A former Celtic Boys Club player was abused on a trip to the USA which he believed was funded by Celtic Football Club, a court was told today. The man, now in his late 60s, told a jury at the High Court in Inverness that 75-year-old Jim Torbett was his abuser during the trip.
Celtic Boys Club founder Torbett is standing trial accused of historic sexual abuse of a teenage boy between June 1967 and December 1968 - when the boy was aged 13 and 14. The pensioner, who is not the boy named in the charges, told how he answered an advert to join the Boys Club and went on to play for them for around three years, before leaving when the alleged abuse got too much.
He claimed he would be touched inappropriately and be forced to fondle and sexually arouse Torbett at his Glasgow flat, in city centre restaurants, cinemas, hotels, and on trips abroad to first Canada and then the USA, Spain and Italy to watch Celtic play AC Milan in a European match. He said that some of it he believed was paid for by Torbett himself, although he believed Celtic FC paid for the USA trip.
He said: “I think Celtic FC paid for that trip. The travel agency crashed when we were in Canada and then we were told that it was back on. I think Celtic FC paid for it.
“We were staying with ex-pat families and I was staying with Torbett and two other boys. We were baby-sitting their children and he would abuse me when they were out.”
He told the court he would lie to his parents about staying over at Torbett’s or going out for meals, the cinema and trips with the coach and two other boys. He admitted lying to his parents to cover up being with Torbett.
The witness claimed Torbett would threaten boys who crossed him, saying: “He threatened them. He would say I know where your parents live and that he knew my sister.”
The jury heard that he was regularly indecently assaulted wherever he went with Torbett or the boys club. When he was in Canada, Torbett forced him to come to his bed in a dormitory where around 20 other boys were sleeping.
He said: “The other adults had separate quarters but Torbett arranged that he would sleep in the same accommodation as all the boys.”
On another occasion, the witness alleged that Torbett took him and two other boys to a European cup-tie in Leeds and he was abused in the same hotel as the Celtic team were staying in.
He later quit the club, saying: “At the end I knew what was happening was wrong and I just left. I walked away.”
The witness said he never told anyone about what happened to him until 1996 when he went to the police on reading a story in the Daily Record about the Boys’ Club and Celtic FC.
He said: “I was scared in case there were repercussions. I just disappeared.”
The trial continues.
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