ICONIC Celtic boss Jock Stein became an honorary vice president of Celtic Boys Club with Jim Torbett — four years after the Lisbon Lions gaffer sacked the paedophile, we can reveal.
The details are contained in a November 1978 awards bash article in the Hoops’ Celtic View newspaper by fellow Boys Club abuser and ex-manager Frank Cairney.
Cairney was at the heart of youth operations for a number of decades[/caption]
Jock Stein (above) sacked Jim Torbett[/caption]
Jim Torbett was jailed for three years in April this year[/caption]
Cairney wrote: “Jock Stein, Jim Torbett, Tony McGuinness and Bob Dunwoodie all accepted invitations to become honorary vice presidents.”
The article shows how Torbett, 76, was welcomed back into the fold — months after Stein’s departure from Parkhead.
A source said last night: “This is further evidence of how seemingly untouchable Torbett was.
“Even after having been given the bullet, he managed to worm his way back.”
In another Celtic View article, published in December 1977, Stein, who died in 1985 aged 62, is shown handing Torbett a “scroll” at an awards ceremony.
Three years before, the View reported Torbett’s departure.
He claimed his exit was for personal and business reasons — but it later emerged Stein gave him the boot.
In 1996, Cairney, now 88, claimed he was summoned to a meeting at which Torbett was quizzed about sex abuse allegations.
He said: “Jock lifted him out his seat, took him by the arm out of the old boardroom and physically kicked him out the door.”
Cairney was at the heart of the youth operation for decades.
The predator was caged for three years in 2019 over a series of sex attacks on footie starlets between 1965 and 1986.
We revealed earlier this month, above, how Torbett was involved in planning Roy Aitken’s testimonial in 1987.
Minutes from organising committee meetings led by former Parkhead chairman Michael Kelly, 82, show Torbett’s role in the ex-Celtic captain’s tribute.
On the revelation that Torbett abused a lad in August 1986, while engaged in testimonial meetings, Mr Kelly said: “It’s horrific to contemplate that.”
A class action lawsuit representing 28 survivors against Celtic FC claims the club was intimately associated with the now-defunct Boys Club. Parkhead chiefs insist it was a “separate entity”.
Torbett, who founded the Boys Club in 1966, was jailed for three years in April after being found guilty of preying on Gordon Woods, 13, in 1967.
He got six years in 2018 for abusing three kids.
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