s former top legal advisers tried to stop a Labour MP “challenging” Lord Brittan of Spennithorne over child abuse allegations in the Houses of Parliament, it has been claimed.
In November 2014 the Daily Telegraph reported allegations that Garnier requested that Simon Danczuk “think very carefully” about what he said to the Home Affairs select committee about Leon Brittan and the missing Westminster paedophile dossier. Danczuk said that Brittan was in poor health and Garnier, an old friend, had been asked to intervene by Brittan’s wife.[35]
I met Stephen in 1976 when I was in The Black Mikado at the Cambridge Theatre, London. We went to The Dorchester for tea and in the taxi back to the theatre, he proposed. I’d known him for two hours. I thought he was mad – but I said yes.
Over the years, Patti has worked for charities and served on the committees of eight British charities and she has been a patron of five, including Eastside Educational Trust, Barnardo’s, SOS and Women Into Business. Patti was also a Founder Member and Patron of (HRH Prince Michael of Kent) Enterprise Club for GENESIS, the facilitator organisation for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the promotion of Small Business. She is also on the Advisory Board of The Iman-Foundation Worldwide, which promotes dialogue and challenges extremism to bring about change. Patti is a Patron of The Commonwealth Resound as well as The British Monarchist Society.
During a visit to Africa and by another twist of fate, Patti was introduced to 60 babies who were saved from being buried alive because they were HIV positive. On her return to England Patti was determined to do something about the affect and stigma of HIV on the lives of African villagers.
She formed a charity Support For Africa and asked the Rt. Hon Sir John Major KG CH and other prominent persons to be Patrons, all of whom agreed and her charity has built 5 clinics in Africa and helped to build a School in Lesotho with Prince Harry’s Charity Sentebale. Patti hired the Royal Albert Hall for a charity event, which she presented and organised. This was the first of her sell-out “Reaching Out For Africa” events, which she co-produced with Major Sir Michael Parker KCVO CBE at the Royal Albert Hall, starring Sir Cliff Richard, Gabrielle, Uri Geller, Patti herself and BONEY M, amongst others and featured 3,000 Gospel singers whom Patti put together herself.
The event was supported by The Rt. Hon Michael Portillo, Frederick Forsyth CBE, The Rt. Hon Iain Duncan Smith, The Rt. Hon Paul Boateng, The Rt. Hon. Lord Greville Janner QC and the new Miss World. Patti’s second sell out Royal Albert Hall charity event was Football Reaching Out For Africa (FROFA) and starred, among others, footballer Didier Drogba of Chelsea FC, Simon Callow, Boney M, Christopher Biggins, Greg Dyke, David James and The Rt. Hon. Charles Kennedy. Patti also produced ‘Scotland Reaching Out For Africa’ supported by Lord McConnell the then First Minister and Alex Salmond the current First Minister, Football manager Alex McLeish, Leo Sayer, Mazie Willams and Boney M.
Unite unites with Boulaye and digs in to African challenge
Patti Boulaye, actress, singer, motivational speaker, and her husband Stephen Komlosy, who recently invested in Aim-listed mining company Platinum Diversified, hosted a reception last week with Lord Janner at the House of Lords. It was designed to raise cash for her Africa charity.
During the evening, she extracted £25,000 from Bristol-based student housebuilder Unite to help build her next medical centre in Cameroon. It’s Unite’s first overseas project.
Patti has starred several times in “Music on Fire” the Fireworks Proms at Sandhurst. As a guest of Michael Jackson, Patti attended and sang at his 45th Birthday Celebrations in LA.
In 1994 Ainsworth became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Jonathan Aitken, and in 1995 became PPS to the Secretary of State for National Heritage, Virginia Bottomley. He was promoted by John Major in 1996 to the Whips’ Office. When the Major government fell the following year he remained a whip in opposition and was promoted to Deputy Chief Whip by William Hague.
At the Support Africa HIV, AIDS and Malaria charity event in London with the Princess of Yugoslavia in 2001 CREDIT: REX FEATURES
Boulaye and Camilla
The President and founder of Support for Africa is singer/actress
Patti Boulaye. Patronsare The Rt. Hon Sir John Major KG CH, H.E Dr Christopher Kolade (Nigeria) Lord Janner of Braunstone, The Rt. Hon.Charles Kennedy, The Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo, Fredrick Forsyth CBE and Shaquille O’Neal.
There may well be another grand gesture tonight from the other star of her show: Didier Drogba, the Chelsea footballer still reeling from the departure of his coach and mentor Jose Mourinho. Drogba is a passionate, articulate man from the Ivory Coast who is loved as a singer back home as well as as a sportsman. He will appear with his own band – but with a microphone in his hand and a sympathetic audience listening, it’s easy to imagine the apparently furious striker telling the world what he really thinks of Roman Abramovich.
Boulaye, of course, would prefer him to talk about the Aids clinic he is opening in the Ivory Coast, one of four started by her charity Support For Africa.”Football is the only language that men in Africa understand,” she says, explaining why she has recruited Drogba to help get her message across to young black men here and on her home continent. A team’s worth of Premiership stars have said they will try to be at the concert. “You know what it’s like with footballers: they don’t turn up for anything. But they will this time.”
Would they dare do otherwise? Boulaye is an overwhelming personality who may smile a lot but is also ferociously determined. Sceptics beware: she believes she has God on her side. “I wake up every morning and I say, ‘Lord, send the ministering angels to help me. I can’t do it on my own.'”
She tells how the Lord (and the Professional Footballers’ Association) led her to big, intimidating Lauren the Arsenal defender who is a pussycat really and even turned up to a reception at the House of Lords on crutches and has opened another of the clinics and if all this sounds a bit breathless it is because that is how she makes you feel as she lurches quickly from one topic of conversation to the next, as if there is so much to say and so little time to say it.
There was a more earthly reason why she fell out of favour, surely? Like sharing a rally platform with Jim Davidson and Margaret Thatcher, when Thatcher was being accused of flirting with National Front policies and blamed for race riots?
She backed Thatcher.
This daughter of a prominent Nigerian politician also developed unlikely friendships in high circles, most notably Sir John Major. “I still adore him. He understands Africans.” In time William Hague asked her to help shift the image of the Tories during the race for Mayor of London. “Oh boy,” she says. “It was the biggest mistake I ever made.”
Newspapers assumed she was running for election, even though she says she wasn’t. Then a Guardian interview quoted her as saying she believed in sticking up loyally for unfashionable causes, including (quite astonishingly for a black Anglo-African) “apartheid”. The words the reporter misheard were “a party”, meaning the Tories.The Guardian apologised and paid damages. But Boulaye had acquired the image of a loose cannon with some dubious views.
She also defended fellow Conservative Jeffrey Archer after he made racist comments about black Britons.[16] Boulaye rallied to Archer’s defence, claiming, “I am talking as a black woman who knows Jeffrey Archer very well…and he is not a racist. I think he would make a very good mayor.”.[15]
BIPADA is a leading expert in Personal Protocol, Public and Media Relations for diplomatic, personal and corporate clients. We offer personalised 1-2-1 as well as group training for PAs, Concierge and service based organizations. We work with diplomats and their families to ease the cultural shocks that sudden transfers can produce. We enhance the style, presence, empathy and confidence in our clients.
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The Bipada Network Launch Event will take place on November 25th in The Library Bar at The Club Café Royal
Some of the Attendees – The Network
HRH Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia & Serbia. A great niece of HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Grant Harrold
Etiquette Expert and Butler Trainer. Former Royal Butler to The Prince of Wale
Book Launch of Boulaye Book – From her Bipada Business website
The Faith of a Child
Patti Boulaye OBE
The Faith of a Child was officially launched on 10th March 2017 at The Athenaeum Hotel, Piccadilly.
Guests included HRH Princess Katarina of Serbia, the world’s No 1 Best Selling author Lord Jeffrey Archer, Lord Julian Fellowes (Creator of Downton Abbey, Gosford Park), Lady Emma Fellowes, Lorna Byrne (Angels in my Hair), TV Presenter Tim Vincent, songwriter and author Mitch Murray, actresses Vicki Michelle (Allo Allo), Ann Mitchell (Eastenders), Joan Hooley (Eastenders), Radio Presenter Lizzie Cundy, singer Leee John (Imagination) and famous photographer Richard Young.
I still run Support for Africa, although we are not fundraising at the moment. The three Nigerian clinics have been gifted to the local communities. The two in Cameroon are administered by the Cameroon Baptist Health Services. The school in Lesotho belongs to and is administered by Sentebale, Prince Harry’s charity.
I still do a lot of other charity work of course. I have just become a Lady Ratling [the Grand Order of Lady Ratlings is a showbusiness charitable organisation
Patron: Lady Sheila Butlin
President of the Cup of Kindness: Barbara Windsor M.B.E.
The Grand Order of Lady Ratlings (established in 1929) welcomes professional performers and those directly connected with the theatrical profession.
The ultimate accolade for a member is to become Queen Ratling, who presides for one year over the Lodges as well as the charitable work of the Order.
Ex-Celtic Boys Club coach accused of abuse returns to UK
May 3 2017
Ex-Celtic boys club coach Jim Torbett has left the United States and returned to the UK following a visit from US Homeland Security, the BBC has learned.
The BBC understands US officials ensured that Torbett left the country, from Oakland International Airport bound for London. It is not known where he travelled from there.
Torbett was visited by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) – Homeland Security’s specialist investigative arm – within 24 hours of BBC Scotland story and agreed to leave the country voluntarily.
A US government source told the BBC that Ice officers visited him in Modesto, California.
They have not yet established that Torbett had violated any visa requirements, but advised Torbett that if it was established he had – and he was still in the US – they would look to apply the full effect of US law.
The source also said Torbett volunteered to leave the US during the course of the interview.
The BBC also understands Torbett will be added to a list of people who will not be permitted to enter the US again and that Ice officers are satisfied that the issue for them is now closed.
Mark Daly (back) with Jim Torbett (centre) and a man believed to be William Gilbert
Paedophile former Celtic Boys Club football coach Jim Torbett is tracked down in a Californian shopping centre as he denies latest abuse claims
Jim Torbett, 69, who was the founder of Celtic Boys Club in Scotland, was jailed in 1998 for two years for abusing three young footballers between 1967 and 1974
But new allegations against him have risen over alleged abuse in the 80s and 90s
Torbett was tracked down and confronted in America by BBC Scotland reporter
It is unlikely that he declared his conviction when applying for entry to the US
Ex-coach denied being a paedophile and said he’ll see alleged victims in court
May 2 2017
A British paedophile football was tracked down in a Californian shopping centre amid fresh claims of sexual abuse.
Jim Torbett, 69, who was the founder of Celtic Boys Club in Scotland, was jailed in 1998 for two years for abusing three young footballers – including ex-Scotland international Alan Brazil.
He was only ever convicted for crimes between 1967 and 1974.
But new allegations against him have risen, after former player Kenny Campbell and another man said they were also victims of abuse from Torbett in the 80s and 90s.
BBC Scotland reporter Mark Daly tracked Torbett down and confronted him at a shopping centre in Modesto, California
A major police investigation is under way and he is expected to be questioned on his return from America.
It’s believed he is in the country on an Esta – which means he can only stay there for 90 days.
But questions have been raised as to how he was granted entry into the US with a child abuse conviction and it has been suggested that the paedophile did not declare this on his visa application.
He said: ‘For two days we watched as he and a man the BBC understands to be William Gilbert worked in the garden and washed cars. But with strict trespassing laws in the US, in order to put our questions to him, we needed Torbett to set foot on a public pavement.
‘When they left to go to a local shopping centre, we followed, two cars behind. The pair entered a shop, and we waited for them to emerge. Mr Gilbert recognised me and attempted to stop us.
‘We waited for around 10 tense minutes as Mr Gilbert patrolled the area. Torbett then emerged from the shop, and I began to ask my questions.
‘Mr Torbett declined to answer the majority of the questions I put to him about the abuse claims, but when asked what he had to say to Kenny Campbell, he answered: ‘I have a lot to say. I’ll see him in court.’
‘He denied being a paedophile.’
Celtic Boys Club was founded by Torbett in 1966 and they became an unofficial feeder club for Celtic FC.
When then-manager of the Glasgow giants, Jock Stein, heard that he had been abusing children, Torbett was booted out. But the police were never called.
After Stein’s departure as manager, Torbett returned in the 1980s.
Alleged victim Campbell, from Lanarkshire, claimed he was abused in 80s, when he joined Celtic Boys Club in 1986.
Speaking on BBC programme Football Abuse: The Ugly Side of The Beautiful Game last month, he said: ‘I feel aggrieved at that if they had never let him back in, it would have f*****g never happened in the first place.
‘I could have had a normal life, normal people round about me.
‘If Celtic had done their due diligence as they always say. And it wouldn’t have happened to me.’
Campbell said he turned to drink and drugs as a result of the abuse of Torbett, who had befriended his parents and even spent one Christmas Day with them.
Another victim who spoke to the BBC said Torbett abused him dozens of times over three years from 1990.
The documentary also revealed police have spoken to several others.
Sports radio presenter and ex-Scotland striker Alan Brazil said he was abused Torbett in the 1970s and it ruined his dream of playing for Celtic.
In his 2007 autobiography, the former Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur forward, now 57, said he was preyed on as a 13-year-old.
He said Torbett – jailed for three counts of shameless indecency in 1998 – would invite youngsters to his ‘dingy, untidy council flat’ and ply them with ice cream and biscuits, ‘putting his hands all over the lads, kissing them, giving them little pecks’.
Speaking about the abuse he suffered, Brazil added: ‘He found me on the sofa on my own in the lounge. I was bored and wanted to go home. He sat much closer than was comfortable, and without warning he put his hand between my legs. I froze.
‘He started kissing my head and trying to touch the outside of my trousers, but I was wriggling away from him. I remember his horrible swollen face next to mine.
‘He was smiling. He thought this was fun. I was frightened and very confused.’
The US does not have access to the Police National Computer.
But they can request details of criminal convictions on an individual request basis.
Failure to declare previous convictions on an Esta can be a criminal offence in the US.
It is understood Torbett is close to the 90 days maximum and is expected to return to the UK shortly, according to the Daily Record.
Hundreds of paedophiles are using sport clubs to prey on kids with at least one report EVERY DAY
Swimming, martial arts, rugby and gymnastics are the four sports worst affected after football, followed by tennis, cricket and athletics.Local authorities received the equivalent of one report of abuse EVERY DAY between 2012 and 2016.More than half of these allegations were sexual. The remaining cases concern maltreatment such as physical and emotional abuse and neglect.Last night children’s charity the NSPCC said our horrific findings proved that urgent action is needed to beef up Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.The charity wants to close two alarming loopholes that allow perverts to infiltrate sports clubs.Offenders could lawfully have sex with 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds in their clubs because trust laws do not extend to sports coaches or youth leaders. Clubs can find out if a potential recruit is legally barred from working with children only if that person will be working unsupervised.This means convicted sex offenders are able to get in by taking up assistant or support roles.
Dunn, from Edinburgh, appeared in private at the capital’s sheriff court today where he entered no plea.
The pensioner, who was arrested by police officers in March, was released on bail and the case was continued for further examination.
It is believed Dunn also worked for Liverpool and Chelsea during his scouting career
Police Scotland joined forces across the UK last year in launching an investigation after allegations of historical abuse in football were made public.
The SFA has also set up an independent review into the allegations.
A date for Dunn’s next appearance at court has not been decided as yet.
Jimmy Johnstone pictured coached at the boys club. Paedophile Frank Cairney was Jimmy Johnstone’s driver.
Trip to Kearny in New Jersey CELTIC BOY’S CLUB By Frank Cairney The Celtic View 02-10-85
In 1991 Frank Cairney was accused of alleged abuse during a trip to Kearny in New Jersey. The parents, the adults on the trip and the then club manager Liam Brady agreed not to inform the police.
Jim Torbett, Hugh Birt, Jim McNally, Frank Cairney, Kevun Kelly & Frank Conner
CELTIC’S SUPER BABES Evening Times 15-06-84, p29
Tommy Burns with his friend Frank Cairney Shame spanned three decades Daily Record 13-11-98, p7
Photographer on indecency charge
12 March, 2004
A photographer with Celtic Football Club has admitted a charge of indecency against boys aged as young as 10.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that pictures taken of young boys were hidden in a store room at Celtic Park for nearly 20 years by John Cullen.
The photographs were found by cleaners who reported the discovery to their bosses – who then called the police.
Cullen, 49, pleaded guilty to a charge of lewd and libidinous behaviour. He will be sentenced next month.
Black bag
The court heard on Friday that in May 2002, cleaners were clearing out a store room at the club where Cullen kept his camera equipment.
They found a black bag and opened it to check if it was rubbish.
But the staff found bundles of black and white pictures of young boys who were either nude or semi-nude.
They reported the find to management and the police were called in.
Cullen, of Shawbridge Street, Pollokshaws, Glasgow, was questioned about the 250 pictures.
He admitted inviting the children to a house in Glasgow between January and December 1982 before getting them to pose for the camera.
Dismissed
The pictures were then locked away in his Celtic Park store room for years.
Cullen first appeared in court last October, but the case was repeatedly adjourned to try and identify the youths.
Despite the help of Scotland Yard’s special paedophile unit, their identities were never discovered.
Liz Ramsey, prosecuting, said it was agreed the boys who were photographed were aged between 10 and 13.
Cullen was dismissed from Celtic Park in June 2002 after working for the club for nearly 30 years.
He had travelled with the club both home working for the official club magazine, The Celtic View.
Father who took photos of nude boys walks free A FORMER photographer who worked with Celtic FC has walked free from court after admitting taking pictures of naked young boys. John Cullen, 49, of Pollokshaws, Glasgow, took children as young as ten back to his flat before persuading them to pose for the camera. Cullen avoided a lengthy jail sentence and was placed on probation for three years at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday after he pled guilty to a charge of lewd and libidinous behaviour. The sentence provoked outrage from one children’s charity after it emerged that none of the boys on the 250 images taken by Cullen had been traced. A spokeswoman for Children First said: “Behind every indecent image of a child, there’s a real child. Children depend on adults to keep them safe. “It is essential that the offending behaviour is addressed and that offenders are not released back on to the streets to repeat such crimes against children. “We must show children that they can come forward to tell about their experiences.” Cullen’s crime was first uncovered in May 2002, when cleaners were sweeping out a room at Celtic Park where Cullen kept his equipment. The workers discovered a black bin bag and opened it to check if it was rubbish. Instead, however, they found bundles of black and white photos of nude and semi-naked young boys. Officials at the club immediately called the police, before quizzing the married father-of-two about the photos. He admitted to inviting children to a house in Glasgow in 1982, where he took a series of photographs. Cullen had first appeared in court last October, but the case was continually adjourned to allow police to try to identify the victims. Despite prosecutors calling in specialist help from Scotland Yard’s paedophile unit, they still remain nameless. Procurator-fiscal Liz Ramsey did say, however, it was believed the boys were aged between ten and 13. Cullen was sacked from Celtic in June 2002. Some of his former colleagues, including Celtic View editor Joe Sullivan and club security chief Ronnie Hawthorn, had been due to give evidence against him. In court yesterday, Sharon Gardener, defending, said: “This man realises that he has problems in his life and needs the help to address them as soon as possible.” Sheriff Susan Raeburn QC told Cullen: “You will be placed on probation, but breach this order and you will be brought back to court, where a custodial sentence will be passed.”
A 61-year-old man from Glasgow has told the BBC he was sexually abused on a football trip to Manchester United in the late 1960s.
James, who wants to keep his anonymity, believes he was “trafficked” to English football clubs by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic order which ran his school.
He said he was repeatedly abused by the brothers at his primary school.
In a statement, Manchester United said it had found no information relating to the Marist Brothers in its review.
The Old Trafford club looked into historical abuse as part of the English FA’s inquiry, led by barrister Clive Sheldon QC.
It is looking at the way clubs or the FA dealt with concerns over child sex abuse between 1970 and 2005.
Initiation ceremony
However, James said he thought his abuse happened on a trip in 1969, when he was 12 or 13.
James told the BBC he was in a group of “elite” young footballers who were selected by his school to take part in a tournament in Manchester.
The boys were taken to Old Trafford and the club’s training ground, where they played matches and toured the stadium, the boot room and directors’ offices.
James said he had visions of becoming a Manchester United player like his heroes George Best and Bobby Charlton but he said he was taken from the hostel where the boys were staying and sexually abused.
He said he did not know who abused him but he was taken outside as part of an “initiation ceremony”.
“It was non-consensual sex,” he said.
“Adult and a child.”
James said he did not know if other young footballers were also abused.
“None of us ever spoke about it,” he said.
According to James, he was not aware at the time that it was abuse.
It was portrayed as part of the “football journey” of going down to the club and possibly becoming a professional footballer.
He said: “I believe I was forced to do it because of my previous experience. I thought there was no escape, I had to take the action.”
His previous abuse was at the hands of the Marist Brothers who ran his primary school, the Sacred Heart Primary School in the east end of Glasgow.
James said he was regularly beaten around the lower body by branches with thorns, belts or by hand for not knowing the answers to questions about the Mass.
He told the BBC he would soil himself when he was beaten and his sister would be sent for to take him out of class.
Grooming process
“That then led to an increase in the abuse which began by befriending you, telling you that you weren’t a bad person, you were a good person,” he said.
“All part of the grooming process, then on to sitting on the knee,.
“Then, after the beatings, removing the clothing to make sure there were no marks.
“And then other sexual activity.”
The beatings stopped when James moved to high School.
But a more sinister form of abuse began, he said.
James said he was sent to the former Fort Augustus Abbey Roman Catholic boarding school
He was also sent to Pluscarden Abbey. Both were run by the Benedictine order.
He said he was abused by monks there.
James said he was also abused when his football team were sent to English football clubs.
“I realise now I was trafficked,” he said.
“I didn’t realise that at the time.
“But there is a link between the abuse in the primary school – the Marist Brothers.
“A link to the Marist Brothers sending me to Fort Augustus and Pluscarden to the Benedictines and the Marist Brothers then sending me to the football clubs.”
He said: “My understanding was these clubs were more or less looking at us for potentially signing for the clubs.
“The type of player I was playing football with went on to be professional football players, to be professional football managers and professional coaches at the highest level in the Scottish Football Association.”
Internal investigation
Manchester United said: “We have no knowledge or records of any allegations of this nature.
“However, If we are provided with further details and they allege involvement of anyone connected with the club, we will of course investigate further and involve all appropriate authorities.”
The Marist Brothers no longer run schools in Scotland but they maintain a house in Glasgow.
In a statement the order’s lawyers said it took all allegations against it seriously, and referred them to police and an internal investigation.
It said: “The allegations in question were investigated by the police, and the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Service confirmed our clients have done all that is possible regarding the allegations made.”
“James wants the public to know about the scandal of the historic trafficking of children round the UK.
“He wants more survivors of sexual abuse to come forward so that the perpetrators of this abuse and the institutions that protected them are held to account and we will continue to support him as he campaigns to achieve this.”
Man, 81, held in Scotland over sexual abuse in youth football
The historical sexual offence claim is the latest in a long line from former players across the UK.
An 81-year-old man has been charged by police in Scotland investigating alleged historical sexual abuse in youth football.
The man, understood to be former Celtic Boys Club official Frank Cairney, is expected to appear in court on Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “An 81-year-old man has been detained and charged in connection with non-recent sexual offences.”
The sport has been hit by claims from former players across the UK that they were abused by people in positions of authority.
Police Scotland launched a major inquiry into non-recent child abuse in youth football at the end of last year.
A number of professional clubs have started internal investigations, while the SFA has set up an independent review into allegations across the game in Scotland.
Former Celtic Boys Club coach and chairman Gerard King was suspended from his job at St Martha’s Primary School after his arrest but strongly denies the allegations.
Gerald King, 65, who coached kids for more than 20 years, has been suspended from his job at St Martha’s Primary School in Glasgow.
The claims have emerged as police investigate a range of historic allegations of football-related child abuse across Scotland.
King, known as Gerry, was suspended after his arrest in February.
King also confirmed that he is a former chairman of Celtic Boys Club, which has been rocked by historic sex abuse scandals.
King was a coach at Celtic Boys Club
But he insisted the police investigation was not related to his years there and said he not been chairman of the club for around eight years.
He insisted: “It’s got nothing to do with the boys’ club at all. It’s the school.”
King has taught a number of subjects at St Martha’s in Balornock, Glasgow. But he said the allegations against him, which date back three decades, were linked specifically to sport.
He said: “They’re 30 years ago. You’ve got things in place so it couldn’t happen and they’ve said it did. I have been advised by the lawyer not to say anything.”
King was at Celtic Boys Club at the same time as Jim Torbett
He said: “Everybody has got different teams. I worked there for about a year but only on a Saturday afternoon.”
About his time as chairman of the boys’ club, he said: “That was about eight years ago. We left that to the younger ones – we did our stint.”
King’s association with Celtic Boys Club dates back to the early 1980s. In 1982-83, he helped run the under-12 team which won an invitational event in Rotterdam, Holland.
Celtic Boys’ Club sex predator Jim Torbett given second chance to abuse young players
11 APR 2017
BBC documentary says Torbett was allowed to return to the Boys’ Club after initial allegations while also revealing how former Rangers and Hibs coach Gordon Neely abused kids.
A bombshell TV documentary last night revealed how sex predator Jim Torbett was allowed to return to Celtic Boys’ Club – only a few years after he was kicked out for abusing youth players.
The BBC Scotland programme spoke to more than 20 victims of sex abuse in football and shed light on how big clubs and police missed opportunities to stop known offenders.
The programme, Football Abuse: The Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game, exposed the blatant methods of serial abusers like Celtic Boys’ Club founder Torbett, who was brought to justice after an award-winning Daily Record investigation in the 80s.
It also reveals graphic accounts of abuse by former Rangers and Hibs coach Gordon Neely, from his time at both clubs and with youth club Hutchison Vale.
Alleged victims told the programme that Torbett was able to return to Celtic – even though he as known to be an abuser – which enabled him to attack more victims.
Torbett was only ever convicted for crimes committed up to 1974.
But alleged survivor Kenny Campbell claims he was abused after legendary manager Jock Stein – who booted Torbett out of the boys’ club over child abuse claims – had left Celtic.
Torbett was welcomed back in 1980.
Kenny, of Uddingston, Lanarkshire, moved to Celtic’s reserves in 1989 after three years with Celtic Boys’ Club.
He said: “I feel aggrieved at that if they had never let him back in it would have never happened in the first place, I could have had a normal life, normal people round about me.
“If Celtic had done their due diligence, as they always say, it wouldn’t have happened to me.”
Kenny has fought to get his life back on track after the abuse resulted in drink and drug problems.
He said that after he joined Celtic Boys’ Club at 13, Torbett won the trust of his parents, even spending a Christmas Day with them.
But he added that the abuse soon started and escalated to the point where Torbett was giving him cash – sometimes up to £530 on one day.
Kenny also claimed, in graphic detail, how up to three boys were abused at the same time in his flat.
Kenny Campbell with Jim Torbett
Another victim who spoke to the BBC said Torbett abused him dozens of times over three years from 1990.
Torbett was jailed for two years in 1998 for sexually abusing three young players between 1967 and 1974.
Ex-Scotland international Alan Brazil was among those to testify against his former coach.
The BBC programme said they had spoken to three other former Celtic Boys’ Club officials – who were employed at the time in question – who also say they were told Torbett was sacked by Stein after complaints Torbett had abused boys. But police were never called.
Former Celtic boss Jock Stein presenting Jim Torbett with an award
The show also alleged that Torbett’s departure from Celtic Boys Club was described in club magazine The Celtic View as a business decision – amounting to a “massive cover-up.”
The programme also features a photograph of Stein, the Boys’ Club honorary president, presenting an award to Torbett for services to the club three years after kicking him out.
The documentary claimed directors at Celtic would have known that Torbett had been accused of abuse prior to having him back at Celtic Boys’ Club in 1980, where he stayed until 1996.
Torbett was out of the country when the BBC tried to approach him but he denies the new allegations of abuse.
BBC investigator Mark Daly also spoke to alleged survivors of notorious Gordon Neely, who abused young players for decades.
Survivors provided harrowing accounts of how they were targeted while Neely was a coach at Hibs and later at Rangers, who were not tipped off about the predator.
Rangers claim that when they discovered Neely was a dangerous pervert, they informed police – but the BBC could find no trace of such a complaint.
Neely, who died of cancer three years ago, later abused young footballers on residential courses at Dalguise House, Dunkeld, Perthshire.
Victim Jon Cleland, from Dunfermline, was abused by Neely from the age of 11 while a player for Hutchison Vale in 1982 and later while training with Hibs.
He added: “I can’t be a hundred percent sure but it was at least eight to 10 times over the space of 18 months.”
Another survivor gave details of being attacked by Neely at Hibs in his office at the club in 1984.
Hibs failed to report the coach to the police, enabling him to progress to Rangers with his reputation intact, under the management of Graeme Souness and Walter Smith in 1986.
The abuse allegedly continued at Ibrox. Rangers fired him in 1990 after an accusation of inappropriate behavior.
Former Rangers youth coach Gordon Neely
One former Rangers youth player, referred to as George in the programme, said: “He had his own office inside Ibrox and he’d call you in and he’d make you close the door… I was only about 13.”
After Rangers got rid of Neely, he ran football courses at Dalguise House, where more abuse took place.
One survivor, referred to as Paul, played for Edinburgh clubs between 1995 and 1998.
Paul’s alleged abuse took place around a decade after complaints about Neely were made to Hibs – and more than five years after a complaint was made at Rangers.
Survivors also told of being abused by a major scout, who is still alive but who can’t be named for legal reasons.
Hibs failed to report Gordon Neely to police and he eventually joined Rangers
A spokesman for Celtic told BBC Scotland the Boys’ Club was a “separate and distinct” organisation from Celtic Football Club but asked anyone with concerns to contact them.
They added: “It was vital that justice was served at that time, due to the extremely serious nature of this issue.
In a statement to the BBC, Hibs said they were “saddened to be told” that personnel at the club at the time were “allegedly made aware of concerns” about Neely and allegedly did not contact the police with the concerns.
They said “current policies and practices” would “prevent this from happening today.”
Rangers told us they were aware of an alleged incident more than 25 years ago. They said: “It is understood” the individual was “dismissed immediately” and that the “police were informed”.
Police Scotland told the BBC they could not confirm whether Rangers made a complaint or not. No trace of a police report being sent to the procurator fiscal could be found.
More than 80 men involved in football are being investigated by police across the UK.
Among them are John Hart, former physiotherapist at Partick Thistle, Jim McCafferty, ex-youth coach and kitman at Celtic, Hibs and Falkirk, and Hugh Stevenson, who was a youth coach and referee.
Police have received more than 130 claims of child sex abuse within Scottish football since November.
SFA appeals for child abuse victims to come forward after shocking BBC investigation
Apr 11 2017
The Scottish Football Association have appealed for any abuse victims to contact them as fresh allegations of sexual offences in youth football came to light.
A BBC documentary heard from alleged victims of a Celtic Boys Club coach and revealed new claims about former youth coach Gordon Neely, who died in 2014.
Two players at the boys club, which was a separate entity from Celtic Football Club, told the programme Football Abuse: The Ugly Side Of The Beautiful Game they were abused for three and four years respectively in the 1980s and 90s.
The sport has been rocked by claims from former players across the UK that they were abused by people in positions of authority, and Police Scotland launched a major inquiry into non-recent child abuse in football at the end of last year.
In February, the force said it had received 140 reports of alleged abuse.
A number of professional clubs have started internal investigations, while the SFA has set up an independent review into allegations across the game in Scotland.
Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Taylor, from the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit, said: “Child abuse is incredibly difficult for people to revisit and to talk about.
“Our officers are highly specialist and are trained to deal with all reports sensitively. We would ask anyone who has been the victim of abuse, or has information about potential abuse, to contact us.
“We will listen and we will investigate and our first priority will be to ensure that there are no children at risk now.
“If you have suffered sexual abuse, or if you can assist this investigation or you know anyone who may have been a victim, then please call Police Scotland on 101. Or you can call the NSPCC helpline on 0800 023 2642.”
SFA chief executive Stewart Regan said: “The independent review into allegations of historic child sexual abuse in Scottish football is currently under way and we await its findings.
“The latest allegations are a matter for the investigatory authority, Police Scotland.
“We would urge anyone who has suffered abuse to come forward using the dedicated, confidential NSPCC 24-hour helpline 0800 023 2642, directly to the police on 101 or via email to the Scottish FA at childrenswellbeing@scottishfa.co.uk.”
Matt Forde, national head for NSPCC Scotland, said: “The latest allegations about abuse in football are concerning.
“It’s clear that for far too long, hundreds of people suffered abuse as children in football and elsewhere without feeling able to speak up and seek help.
“But it is encouraging that so many are finally finding their voice in a new climate where they know they will be listened to and supported. Their bravery in coming forward should be commended.”
To a host of football superstars, Frank Cairney is the father figure who made their dreams come true.
They would have walked through fire for the larger-than-life Celtic Boys’ Club boss, who guided them on the road to stardom.
But Cairney hid the darkest of secrets. And to the boys he abused, he’s a pervert who turned their youthful dreams into nightmares.
Since the Record’s revelations about Cairney, many victims – now grown men – have phoned us in tears.
Some talked openly for the first time about abuse that happened more than 20 years ago. And some have had the courage to go to the police.
Yet some of Celtic’s biggest names give Cairney unswerving support.
When Tommy Burns was appointed manager in 1994, Frank Cairney was first to congratulate him.
Burns describes the 56-year-old as “a fantastic help and a true friend”.
When Cairney was unmasked by the Record earlier this week, Burns rushed to his side. Sitting in his pal’s living room, he stormed: “He has the whole of my backing.”
But the calls from boys who claimed Cairney terrorised them were still flooding in to the Daily Record.
Hours after our story appeared, former boys’ club player John Taylor told how Cairney tried to force him into sex acts in hotel rooms.
Another ex-starlet told how Cairney touched his groin as he sat in the front seat of his car.
The lad told him to “f*** off” and Cairney thumped him in the chest.
He added: “Another time, on a tour to America, he punched me on the chest and the arm. He really bullied the boys. We were all scared of him.”
A third victim said: “Frank Cairney abused me over two and a half years. It screwed up my whole life.
“He used to get me after I took a shower at training. I was too scared to do anything about it, and I have never spoken about this until now.”
Big Frank – he is well over six feet tall and built in proportion – was dumped as Celtic Boys’ Club General Manager in 1991.
It came after an alleged incident involving a young player on an American tour.
Months after his 21-year link with Celtic was severed, a group of past and current Celtic stars organised a tribute evening at a Glasgow church hall.
One man who was there, but asked not to be named, said: “It was like This is Your Life.
“There is no doubt that a lot of very famous Celtic players hold Frank Cairney in the highest regard.”
Former boys’ club player Neil Watt, 34, who went on to play for Stirling Albion, was fulsome in his praise of Cairney. He said: “I can’t speak highly enough about the guy.
“He instilled discipline in the boys that has remained with us.”
On Wednesday of this week, Tommy Burns again sprang to Cairney’s defence, saying: ” I’m sure he will have the backing of several members of the first team who played for him at under-16 level.
“He has trained some of the great names of Celtic, including Roy Aitken, Paul McStay, George McCluskey, Alan Brazil, Pat Nevin, Peter Grant, Andy Ritchie and myself.”
Ex-boss Lou Macari recalled the fierce loyalty Cairney inspired.
He said: “The first team squad and I were asked along to present trophies at the annual boys’ club prizegiving.
“I arrived and there was no sign of any of the players.
“I started phoning round, and they all told me there was no way they would be attending because big Frank had been forced out of the club.
“I was left to hand over every trophy and medal myself.
Damning update on UK Football scandal: The lack of co-operation from a number of high-ranking Football Association officials /”rampant Freemasonry”…
The football child abuse scandal just keeps on growing
As fresh cases of abuse continue to emerge, so do examples of official complacency, such as the obstruction and termination in 2003 of an FA review of child protection policies
Apr 2 2017
Operation Hydrant has received reports of child abuse for every year from 2005 – the year the FA’s inquiry cuts off – through to 2016
After everything that has emerged about football’s sexual-abuse scandal – including some extraordinary new details that can be reported today about the lack of co-operation from a number of high-ranking Football Association officials – it can come as a jolt to realise that the problem is not just restricted to what used to be known as the good old days.
Until now, it has widely been thought of as the property of another age. Words such as “historical” or “non-recent” have been applied and the FA certainly seemed to think as much. When the governing body announced in early-December it had commissioned an inquiry into the scandal the terms of reference made it clear it had a cut-off point “up until around 2005”.
That suddenly does not seem so clever, judging by the figures obtained by this newspaper that show 46 of the incidents reported to Operation Hydrant since November, when Andy Woodward’s interview with the Guardian set off what the FA chairman, Greg Clarke, has described as a “tidal wave,” relate to the period from 2005 to 2016. There is not one blank year and, though it can never be an exact science, it would be a mistake to believe this could not involve the sport at its highest level. The specialist police unit in charge of the investigation calculates that 23% of all the referrals (1,016 at the last count) relate to clubs from England’s top four divisions.
These are the numbers, in other words, that dismantle the theory everything goes back to the era – the 1970s and 1980s, predominantly – relating to the majority of the victims, now in their 40s and 50s, who have felt emboldened enough to talk publicly about their ordeals.
Instead, it turns out there have been 187 reported incidents of sexual assaults on junior footballers from the 20-year period beginning in 1996. Twenty-three relate to the years from 2011 onwards and, as if that is not alarming enough, it is also worth keeping in mind the true figure will be considerably higher.
For starters, this data actually goes back 10 weeks to 13 January and therefore covers only the first two months since the scandal erupted. The updated figures will be released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council later this month and it is worth getting the take of Dino Nocivelli, a specialist child-abuse lawyer, on the number of reported incidents – 83 – from 2000 onwards.
Nocivelli has worked on cases involving the Roman Catholic church, the Scout Association and various local authorities and knows from experience that it is often not until victims are in their late 30s or early 40s that they speak out. He is now representing a number of football child-abuse survivors and hopes that the age range will come down on the back of the latest scandal. Nonetheless, he says the figures since the millennium “are very likely the tip of the iceberg”.
For now, all that can really be said with certainty is that it was naive to think this scandal should be talked about only in the past tense and it leaves some awkward questions for the FA bearing in mind its decision, in 2003, to withdraw all funding from a major review of its child-protection policies.
Would football have been a safer place if that five-year research programme had not been abandoned three years early? Would it be too much of a stretch to think a completed project might even have prevented some of the more recent cases? Nocivelli, for one, thinks it is legitimate to link the two. “Questions remain as to why the FA decided to drop the review into safeguarding and whether or not children were subjected to abuse as a result of this decision.”
At the same time, it would certainly be useful to know why so many people at the FA, as well as the sport in general, were openly hostile and obstructive to the team of academics, led by Celia Brackenridge of Brunel University, who conducted the study.
An internal report, seen by this correspondent, states that only four of the 14 FA staff who were asked for interviews bothered to respond. Others, it claims, were “prevented/bullied” from not talking, in keeping with the “wall of silence” the researchers encountered from other areas of the game. “The football community was, in the main, helpful and cooperative about the research but there were also occasions where our fieldworkers faced rudeness, including from people in paid positions and/or in positions of significant authority within the FA,” Brackenridge writes in her notes. “One club official threw the researcher’s ID card back across the table at her; another refused to return numerous telephone calls and even pretended to be someone else on the telephone to avoid being interviewed.”
So, what was it that football objected to so much? And why were there people inside the FA who appear to have been as uncooperative as possible until the organisation’s then head of ethics and sports equity, Tony Pickerin, concluded in one letter – again, seen by this newspaper – that its child-protection budget for 2003 had to be “substantially reduced and the consequence of this will be a much lower level of research activity”? And is it purely just a coincidence that the FA was simultaneously trying to find the money to fund the huge costs of building the new Wembley?
Brackenridge has since made the point that the scale of progress since the 1990s has not been sufficiently acknowledged, saying some FA staff had been “exemplary” and pointing out that the research project, interviewing 189 children and a large number of coaches and administrators, had brought demonstrable improvement.
Yet her experiences at the time “left me asking myself whether some of the senior officers in the game might be simply using CP [child protection] as a kind of ethical fig leaf to cover their embarrassment at the many other problems facing the game – doping, crowd control, bungs and fixes, among others. The more the FA could trumpet their work for children, the better they could deflect attention from the uglier side of the game.”
The sport as a whole can seem hard-faced, to say the least, when it also transpires that the research team – collating information, let’s not forget, to safeguard children – encountered verbal attacks and felt like they were “seen as the police” by some of the people they contacted. One interviewee spoke of “rampant Freemasonry” within the sport.Brackenridge’s notes allude to “organisational inertia” inside the FA and, referring to a year-long delay to sign off the project, concludes that the governing body “did not know what right and left hand were doing”. At the end of the project she says she had to bring in lawyers to force the FA to settle its bills. “On the day we were due to go to court to sue them the money finally came through.” The whole thing sounds a mess.
Perhaps we will get some clarity when Clive Sheldon QC produces what the FA insists ought to be classified as an independent inquiry. Sheldon was appointed at the start of December to judge, among other things, if there had been a cover-up and whether the governing body had been guilty of institutional failures. Yet that, in turn, raises its own questions.However revered Sheldon is in his particular field, how can any inquiry truly be independent when the organisation that is being investigated is also footing the bill?
At least the FA is going through the system – no matter whether you or I agree with the exact processes – whereas it does seem strange that the Football Association of Wales, contrary to its counterparts in England and Scotland, has not thought it necessary when three out of the four police forces in Wales confirmed as long ago as December they were part of the investigation.
Almost four months in, it is perplexing, however, that Sheldon and his research team do not appear to have started interviewing the players who have attracted so much publicity about the events that shaped their lives. It was never going to be a quick process but, after all this time, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that some of the key witnesses, understandably put out, have started ringing ahead to find out, put bluntly, what the hell is going on.
On a similar theme, can you believe that Crewe Alexandra, even with their consistently unimpressive responses, do not appear to have arranged interviews with any of the relevant former players who have featured in the news during the last four months?
This, more than anything, demonstrates everything that is wrong with the process. It was 26 November – 122 days ago, to be precise – when Crewe announced they would be holding an independent review, declaring they were “determined that a thorough investigation takes place at the earliest opportunity”. Since then, Crewe have refused to say who, if anyone, is leading the inquiry.
On Saturday, when pressed, a spokesperson for Crewe said: “Clubs have been advised not to investigate historical allegations at this stage,” and declined to comment further. They have not supplied a terms of reference and the extensive list of former players you might have thought would be high‑priority calls could probably be forgiven for wondering when, if ever, they will be required to help.
After all this time, their collective suspicion says a lot for what they think of the regime at Gresty Road – the consensus being, as one put it, they “gave up a long time ago”.
Clive Sheldon QC wasn’t the first choice….. echoes of the C S A leadership fiasco
FA forced to replace woman leading review into football’s child sex abuse scandal over independence concerns
6 December 2016
The FA announced the full terms of reference for its internal review today, also revealing Clive Sheldon QC would head it and not Kate Gallafent QC.
The governing body had been criticised for recruiting Gallafent, who has acted for it previously – as well as against it – and whose Blackstone Chambers firm is regularly used by the organisation.
In carrying out the Review, Clive Sheldon QC will be assisted by a team of counsel from 11KBW Chambers: David Bedenham, Katherine Eddy, Zoe Gannon and Leo Davidson. Clive Sheldon QC will also receive expert advice on child protection in sport from Dr Mike Hartill, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Sport at Edge Hill University.
Ex-football youth scout held over historical abuse claims
Dunn poses for photo with Rangers youth squad
Harry Dunn, 84, who worked for Rangers, Liverpool and Chelsea, has been charged.
Harry Dunn, 84, who worked for Rangers, Liverpool and Chelsea, is now subject to a report to the procurator fiscal, police in Edinburgh confirmed.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “An 84-year-old man has been arrested and charged with a number of non-recent sexual offences and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.”
Ex-footie starlet claims former Rangers coach Harry Dunn got him drunk and tried to rape him at Edinburgh flat
18th February 2017
Former Ibrox youth player Darren Mixon claims he looked at Dunn as an ‘Uncle’ when he was pinned down on a bed by 25-stone scout for the sex attack
Dunn, 84, worked for Gers, Liverpool and Chelsea after being introduced to scouting by his pal, former Ibrox manager Jock Wallace, who he later followed to Leicester City.
Hibs boss Neil Lennon revealed in his autobiography that when he was 13, Dunn took him and his dad to Ibrox where they had a tour and met Wallace.
Darren has made three statements to police about his assault claims.
He said he kept quiet about it at the time as he felt “humiliated” — but told a pal in 1992 when he learned Dunn was still scouting and escorting young boys around the country.
Friend Tam Smith, formerly a cop and now a social worker, persuaded him to report the attack at St Leonard’s police station in Edinburgh. But Darren didn’t hear back from Lothian and Borders cops and decided not to talk about it again until now.
Police Scotland could not explain why the Lothian and Borders force took no action but confirmed they are investigating Darren’s claims about Dunn.
Barry Bennell: Former football coach denies 20 child sex offences
Mar 22 2017
The former Crewe Alexandra coach was remanded in custody and the judge said his trial was likely to begin in Liverpool in January.
Former football coach Barry Bennell has denied 20 child sex offences.
Appearing at Chester Crown Court via video link from prison, the former Crewe Alexandra coach was charged with 14 counts of indecent assault, five counts of buggery and one count of attempted buggery.
The charges relate to four complainants who were boys under the age of 16 at the time of the alleged offences.
They are all alleged to have taken place between 1980 and 1987.
Bennell, 63, had already denied eight of the offences and repeated those denials as he was charged with 12 further offences.
The case was adjourned to 3 July when a hearing will take place at Liverpool Crown Court.
As Bennell was remanded in custody, the judge told him a trial was likely to start in January in Liverpool.
As well as Crewe, Bennell also worked as a coach for Manchester City, Stoke and junior teams in northwest England and the Midlands during his career.
Police investigating historic child abuse quiz man over ‘incidents linked to Southampton FC’
Mar 16 2017
POLICE investigating allegations of historic sex abuse in football have questioned a man in Hampshire, it has been revealed.
The 64-year-old was questioned by officers from Hampshire Police carrying out an investigation into allegations of non-recent child abuse within the football community – Operation Quantum.
The man has been questioned by officers in a police custody suite, the force has confirmed.
The investigation is believed to be linked to claims of incidents at Southampton Football Club in the 1980s.
A police spokesman said: “This remains an active, significant, and complex investigation undertaken by specialist officers from Hampshire Constabulary’s Major Crime Team.”
The Daily Echo previously reported how the football club had contacted police over allegations of historical child abuse within football in December.
It came about after two ex-Saints youngsters said they were both victims of sexual abuse they suffered in the 1980s.
Last November, a number of police forces from across the UK launched investigations into allegations of abuse
So far, ten suspects have been identified as the scandal continues to grow.
The Echo previously reported that Greater Manchester Police had said it was investigating reports from 35 people, with its inquiry growing on a “daily basis”.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council also confirmed around 350 people across the country had reported abuse allegations.
In a statement released in December by Southampton FC, the club said: “Hampshire Police and Southampton Football Club are committed to working together to investigate any historical allegations that may be brought to light in the Hampshire area.
“The club has informed Hampshire Police that we will offer our full support to any investigation they undertake, for as long as it takes, and with our full focus.
“The club works closely and tirelessly with the Premier League to promote the safeguarding of children and young people who are under our care or using our facilities, and their well-being is paramount to all staff.”
Former football coach Barry Bennell accused of 11 child sex offences in Derbyshire
Former football coach Barry Bennell has been remanded in custody charged with 12 child sex offences, 11 of which are alleged to have happened in Derbyshire.
Man arrested on Teesside over historic abuse claims linked to football
Cleveland Police reveal details of man arrested over claims of ‘non-recent sexual offences against children’
1 MAR 2017
Police have made the first arrest on Teesside in the ongoing probe into historic child abuse in football.
Cleveland Police confirmed a man in his 40s was arrested for “non-recent sexual offences against children”.
In total, eight people have made abuse allegations to the force at “all levels” of the game.
No further details of the suspect or the allegations, such as what club they may centre around, have been disclosed.
But a force spokesperson said: “Cleveland Police has received allegations from eight people of non-recent abuse associated with football at all levels and these allegations are being investigated.
“One man in his 40s was arrested at the end of January in connection with an allegation and he has been bailed pending further inquiries.
“All information relating to non-recent child sexual abuse allegations received by Cleveland Police is being forwarded to Operation Hydrantfor the purpose of national operational coordination.
“This involves collating and cross referencing all information received to avoid duplication, and ensure efficient and effective sharing of information.”
wants a reduction in penalties for child abuse offenders
All FIVE London Premier League clubs are caught up in historic child abuse allegations
Police today said they are now investigating 255 allegations involving 77 clubs
Five teams in the Premier League are involved, as well as three in Championship
Scandal came to light when ex-Crewe Alexandra player opened up on the abuse
Former Chelsea player Keith Weller and scout Eddie Heath also being probe
Jan 30 2017
Keith Weller, a former Chelsea player, had allegations made against him by two women who claimed he indecently assaulted them
In what is quickly becoming the biggest scandal in the history of British football, 77 clubs from the top flight to non-league are now being investigated by police.
There have now been 255 allegations made since former Crewe Alexandra player Andy Woodward lifted the lid on the murky world of abuse in football by opening up about being abused by ex-coach Barry Bennell.
It is understood that Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham, Tottenham and Crystal Palace are being investigated by the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: ‘The allegations are connected with individuals at 77 named clubs or teams.
‘The breakdown for those clubs is five in the Premiership, three against Championship clubs, three against clubs in Leagues One and Two and there have also been 66 other named clubs which would include non-league or non-professional or amateur teams.’
Earlier this month, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which is co-ordinating the nationwide police investigation Operation Hydrant, said more than 500 complainants and 184 potential suspects had been identified.
The inquiry involves up to 248 football clubs, spanning all tiers of the game from the Premier League down to amateur level.
Latest figures show the total number of potential victims standing at 526, with 97 per cent identified as male. Their ages span from 20 to four.
Chelsea have been openly dragged into the scandal, with former player Gary Johnson admitting he was abused as a trainee in the 1970s
A spokesman for Crystal Palace said today: ‘We have had no contact from the Metropolitan Police so we have no idea whether these allegations relate to Crystal Palace FC. Clearly, should we be contacted, we will co-operate fully with any inquiry and give every possible assistance to the police in their investigations.
‘We urge anyone aware of any instances of abuse that have ever taken place at the club, or who has been a victim, to report it to the police or contact the FA’s NSPCC helpline.’
Other clubs are not thought to have commented on the investigations yet.
Chelsea have been openly dragged into the scandal, with former player Gary Johnson admitting he was abused as a trainee in the 1970s by the club’s chief scout Eddie Heath, who is now dead.
The club apologised to Johnson for the abuse he suffered after he waived the confidentiality clause in the £50,000 agreement they made with him in 2015.
Weller also played for Millwall and Tottenham Hotspur.
Johnson was a member of Chelsea’s first team from 1978 to 1981, but joined the club as an 11-year-old in 1970 and claimed he had been groomed from the age of 13.
Speaking of the impact of the abuse, he said: ‘I felt shame, I felt my childhood had been taken away. I spent my late teens in turmoil, absolute turmoil.’
Two women have also claimed they were indecently assaulted by Keith Weller, who played for Tottenham, Millwall, Chelsea and Leicester and was capped four times by England during a glittering career.
The scandal came to light after it was revealed that former Crewe Alexandra scout abused player Andy Woodward
The accusations were first made in 2002 when a number of women told the Metropolitan Police that Weller had molested them as children in the mid-1960s and early 1980s.
Critics said the force’s original handling of the Weller case is an indictment of how child sex-abuse allegations were treated before the Jimmy Savile scandal.
But after an inquiry spanning several months the Crown Prosecution Service ruled no charges should be brought.
Former Crewe player Andy Woodward waived his right of anonymity to reveal that he suffered years of abuse at the hands of the former youth coach Barry Bennell.
In court proceedings it emerged that Bennell had abused one child on Crewe’s training pitches and another at the home of former manager Dario Gradi, who did not know about it.
Bennell also did work for Manchester City and Stoke City before moving to the United States.
He was jailed for nine years in 1998 for sexual offences against children after admitting 23 specimen charges of sexual offences against six boys, aged nine to 15.
Aston Villa FC accused of not reporting paedophile scout to police
Jan 30 2017
One victim said that seniors at the club pressured him not to go public with the abuse.
Birmingham-based football club, Aston Villa, have been accused of not reporting a scout who was sexually abusing boys to the police after they terminated his services because of the alleged offences.
The scout, Ted Langford, was convicted in 2007 of a number of abuses which took place around the time he worked at the club. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2007 for the sexual abuse of four young players in the 1970s and 1980s..
One victim, waiving his right to anonymity, told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show that he had felt pressured by senior club officials not to go public with the abuse. Tony Brien said he was abused by Langford numerous times while he was a player at Dunlop Terriers.
Assistant-manager at the time, Dave Richardson, said he did not pressure Brien from following up the abuse and that he went to other senior officials who launched an internal investigation.
Richardson added that after speaking to the parents of two young boys who claimed that they were abused, the parents said they did not want the matter reported to the police. There was and still is no legal requirement for either Richardson or Aston Villa to report such concerns to the authorities, the BBC notes.
Brien said that he had had conversations with Richardson and another senior figure who asked whether he would be able to “put up with the obscenities from the terraces” if he went forward. Richardson said in a statement through a law firm that he could not recall any such conversation, but speaking to the BBC earlier, he had appeared to acknowledge the conversations.
Brien said that while on trips abroad with Langford, he would “have a different boy in his bed with him every single night” and that boys would turn up with “love bites”.
Langford was sacked by Aston Villa in 1988. He was then convicted of a range of offences that took place between 1976 and 1989, a year after he left the club. Langford died in 2012.
More sex abuse victims come forward claiming to have been abused by paedophile athletics coaches
It is now feared paedophiles could have targeted youngsters at athletics clubs in cases similar to the football abuse scandal
29th January 2017
PAEDOPHILE athletics coaches are feared to have preyed on youngsters at UK clubs.
At least two women claim to have been targeted.
.
Darrell Bunn is at the centre
It has raised concerns of a sex abuse scandal similar to that which swept football last year.
The latest revelation comes after we told how a woman was suing UK Athletics for failing to protect her from a paedophile coach.
The Sun on Sunday has been told at least one other woman has contacted lawyers over alleged abuse by another coach.
A legal source said: “There is at least one other ongoing case — and probably more.
“People are starting to wonder if there will be a lot more people coming forward.”
We revealed in November how a woman claims coach Darrell Bunn, who trained Olympic gold medallists Jessica Ennis-Hill and Denise Lewis, abused her when she was 16.
The coach also trained Olympic gold-medallist Denise Lewis
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Coach arrested as part of football paedophile scandal had links to England supremo
27 January 2017
A former coach and colleague of one of the men responsible for appointing the England manager was arrested on Friday as part of the paedophile scandal to rock the game.
Kit Carson, full name Michael Sean Carson, was detained by police on suspicion of indecency with children and indecent assault.
The alleged offences relate to the 74-year-old’s time coaching at Peterborough United and Cambridge United, where he worked with Dan Ashworth, the Football Association’s director of elite development, who was instrumental in the appointment of both Sam Allardyce and Gareth Southgate as England manager.
Prince William held private talks at Kensington Palace with Sam Allardyce,
Past controversies — such as the 2006 BBC Panorama documentary in which Allardyce and his son, Craig, were accused by the BBC documentary of taking ‘bungs’, or bribes — will have been overlooked. The Allardyces vehemently denied the claims and have never been charged.
Ashworth, whose relationship with Carson dates back to when the latter brought him to Norwich City as a 12-year-old player, is among several high-profile figures listed as providing testimonials on his former coach and colleague’s website. Others include retired England defender Danny Mills and ex-Wales striker Craig Bellamy.
27th September 2016,
DODGY-dealing Sam Allardyce was axed as England manager.
Football Association fail to explain why sacked England boss Sam Allardyce was given a £1m pay-off
October 12, 2016
The FA are blaming legal confidentiality issues for their failure to explain why Sam Allardyce was given a £1million pay-off after being sacked as England manager.
The apparent testimonial from Ashworth, who joined the FA from West Bromwich Albion in 2012, reads: “Having worked with you both as a player at Norwich City and as your assistant academy director at Peterborough United and Cambridge United I have no doubts that boys working under you can progress into the world of football. I was delighted that Kit Carson players were signed at West Bromwich Albion.”
There is no suggestion Ashworth or anyone named as having provided testimonials for Carson has any knowledge of the alleged offences for which he was arrested, which were said to date from the 1970s to the mid-2000s.
Update:
Jan 27 2017
Ex-Norwich coach ‘Kit’ Carson held in historical football abuse probe
Michael “Kit” Carson has worked as a coach and scout for a number of clubs
A former football coach and scout has been arrested as part of an investigation into allegations of abuse in the sport.
Michael Sean Carson, known as “Kit”, from Cambridge, has been detained on suspicion of indecency with children and indecent assault.
He has worked for clubs including Peterborough United, Cambridge United and Norwich City.
Cambridgeshire Police said a man in his 70s remains in custody.
Officers are working with the Football Association, local children’s safeguarding boards and councils as part of their county-wide investigations.
He worked at Norwich as a youth coach between 1983 and 1993, before moving to Peterborough to run their youth academy until 2001. He then spent five years at Cambridge as their head of talent development.
More recently, Carson has worked at non-league Histon in Cambridgeshire and been a football scout in Finland. According to his LinkedIn page, Carson has also written two coaching manuals.
This is basically a football web site by an Irish citizen who has spent his whole life in England and his working life in the world of youth development in professional football.
My early school life was based in Kent and Hertfordshire before gaining an economics degree and a Graduate Certificate of Education at the University of Hull in Yorkshire. It was at Hull that I gained my first coaching badges.
After a short teaching career, mainly at a brilliant school in Bedford called Pilgrim School, I formed my own football school which at the time was a first in England. This grew and on the way I met many interesting people who I may well talk about on this site at various times. When I teamed up with Gary Johnson we joined the PGL group of companies and our football schools really took off.
From here Gary went on to a very successful career in professional football coaching and management and I went into professional football as a youth developer and had successful times at Norwich City Football Club, Peterborough United Football Club. Cambridge United Football Club and Histon Football Club.
My skill seems to have been in spotting talent and playing a part in the development of that talent. There are many players and coaches in the professional game who say that I played a major role in their road to success and I am very proud of that.
Throughout my life I have been an ardent supporter and follower of the Republic of Ireland national team and got great satisfaction in locating and developing boys of Irish ancestry born and raised in England.
Two arrests made as police examine 130 reports of child abuse in football
Police Scotland are investigating 130 reports of child sexual abuse in football, with two arrests made.
The sport has been rocked by claims from former players across the UK that they were abused by people in positions of authority and Police Scotland launched a major inquiry into non-recent child abuse in football at the end of last year.
Officers have now received 130 reports but believe there will be more to come.
Barry Bennell: former football coach pleads not guilty to sexual assault charges
Jan 16 2017
All the offences, including assault with intent to commit buggery, are alleged to have happened between 1981 and 1985, when the boy was aged from 11 to 15.
One of the charges relates to a Butlin’s holiday camp and others allegedly happened in Cheshire.
Ex-football coach Barry Bennell denies sex assault charges
Former football coach Barry Bennell has pleaded not guilty to eight charges of sexual assault against a boy under 16.
The former youth coach at Crewe Alexandra denied the eight counts when he appeared at Chester Crown Court.
The charges all relate to allegations of abuse between 1981 and 1986.
Mr Bennell, 63, wearing a blue polo neck shirt and appearing via videolink from HMP Woodhill, in Milton Keynes, answered “not guilty” to all the charges as they were put to him.
The ex-coach, who also worked at Manchester City, Stoke City and junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands, was remanded into custody until 20 March.
Owen Edwards, prosecuting, told the court the alleged victim “preserves his anonymity”.
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Former Chelsea youth team referee Allan McGrath accused of child abuse
Jan 14 2017
Four separate witnesses have claimed they were abused by Allan McGrath, who worked as a referee for Chelsea’s youth-team games
Chelsea Football Club is today facing new scrutiny over child abuse in the 1970s, after an investigation by The Independent revealed a second man who worked for the club sexually assaulted boys in their youth set-up.
Four separate witnesses have claimed they were abused by Allan McGrath, who worked as a referee for Chelsea’s youth-team games.
Two of the witnesses have described being driven to McGrath’s home when in the Chelsea youth set-up and sexually assaulted there. Both had been promised lifts home from youth matches when they ended up at the house McGrath – who is now dead – shared with his elderly mother in Ashford, Middlesex.
Johnson was subsequently paid £50,000 compensation by Chelsea for the abuse he suffered, in an arrangement which included a non-disclosure clause.
Chelsea have said they cannot comment on specific cases and urged any further alleged victims to speak to them or to the Metropolitan Police. The Football Association also declined to comment on whether they knew of McGrath or whether he was registered with them. But with the known number of Heath’s alleged victims already six, Chelsea are already facing a possible multi-million-pound claim for damages.
It is unclear whether McGrath was employed full-time by Chelsea. He is remembered by two witnesses for standing in as a referee during summer matches. The Independent has spoken to more than 20 witnesses in Ashford who knew McGrath and who described him as having a number of jobs over a period of 20 years, including as a chauffeur, a school-coach driver and a warden at the HM Prison Feltham Young Offender Institution.
A further two witnesses, one of whom has waived his anonymity to speak to The Independent, described being abused by McGrath, who was then working as coach at Staines United FC, in Middlesex.
Steve Hearn, 58, who lives in Ashford, was eventually spotted by a Chelsea scout and was on the fringes of the squad, as a contemporary of Ray Wilkins, Steve Finnieston and Clive Walker.
But it was while a 12-year-old playing for Staines United under-15s that he encountered McGrath, who was then in his late 20s. “
Another witness, who is now in his late 50s and declined to be named, alleged that McGrath tried to sexually assault him at Ashford Juniors FC in the 1970swhile working there as a referee.Ashford Juniors has since been dissolved and has no links with current clubs in the town.
Staines United has also been dissolved and has no link to Staines Town FC. The Metropolitan Police said it would not discuss individual cases but said its investigation is continuing.
2 chairmen of Chelsea FC both die in helicopter crashes and another seems to be a business associate with a Colin Peters.
Vile paedophile Eddie Heath
FA discovers file documenting football paedophile Eddie Heath’s ‘trail of terror’ between clubs
Jan 14 2017
Ex-Charlton Athletic youth player Russell Davy, who has told of his abuse at the hands of Heath, says an FA safeguarding officer told him they have ‘recovered a personal file’
The latest development in the football scandal emerged as ex- Charlton Athletic youth player Russell Davy flew from his home in Lanzarote to give evidence to police.
The ex-goalie, now 50, told the Sunday Mirror last month how he had warned the FA of Heath’s attacks on him more than 30 years ago. Now he reveals his lawyers sent a “letter of claim” to Charlton when the scandal broke, documenting abuse.
But he has heard nothing from the League One club. “I want to know why I was left alone with him for so long so he could abuse me,” said Mr Davy. “They haven’t even contacted me. It’s disgusting.”
He also claims the FA has so far failed to recover a letter he sent to them about the abuse in 1986. He never got a reply and his life spiralled into a nightmare of drink, crime and drugs, at one point fighting a £600-a-week cocaine addition.
Accusations by more than 350 alleged victims are being investigated by police, with 155 suspects identified, involving 148 clubs.
Last night a Charlton spokesman said the club had “launched an internal investigation” into Mr Davy’s allegations, adding: “The club has contacted police.”
It is understood his teenage son was also on board and died at the scene along with the aircraft’s pilot Stephen Holdich, 49, and Jonathan Waller, a friend of Mr Carter’s.
Mr Carter, a lifelong Chelsea fan, was a close friend of Matthew Harding, the club’s former vice-chairman and major benefactor, who also died in a helicopter crash 11 years ago in similar circumstances.Both Mr Carter and Mr Harding were travelling in twin-engined Squirrel helicopters
Nick Scheele, who was chairman of Jaguar at the time, Duncan Sutherland, the former city council’s development director, and PR guru John Clarke got together to raise funds for a new NSPCC centre in Coventry.
The committee which kickstarted the campaign included more than 20 of the leading figures in the city at the time time including MPs, trade unionists, business and industrial leaders.
Nick Scheele stressed at the inaugural meeting in the Jaguar Browns Lane board-room that the objective of the NSPCC Coventry Kids Appeal was to raise over #400,000 to fund an NSPCC centre in Whitefriars Street, on land opposite the existing cramped NSPCC offices situated above a wine bar – and the aim was to do it in just three years.
The appeal committee not only met that target but topped it thanks to a generous #50,000 cheque from former Chelsea FC vice-chairman Matthew Harding, just months before his premature death in a helicopter crash on the way back from a soccer match in Lancashire.
The NSPCC centre was built on time and opened by Princess Margaret, the NSPCC president, in 1996
The inclusion of Lord Mandelson and an office address for Tony Blair has raised questions about the extent of his relationship with the Labour government.
By a strange coincidence Esther Rantzen is a trustee of the NSPCC.
Convicted billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein – The inclusion of Lord Mandelson and an office address for Tony Blair has raised questions a
MacLeod recalled Rantzen meeting Cherie Booth at the hairdresser in 1992, and was able to persuade her to get Hilary Clinton to speak at a ChildLine conference on children and the courts.
The source for this claim is Erik Prince, the founder of the security firm Blackwater (yes, that one.) In an exclusive interview at Breitbart News, Prince first states that the NYPD is “ready to make arrests in Weiner case.”
Prince pivots from the Weiner laptop investigation to claiming that Hillary Clinton accompanied Bill Clinton and billionaire convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to “sex island” (aka “sex slave island”).
“They found State Department emails. They found a lot of other really damning criminal information, including money laundering, including the fact that Hillary went to this sex island with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Clinton went there more than 20 times. Hillary Clinton went there at least six times.”
Mr. Clinton flew on the billionaire’s convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous jet more than a dozen times — sometimes with a woman whom federal prosecutors suspect of procuring underage sex victims forMr. Epstein. Fox News reported Friday that records show Mr. Clinton declined Secret Service protection on at least five flights.
The network’s investigation reveals Mr. Clinton flew on the Boeing 727 “Lolita Express” 26 times, more than doubling the previously reported 11 trips.
“Bill Clinton … associated with a man like Jeffrey Epstein, who everyone in New York, certainly within his inner circles, knew was a pedophile.
Why would a former president associate with a man like that?” said Conchita Sarnoff of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Alliance to Rescue Victims of Trafficking, Fox reported. Ms. Sarnoff also authored a book on Mr. Epstein titled “TrafficKing.”
Mr. Epstein was arrested in 2005 and signed a plea agreement in 2007 with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, accepting a single charge of soliciting prostitution. He agreed to a 30-month sentence, registered as a “Tier 1” sex offender with the U.S. Virgin Islands and paid dozens of young girls
‘Only after Matthew died did I find he had a second mistress and another love child’
THE WIFE OF TRAGIC CHELSEA TYCOON REVEALS HOW HIS DEATH IN A HELICOPTER CRASH WAS JUST THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF TERRIBLE SHOCKS SHE FACED
Matthew started as teaboy in an insurance office and made his fortune in the reinsurance markets. He also had a pounds 50 million stake in Chelsea Football Club, where he was vice-chairman.
When he was killed in a helicopter crash in October, 1996 he was worth more than pounds 125million and was the 89th wealthiest man in Britain. He and Ruth owned a large estate in Sussex with a tennis court, swimming pool and wonderful views over the South Downs.
Ruth lived there all the time but Matthew came home only at weekends. During the week he lived in London with his Ecuadorian mistress Vicky Jaramillo and their daughter Ella, now five. After his death, it was discovered that his PA had also had his baby.
“There are two illegitimate children,” says Ruth. “So it’s a complicated situation. Only after he died did I know about the second child. There’s just a few months between them. Incredible, isn’t it?”
Ruth knew from the beginning about her husband’s affair with Vicky Jaramillo. She had to tolerate pictures of Matthew and his mistress in the papers when they attended social events together.
Matthew Harding and Ken Bates
Matthew Harding’s great friend, Tory MP Francis Maude, gave the funeral address
Francis Maude was PPS to noted pederast Sir Peter Morrison. Maude then became an assistant government whip (1985–87)
Following the death of Jill Dando, a new research centre in her name was formed:
” The UCL Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science is the first Institute in the world devoted to Crime Science. Research is concentrated on new ways to cut crime and increase security ” .
By a strange twist, the Board of the Institute is run by none other than Nick Ross and Professor Anthony Finkelstein.
Leon Brittan ‘attended paedophile parties in notorious brothel’
FORMER Home Secretary Leon Brittan was one of a number of high-profile people who attended paedophile parties in a notorious brothel, it was claimed last night.
Brittan is said to have abused children at Elm Guest House, a boarding house in Barnes, west London, which was run as a brothel in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Daily Star Sunday.
Among the shocking accusations are claims that one of Brittan’s victims was a 10-year-old primary school boy.
Other details that were reported include how a social worker described in testimony details seeing photos, taken in the 1970s, of Brittan dressed in kinky outfits with naked boys sitting on his lap.
Over the years, Brittan had been plagued with rumours surrounding his private life and supposed failure to act over an alleged cover-up of a missing dossier containing allegations of Establishment sex abuse.
Matthew Harding’s wife: Two of her great friends are the ex-wives of David Mellor and Glenn Hoddle. The sweet-natured Anne Hoddle is now radiantly happy with a 28-year-old.
Her new husband Richard Gist, 37, works with sexually abused children and when they met he was an area manager for the NSPCC in Coventry.
Matthew had donated pounds 50,000 to the NSPCC centre for abused boys and after he died, Richard invited Ruth to see the work that was being done.
Initially, the vital NSPCC work drew them together. “I went to Coventry and Richard showed me round. Richard is an Arsenal supporter so we obviously got talking about football.
After her husband’s death, Ruth was asked to become patron at Chelsea Football Club. This gave her an enormous amount of pleasure but Matthew and the club’s chairman, Ken Bates, had had many vicious disagreements. In what seemed like an act of spite, Ken Bates told Ruth that he no longer wanted her as patron.
“It’s very sad,” she says. “He didn’t give any reason.” Ruth still goes to games at Chelsea but she remains angry with coach Graham Rix, who was convicted of having unlawful sex with an under-age girl. He has served his jail sentence and has now been reinstated.
“He’s not a close friend of mine but his wife and four children are,” she says. “They are now separated and my heart goes out to the children because they’ve got to live with what their father’s done. When this dreadful situation happened at Chelsea, I was the only one who said, ‘Graham Rix is guilty’. Now society has turned on the girl and said, ‘It was her fault, she shouldn’t have worn short skirts, she shouldn’t be drinking, shouldn’t be smoking’.
“I think Graham does a great job at football, but the sadness is that he’s probably wrecked that girl’s life.”
Ruth is now involved in the NSPCC’s campaign to raise money for the millennium in aid of the most desperate children in Britain. “Until I met Richard, I knew nothing about sexually abused children. A vast number of people have been abused as a child but because people don’t talk about it, it festers away inside them.”
Colin Peters has already been acknowledged as Elm Guest House visitor:
While the Metropolitan Police told The Independent that the boys’ disappearances were not being re-investigated, the predatory nature of some of those who stayed at the Elm Guest House will raise concerns that they could have been targeted.
Anthony Milsom, a paedophile from Hull, who is alleged to have stayed at the property, later moved to Newtown, Powys, where he was convicted of a string of sex offences dating back to the 1990s, including 21 counts of making indecent photographs of children and five counts of indecent assault on a girl when she was aged between 4 and eight. He was jailed indefinitely at Mold Crown Court in March 2011, but six months later appeal court judges reduced his sentence to three-and-a-half years. Another alleged visitor was Colin Peters, a Foreign Office barrister, who was jailed in 1989 for being part of a network which molested hundreds of boys. Reports at the time said the ring “was used by highly placed civil servants and well-known public officials”.
The most infamous alleged visitor to Elm Guest House was Warwick Spinks, a violent paedophile who in 1995 was jailed for a series of sexual offences on boys, including buggery, taking a child without lawful authority and taking indecent images of children. Lewes Crown Court heard that he had he drugged a 14-year-old boy and “sold him” to a gay brothel in Amsterdam
According to documents kept by a former children’s worker, visitors to the property included the Soviet spy Sir Anthony Blunt and the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith, who is now thought by Manchester police to have assaulted teenage boys.
Another was Sir Peter Hayman, Britain’s former High Commissioner in Canada.
Brittan has ‘no recollection’ of dossier
A senior minister in Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet handed a dossier containing allegations of paedophilia in Buckingham Palace and the diplomatic and civil services says he cannot remember receiving the file.
In November 1983 Sir Leon Brittan, the Home Secretary, was given the dossier by the late Geoffrey Dickens, as part of his campaign against the Paedophile Information Exchange.
Asked by The Independent this week what the dossier alleged and what action, if any, he took, Sir Leon, a QC and later European Commissioner, replied by email: “I have no recollection of these matters. Sorry!”
‘Most violent’ paedo freed by loophole …and back ogling teens
A VIOLENT child sex predator recaptured following an international manhunt quaffs champagne on a luxury boat — after he was freed by a loophole.
Evil Warwick Spinks, dubbed the Pied Piper of Paedophiles, was extradited from the Czech Republic in November after 15 years on the run.
He should have then served the last 18 months of his five-year jail term. But when he was caged back in 1995 the law only allowed officials to make offenders serve part of a sentence before automatically freeing them.
That loophole was closed for absconders last year but it cannot be enforced retrospectively.
So officials had to free Spinks FOUR MONTHS after his recapture.
The pot-bellied paedo, who now calls himself property tycoon Willem van Wijk, celebrated his freedom and 49th birthday with a bash for 14 pals, including toyboy Vladimir, 34.
The Sun watched as he:
SIPPED champagne with pals at a luxury floating restaurant.
UNWRAPPED creepy presents including an edible thong.
WRITHED with male go-go dancers, saying: “You’re only as young as the boy you’re feeling.”
CAVORTED starkers in a glass-sided plunge pool with a Slovak lad in front of other perverts.
A source said: “Spinks should be behind bars. Many people in Prague were shocked to see him back so soon acting as if nothing had happened. He is cocking a snook at British justice.”
Spinks was first identified as a dangerous child abuser in 1992. He divided his time between England and Amsterdam, introducing sex tourists to young boys.
He told one undercover cop he could arrange sex with boys in Germany, Prague and Poland for as little as 10p. He was also secretly taped offering to supply a “snuff” video in which a boy, ten, was killed for kicks.
In 1995 he was jailed for seven years at Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex, for several offences against underage boys.
His sentence was cut to five years on appeal but when let out on licence in 1997 he fled the UK, violating his probation conditions.
CLARE MAINPRICE a litigation partner at VAT specialist Mainprice & Co, has just joined accountancy firm Baker Tilly. And before you fall asleep, I should add that Ms Mainprice is a founder member of the Groucho Club.
Ms Mainprice also harbours a dark family secret.Her father Hugh was one of the triumvirate which drew up the UK’s VAT legislation in the early Seventies, making her a second-generation VAT supremo.
Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers – a case on whether the institute was a “professional association” and therefore making exempt supplies
Institute of Chartered Foresters – a case on simple or multiple supplies
Institute of Biomedical Science – a partial exemption decision
Grange Farm – a case on the apportionment of input tax deductible by the owner of a premier division football club
Kingscrest Residential Care Homes – whether a care home operated on a for profit basis was entitled to standard rate its supplies (a subsequent decision, Kingscrest No. 2, was referred to the European Court of Justice)
Bissell Homecare (Overseas) Inc – a decision on whether the then three year cap on repayments by Customs was applicable
He set up as a sole practitioner advising on VAT in 2004.
“Documents 128-30 Names of Known and
Suspected Abusers of Children”
one “Colin Peters QC Twickenham Lawyer” http://vatattack.co.uk/colin.htm
Timeline
? – obtains an honours degree in Modern History at Oxford University
? – works as Secretary General of the British Chamber of Commerce in Casablance.
1974 – Returns allegedly to Uk from Casablance to study law and later specialises
in indirect tax.
1977 -Colin Peters alleges he begins specialising in the law and practice of VAT.
1979 – 1986 he works in Customs’ Solicitor’s Office as a Senior Legal Assistant in their
VAT tribunal division, conducting more than 100 appeals in the tribunal.
1986/7 – Colin Peters is already by now, according to the documents, remarkably, a QC.
1986 – Colin Peters allegedly leaves the Solicitor’s Office of Customs and Excise,
now HM Revenue & Customs, joins private practice Hugh Mainprice as a partner in Mainprice
and Co, a firm dealing exclusively with VAT. Begins advising on VAT. http://vatattack.co.uk/
1987, December – Colin Peters, Alan Delaney, Ernest Whittington, Victor Burnett remanded. Also charged with the 4 are John Williams, a builder, Patrick Joseph Morris (and his son, 18, dont know if a victim),
Bryan Peter Howard – Edmunds of Harlesden. 5 yrs abuse going back to 1982. 140 boys interviewed.
Also charged was Kenneth Martin (64, market trader). Another man from Hastings *un-named-64 yr old clerk?)
also charged for committing offences with Martin. So 7 men in total charged. 22 men originally arrested.
Victims aged 10-15.
1988- (10th?) November – Colin peters and co trial commences. A 22 year old man was the first ever adult victim of sex abuse to be allowed to give evidence on video. Women’s groups outraged that the first to be allowed is male. Peters, Burnett, Whittington and Delaney in the dock, plus the two Norris half brothers (both aged 18). Charges previously dropped against the father of the boys Patrick Joseph Norris.
So charges dropped for the father and added for the other son. The two Norris boys were found in bed at Colin Peters home when police went to arrest Peters.
Judge Henry Pownall and DCI in charge Roger Gaspar.
1989, February 3rd-Colin Peters and co sentenced at Old Bailey.
The two 18 year olds presumably were acquitted or case dropped against them during the trial.
2004 – Colin Peters allegedly starts VAT consultancy called VATATTACK.
One of the boys he allegedly abused was Peter Hatton-Bornshin, a Grafton Close care-home resident, who later killed himself.
Another said: “He was a regular and was named by two, possibly three, boys as a man who abused them. Peters used camera equipment and hired a conference room at the guesthouse. There was only one reason to do that and that was to make porn films of the boys. There was a sauna attached to the room, which was also used.
From docs; About the guest house:- “Among those using it was Louis Minster, Director of Social Services, Richmond, Colin Peters QC, Donald Naismith, Director of Education Wandsworth & number of police. Boys supplied by Neil Keir OIC (Officer in Charge) Grafton Lodge Childrens Home.” Note dated 17/7/89
“Colin Peters QC one of Haddons clients for porn & sex, knows of our interest – do not know how.
Alerting his friends to ‘take care of us’. Warned to be very careful of this guy.”
As there are several documents coming to light on Colin Peters, and Sceptic Peg has just published a post on Peters, I am releasing this work in progress that I have not worked on for several months, so that other researchers may make use of it.
It was intended for another use so the Oxendon House parts may not be relevant
I have not archived any btw
Timeline
1980 Boy from Scotland to Piccadilly [44] Colin Peters
[49] 1989 Feb 4 Daily Express John Twomey Four faces of evilhttp://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/the-four-faces-of-evil-4-2-89/ Judge Henry Pownall sentenced Peters to 8 years for buggers, conspiracy to commit buggery and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice . victims in special boarding schools for educationally subnormal. Peters 43 Chepstow Rd, Bayswater . House of lords offficla and link to elm guest house
[52] 1989 Feb 17 EIR Mark Burdman Pedophiles arrested more powerful than mafia. https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/0FE31538-2121-8495-33A5-86073BE95DE1/thought/918#-2901 The most prominent figure in the ring, Colin Peters, was trained at Oxford, and was formerly a senior adviser in the British Foreign Office. Following his Foreign Office work, he prosecuted cases for the British Customs and Excise.
Investigators working on the case had interrogated at least one senior member of the House of Lords , one vicar in West London, and officials in Whitehall , “but the police did not have sufficient evidence or manpower to pursue their suspicions ,” the Telegraph reported. * Colin Peters was told: “On your own admission, you found boys to satisfy your lust. You were prepared to encourage them to drugs or to lace their drinks and you have made matters worse by trying to get witnesses not to attend court. You did that to save your own skin. That was disgraceful. You of all people should have known that. ”
‘A permanent conspiracy’ British deputy police superintendent John Lewis , who oversaw the investigations, is calling on Scotland Yard to create a special squad to deal with pedophile rings. Lewis declared Feb. 2 that “these people are as organized and sophisticated as any other criminals, and are involved in a permanent conspiracy which is renewed daily as they hunt for new boys. They need to be targeted like bank robbers. It is important that we should not feel complacent. Positive policing should be continued.”
British police investigators were reportedly angered by the light sentence meted out to Peters In an editorial entitled, “Is This Justice?” the Express Feb. 4 called the sentences “woefully inadequate . . . weighed against the enormity of their crimes and the emotional and physical damage they did to their victims , some of whom were only nine years old. ”
Although the file is currently closed to the public, you may wish to be aware that the full contents of the file have been made available, unredacted, to the police. The staff working
for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA, or the “Goddard Inquiry”) have also been informed of the file and told that they too can have access to it without any redactions as soon as they request it.
Paedophile Richard Alston (brother of diplomat Robert Alston)
I am much indebted to Richard Alston without whose dedicated editorial assistance I should have found it difficult to see this revised edition through the press. [….] and to Peter Righton for correcting proofs.
Laing retired in 2013 as Curator of Pictures at National Trust for 27 years. He studied History at Oxford under ANTHONY BLUNT!
(Elm Guest House – the list of alleged attendees at the parties. One source suggested that Anthony Blunt, former keeper of the Queen’s pictures and an exposed Soviet mole, used to go the parties)
On June 2, 1967, Her Majesty opened the new concert hall at Snape Maltings, the brainchild of Suffolk composer Benjamin Britten, who’d felt a larger venue was needed for the Aldeburgh Festival of the Arts. The festival leased and converted one of the main buildings. Almost exactly two years later, after the opening night of the 22nd Aldeburgh Festival, fire ripped through the concert hall.
It was rebuilt in time for the 1970 festival, and the Queen returned to Snape to perform another opening ceremony.
The re-opening of Snape Maltings concert hall in June, 1970, following a fire and rebuilding. The Queen talks to Benjamin Britten while Prince Philip chats to Peter Pears
David Liddington – MoS at Foreign Office, promised that the FO would release the files immediately to Police and @IICSA_media Did they?
Peters went on to become a FO barrister and was arrested under Operation Hedgerow as key player in a huge organised child abuse ring.
Dec 2 2016 – Leader of the House of Commons David Lidington is made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle.
In May 2009, the Daily Telegraph revealed Lidington had claimed nearly £1,300 for his dry cleaning and had also claimed for toothpaste, shower gel, body spray and vitamin supplements on his second home allowance.[2]
In July 2016, Lidington was appointed as Leader of the House of Commons by new PMTheresa May)
‘I was warned off’ says detective involved in historic paedophile probe
A FORMER police chief told how his superiors tried to stop a major paedophile investigation, warning: “Don’t open the box, you will never get the lid back on.”
Mr Gaspar also wrote an internal report called People Not Property, which recommended a specialist paedophile unit be set up at the end of the 1980s, but it was shelved.
He recalled: “I put up a proposal asking that if we had an obscene publication unit, why can’t we afford a team to focus more on a proper intelligence led approach.
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Jun 5 2017
Detective Constable Gordon McGown told the court that on March 16, 1996, he had gone to the Evergreen Trailer Park in Denny where Brian Beattie had a caravan.Brian Beattie agreed to go to Falkirk police station and they tried to establish his movements for the night in question.
The court heard that on March 18 a team of police search experts were called into the Haggart family home and during a three-and-a-half hour investigation found a triangular piece of concrete slab on grass outside the house.However, scenes of crime pictures taken two days earlier showed no sign of a piece of concrete.
The court heard that videos featuring the abduction and torture of youths for sexual pleasure were found by police during a search of Beattie’s home.Detective Constable Forrest Sloan, 39, told the High Court in Edinburgh the pornographic material was in a chest of drawers at the home of Brian Beattie, 33, in Ewing Drive, Falkirk.The search of Beattie’s home was carried out on August 23, 1997, when two pornographic videos were found in a front bedroom.
Mr Edgar Prais, QC, for Mr Beattie, said “Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the defence calls the police liars.”Of an alleged confession made by Mr Beattie, Mr Edgar Prais, QC, said it was strange that when it was supposedly made the police did not tape record it.Mr Edgar Prais, QC, said that forensic tests were carried out in Scotland and by the FBI Bureau in Washington on behalf of the defence.In all tests, Beattie was eliminated from any connection with the murder scene.In may 1998, Beattie was jailed for life.
In 1984, Beattie had been sentenced to seven years for breaking into premises and for arson.In 1992, Beattie had appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh on a charge of abducting a 16-year-old boy from his bedroom.The 16-year-old victim woke at 3am to find Beattie, who had been released from jail four days earlier, standing over his bed.He covered the boy’s face with a blanket and, after warning him that he had a knife, tied his wrists with a shirt and wire.The half-dressed boy was forced from his home with a T-shirt over his head.Beattie fled after his victim managed to pull the shirt off and saw his attacker.Beattie was jailed but released ‘on licence’ in 1994.
