Celtic Boys Club founder Jim Torbett guilty of abusing 13-year-old boy

Jim Torbett had denied the charges

Celtic Boys Club founder Jim Torbett has been found guilty of four charges of sexually abusing a young player more than 50 years ago.

The former coach, who is now 75, was convicted of abusing the boy, who was aged 13, in 1967.

The indecent assaults went on for more than a year in his car, a flat and a toy shop in Glasgow.

Torbett had denied the charges but was found guilty following a trial and sentenced to three years.

The former football coach will serve the sentence after his current six-year jail term for a previous historical sex abuse conviction has ended.

He was jailed in 2018 for abusing three boys over an eight-year period - his second conviction for sex offences against boys.

Torbett founded Celtic Boys Club in 1966 as a club closely aligned with Celtic FC.

The former football coach's latest conviction came after the High Court in Inverness was told he kissed the young player on the lips, put his hand down his shorts and told him not to wake a second boy who was also staying overnight at Mr Torbett's late mother's flat in Glasgow.

He was also charged with indecently assaulting the boy at a toyshop in Glasgow's Maryhill.

A second indecent assault charge claimed Torbett targeted the boy while in a vehicle in Drumchapel.

Torbett was also charged with using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards the boy, as well as touching him on the body while he was asleep at a flat in Sighthill.

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Judge Andrew Cubie told the 75-year-old he had used the football team "as an elaborate front for recruitment of your young victims".

The judge said: "You have enjoyed 30 years of avoiding responsibility for your conduct but the impact on your victim has been lifelong.

"You caused significant damage, incalculable harm and blighted his life."

The judge noted that the boy, who cannot be named but was described in court as A, never played for the team and was not very good at football but Torbett bought him a new uniform, boots and other items.

"You had assessed his vulnerability and it is reasonable to conclude the interest you showed in him was for your own selfish sexual gratification," the judge said

Advocate depute Angela Gray, prosecuting, told Judge Cubie that Torbett had been convicted in November 1998 of shameless indecency involving three boys who were also Celtic Boys club members.

One of those who gave evidence against him relived his abuse for the jury in the latest trial because of the similarities in the type of assaults, the locations, the age and vulnerability of the victims and the timeframe of the late 1960s.

Torbett was also jailed for six years in November 2018 for sex assaults involving another three boys which occurred between 1970 and 1994.

Two victims had been in his under-14s football teams, while the third was abused by Torbett at the age of five.

During evidence in his latest trial, Torbett vehemently denied abusing any boys and described himself as "a decent man".

He said: "I will keep repeating that till the day I die."

Torbett had been living in California in 2017 when fresh allegations of abuse came to light.

Victim Kenny Campbell broke his silence in a BBC documentary, Football Abuse: The Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game.

A month after the documentary was broadcast, the BBC tracked Torbett down to California and put the claims to him in a dramatic confrontation.

Within hours of that footage being broadcast, Torbett was escorted to the airport by US Homeland Security and he was arrested on his return to Scotland.