FOR a man never known for self-censorship, there’s great irony in Jerry Sadowitz’s extreme keenness to suppress his own act. At least in terms of what appears on social media.
You will struggle to find much online of the comedian, which by all accounts is down to him.
In 1987, Sadowtiz recorded an album which included a comedy sketch that clearly stated Jimmy Savile was guilty of child abuse. Sadowitz wasn’t fooled.
Savile was all that and more. But at least the Glaswegian comedian had the guts to say it almost 30 years before the scandal broke into the public domain. The album was pulled for fear he would be sued.
In 1987 I was 14 and still at school. But even then I knew there was something not quite right about Savile. And I wasn’t the only one. Back then his crimes were an urban myth which turned out to be 100 per cent true.
And if a group of teenage boys from Cambuslang had heard the stories about “Sir” Jimmy, then so had hundreds more including the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who on several occasions invited Britain’s most notorious paedophile to stay at Chequers on Christmas Eve.
Lots of important people knew what Savile had been doing – or at least suspected. But they did and said nothing. That’s when evil triumphs.
In December, Frank Cairney became the third former Celtic Boys Club coach to be convicted of child sex abuse within six weeks.
Cairney’s case followed the conviction of Jim Torbett, the founder of Celtic Boys Club, who was jailed for six years for abusing three boys – two of these had been in his Under-14s football teams. Gerald King, former chairman at Celtic Boys Club, was found guilty in December of sexually abusing four boys and a girl while coaching football at a primary school in the north of Glasgow.
READ MORE: Celtic's 'deep regret' after second ex-Celtic Boys Club coach is jailed for child abuse
Cairney himself was found guilty of nine charges of sexually abusing young footballers while running St Columba’s Boys Guild in Viewpark, Lanarkshire, and the Under-16 team at Celtic Boys Club. Last week he was jailed for four years. I deliberately waited until that verdict before writing about this.
Torbett founded Celtic Boys Club but was forced out in 1974 when allegations first surfaced. He was allowed to return. Last year, he was found guilty of five abuse charges between August 1986 and August 1994.
He has already served a two-year jail sentence when in 1998 was found guilty of abusing three Celtic Boys Club players.
This is what the club said last week: “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.”
John (not his real name) was going to talk to me about his time at the Boys Club. He suffered what he called “light abuse”. He knew what some of his team-mates were going through.
John has since changed his mind. He’d rather get on with his life now both Cairney and Torbett are behind bars. He is not looking to exploit the situation for financial gain. Indeed, he has been a season ticket holder at Celtic for decades.
John also doesn’t blame the current board or anyone working at the club. Nor does he expect an apology from the club. All he wants is some form of closure.
In the case of Savile, people stayed quiet because of his power. Those who did say something were met with brick walls. Maybe that’s what happened here.
READ MORE: Celtic's "deep regret" over abuse of youths by boys club founder Jim Torbett
In 1987 I didn’t know a single person at Celtic, but I had heard the rumours. Except, again, as was the case with Savile, it turns out these were not rumours.
Too many questions remain unanswered. John, the rest of the victims and their families deserve to be told everything.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel