Abusers hailed in official Celtic mag

Men later convicted over vile sex charges were given praise for discovering promising kids

- RORY CASSIDY

PREDATORY Celtic scout Kenneth Divers and two other convicted paedophiles were hailed as being central to the club's on-field success in the team's official magazine.

Past editions of The Celtic View heaped praise on the club's scouts - including 78-year-old pervert Divers, who was caged for five years last Wednesday for abusing young boys in his care.

Two articles praised Celtic talent-spotters for their efforts, at a time when Divers was actively abusing boys.

His conviction and sentence came as the club is fighting a US-style class lawsuit.

The civil action was launched against the Glasgow club by about 25 child sex abuse victims.

Lawyers acting for Celtic have argued that the boys' club was a separate entity from the senior team.

But issues of the club's weekly newspaper from May 1992 say Divers and fellow scouts Jim McCafferty and Jim Brown who were both also convicted of child sex offences - played a key role in identifying Celtic stars of the future.

Divers, who worked as a teacher and a football coach at schools in Paisley, preyed on four pupils between 1968 and 1992.

His trial at Paisley Sheriff Court heard he targeted his third victim, when the boy was aged between 10 and 14, between 1984 and 1988.

A 1987 edition of The Celtic View ran an interview with John Kelman, Celtic's chief scout at the time, who was hired by former first-team manager Billy McNeill nine years earlier.

Kelman told how important Divers and the other scouts were to the club.

On one page, Divers is highlighted as being one of 12 men responsible for unearthing promising youngsters, with a view to them becoming first-team superstars.