Rangers - alleged cover up - BBC rebutted by club

[MisterC 12,270]

1 hour ago, JCDBigBear said:

Yes we sacked him as we believed the boy (not his parents).   Only  latterly did we find out that Neely was a paedophile.  He was sacked for getting a boy to expose his buttocks and bend over Neely's lap for a beating (which never happened).    That was an old-fashioned method of punishment years ago and Souness etc must have been horrified but I very much doubt that anyone at RFC at that time suspected anything more sinister in a sexually deviant way.    As for the Rangers News article on Neely's departure I'm pretty sure that some junior journalist would have written that and not anyone in importance at Ibrox.   If you read the Rangers News it was amateurish  in content and clearly never proof-read before going into print.

Another thing to consider, the club would be open to litigation if they published something that may not come to be proven in a court of law.

The club have a duty to investigate what happened and find out from Alistair Hood or whoever would have dealt with this issue back then. If the club did contact the police then from there it's down to the police to investigate and do what they needed to do. If the police did nothing or very little then that's not the fault of the club, plus I doubt the police would want to confirm something that reflects poorly on them. 

Let's hope the club can have a full honest investigation and get to the bottom of what happened. 

[corbyloyal84 130]

1 hour ago, Rangers_no1 said:

Would be a complete utter fuck up if we claimed two years ago that we contacted the police without establishing the truth and facts beforehand. 

That's what worries me 

[Laudrupsleftfoot 10,872]

So Daly didn't think it was relevant to the story to report that John's father was a policeman, or whether he asked whether John's "worried" parents reported it to the police and confirm what the answer was? 

[ritchieshearercaldow 22,137]

38 minutes ago, JCDBigBear said:

We are all aware of that now but 30 years ago it was a different world.      Are you seriously claiming that Souness, Smith etc knew he was sexually deviant at that time?

All true.

 No Child Line, No Background Investigations into suitably to work with children, No Police computers to record reports.

Only a paper record which has probably been binned through lack of evidence at the time

This could also be said of the scum but the difference is , it happened once at our club and it happened multiple times for them even though they knew the people involved 

Trying to say the club Covered it up because of an article written in a fanzine by someone who probably didn’t know the facts, is just ridiculous 

[Bad Robot 21,150]

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[JCDBigBear 10,825]

The main fact in this matter is that the victim and his parents didn't make an official complaint to the police about Neely.   Rangers FC wasn't the victim and I cannot see how RFC could make an official complaint in such circumstances.  I would be pretty certain that Alistair Hood no doubt discussed it with someone involved with the police.   I very much doubt that it would or could be official.    

[Bad Robot 21,150]

This is wrong regardless how long ago it was, the last line wasn’t required

[Dickie1963 2,352]

15 minutes ago, MisterC said:

Another thing to consider, the club would be open to litigation if they published something that may not come to be proven in a court of law.

The club have a duty to investigate what happened and find out from Alistair Hood or whoever would have dealt with this issue back then. If the club did contact the police then from there it's down to the police to investigate and do what they needed to do. If the police did nothing or very little then that's not the fault of the club, plus I doubt the police would want to confirm something that reflects poorly on them. 

Let's hope the club can have a full honest investigation and get to the bottom of what happened. 

Why would the club have reported anything to the Police.

His father was there for goodness sake.

Legislation requiring the club to act surely came much later ?

If something had happened to my son at Livingston FC I would have gone straight to the Police and not gone near the club. 

 

[Prso's headband 35,446]

Just now, Bad Robot said:

This is wrong regardless how long ago it was.

Aye ano. The title should’ve been Neely is a nonce and we’ve chucked him. 

PS if he isn’t actually a wrong yin we’r fine with getting sued for slander... 

[Dickie1963 2,352]

1 minute ago, Bad Robot said:

This is wrong regardless how long ago it was, the last line wasn’t required

I agree but was it just a junior reporter expanding the story ? 

I dont read much into this at all.

What they supposed to say it was the word of a young boy v grown man.

[Blue Avenger 22,567]

To conclude, I just fucking hate taigs. The evidence shows they are tarred with the paedophile brush both within and outwith football. Such is the mentality, now everyone must be tarred with the same, particularly us whom they hate the most. They will contrive every which way they can to bring us down. It makes them feel better. Brush off the guilt and spread the label, contiminating every cunt in the process.  They are a cancer of society who badly need resected. 

[philiprfc 1,799]

59 minutes ago, Courtyard Bear said:

So if we can’t back it up we should say we never did it? Aye that makes perfect sense. 

So again you don’t believe the word of the Rangers Board, Walter Smith or Graeme Souness unless they can back it up. 

None of that makes sense, I'm not accusing anyone of lying (I don't even know if Walter or Souness have ever even commented on this publicly?) and I've already said that I believe the truth to the original statement - but it doesn't matter what I believe, or what you believe. What matters is that we prove beyond any doubt that we took the correct steps (which is what the current board said), because as we speak there are people gunning for us about this, and if the board have said they understand we went to the police - well we need to prove it, because if we don't, the blanks will be filled in for us (already started) and we'll be left open to media attacks, potential legal action or other sanctions (SFA are currently doing a review - who knows what they might do or what conclusions they might yet draw).

[Bad Robot 21,150]

13 minutes ago, Dickie1963 said:

I agree but was it just a junior reporter expanding the story ? 

I dont read much into this at all.

What they supposed to say it was the word of a young boy v grown man.

Neely supposedly in this news article admitted it to GS so GS needs questioned to confirm or deny this. 

Who was the 2nd coach who burst into the dressing room so get him named and interviewed if he’s still alive. Maybe he did say this and never know anything but was only defended him as a colleague 

[toad 320]

It seems unusual that having worked for Hibs and Rangers this guy never worked for a senior club in Scotland after leaving us. It is alleged that Hibs failed to report his previous assaults on their kids when they got rid of him, according to various reports I have read. 

It looks to me that Rangers put the word out that he was bad news, despite the Rangers News  'standard departure' article.

As mentioned previously, you would think having worked for 2 of Scotlands top clubs that he would be sought after by other clubs in Scotland. 

[Bad Robot 21,150]

19 minutes ago, Prso's headband said:

Aye ano. The title should’ve been Neely is a nonce and we’ve chucked him. 

PS if he isn’t actually a wrong yin we’r fine with getting sued for slander... 

We shouldn’t have went to print with anything if he admitted it to GS. 

[MisterC 12,270]

8 minutes ago, Dickie1963 said:

Why would the club have reported anything to the Police.

His father was there for goodness sake.

Legislation requiring the club to act surely came much later ?

If something had happened to my son at Livingston FC I would have gone straight to the Police and not gone near the club. 

 

Because the club have a duty of care and I would say there's a moral responsibility to alert the authorities if there's a whiff of noncery. 

If the boys dad was a polis then surely to God you would think he would ensure it would be reported through the correct channels. Ultimately it is for the boys family to decide what to do and theres only so much the club could have done.

At the end of the day, you know as much as I do as to what was said, done etc at the time. The club did do the right thing by getting rid of him at the time, and ensured he couldn't do any more noncing at Rangers. If the authorities who would have been aware did nothing then that's no fault of the club.

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,722]

3 hours ago, LaudrupsPatrickBoots said:

No. This is Rangers related. The other stuff isn't.

Smashing. Any cunt that supports any other club in Scotland or worse uk or abroad that googles what Rangers are involved in and want to see what were saying about it (to use against us on SM no doubt) will see us talking about allegations against us and no other cunts particularly those across the city.

Go into other forums and their allegations even proven criminality aren't discussed publicly. Whilst we are the gift that keeps on giving.  Fucking suicidal rules over common sense bollocks on here.

[A.T.G 10,773]

If truth in the story pay the lad.

 

set a precedence 

[MisterC 12,270]

1 minute ago, A.T.G said:

If truth in the story pay the lad.

 

set a precedence 

You know what, that would be right thing to do. Not to set a precedent or to point score, but because it's the right thing to do. 

[Bad Robot 21,150]

1 minute ago, toad said:

It seems unusual that having worked for Hibs and Rangers this guy never worked for a senior club in Scotland after leaving us. It is alleged that Hibs failed to report his previous assaults on their kids when they got rid of him, according to various reports I have read. 

It looks to me that Rangers put the word out that he was bad news, despite the Rangers News  'standard departure' article.

As mentioned previously, you would think having worked for 2 of Scotlands top clubs that he would be sought after by other clubs in Scotland. 

We need more info from GS to see if Neely did say anything as putting someone over your knee back then for punishment was common practice albeit maybe just for parents and certainly not pulling pants down, if the pants part did happen.

Neely then been allowed to resign with best wishes is plausible if it was just a punishment beating with no deviancy suspected however this may fall down on what was reported to the police.

Maybe the club said the above to the police but what doesn’t add up is why didn’t the parents do anything and was the accusers dad a Police officer or is this just rumours?

[magic8ball 27,901]

Full open investigation into all clubs is now required ,

For long and weary many bears have been asking why our board haven’t said anything about the way the tarriers are trying to wriggle out of their industrial sized problem ,but let’s face it our board or any other board with any self respect would never indulge in such a thing ,lieswell and co are a different breed and would stoop to any lengths as we have already witnesses through recent times ,secret investigation separate entity  etc ,

Now our board has the opertunity to back claims for an independent enquiry ,

that way nobody has anything to hide ,as it stands in reality the tarriers have nothing to hide ,everybody knows they rehired a paedophile who offended again ,only problem is nobody wants to do anything about it ,

[Blumhoilann 6,712]

6 minutes ago, SeparateEntityMyArse said:

Smashing. Any cunt that supports any other club in Scotland or worse uk or abroad that googles what Rangers are involved in and want to see what were saying about it (to use against us on SM no doubt) will see us talking about allegations against us and no other cunts particularly those across the city.

Go into other forums and their allegations even proven criminality aren't discussed publicly. Whilst we are the gift that keeps on giving.  Fucking suicidal rules over common sense bollocks on here.

Can't agree wi you on that mate,hiding the truth is what the Tims have done for years,we have to be open in this case and hope the whole truth comes out. People only need open the BBC football/news app and they'll see this hi-lited,strange there has hardly been a mention about CFC and child rape/abuse for many months and even then it was 'alleged' 😞

 

[Bad Robot 21,150]

8 minutes ago, magic8ball said:

Full open investigation into all clubs is now required ,

For long and weary many bears have been asking why our board haven’t said anything about the way the tarriers are trying to wriggle out of their industrial sized problem ,but let’s face it our board or any other board with any self respect would never indulge in such a thing ,lieswell and co are a different breed and would stoop to any lengths as we have already witnesses through recent times ,secret investigation separate entity  etc ,

Now our board has the opertunity to back claims for an independent enquiry ,

that way nobody has anything to hide ,as it stands in reality the tarriers have nothing to hide ,everybody knows they rehired a paedophile who offended again ,only problem is nobody wants to do anything about it ,

I think that’s what any statement should be saying, short and sweet but straight to the point ‘the club acknowledge the bbc article and back a full UK government independent inquiry into all historical  allegations and recent convictions’.

The above would put us on the offensive and would be a positive move both for any accusers and also for PR.

 

[RFC55 108,906]

BBC Scotland’s reporting on these horrific incidents and, in particular, its sensationalist and unfair accusation of a cover up by Rangers is disgraceful.

'Rangers based its prior description as to what occurred on trusted first-hand accounts from those with personal knowledge of what took place and the appropriate steps taken at that time. To suggest, as BBC Scotland’s Mark Daly has done, that these are invalidated by a short, filler piece in the Rangers News written almost 30 years ago by someone who clearly had no knowledge of the events, or the reasons for Neely’s sacking is nonsense. Indeed, it is shameful.

'BBC Scotland has a history of inaccurate reporting when commenting on Rangers and a string of apologies given to Rangers by BBC Scotland in recent times is clear evidence of this. However, on a matter of such gravity we do not think it is unreasonable to expect better than Mr Daly’s report.

'The important people here are the victims of abuse and we owe it to them to deal sensitively and supportively with the issues they raise.

'Rangers will do all it can to assist in offering support and counselling to anyone affected. Their wellbeing should be at the centre of every right thinking person’s concern

[Davy Vandenbroucke 26,158]

Rangers response to Mark Daly's Gordon Neely article

‘BBC Scotland’s reporting on these horrific incidents and, in particular, its sensationalist and unfair accusation of a cover up by Rangers is disgraceful.

'Rangers based its prior description as to what occurred on trusted first-hand accounts from those with personal knowledge of what took place and the appropriate steps taken at that time. To suggest, as BBC Scotland’s Mark Daly has done, that these are invalidated by a short, filler piece in the Rangers News written almost 30 years ago by someone who clearly had no knowledge of the events, or the reasons for Neely’s sacking is nonsense. Indeed, it is shameful.

'BBC Scotland has a history of inaccurate reporting when commenting on Rangers and a string of apologies given to Rangers by BBC Scotland in recent times is clear evidence of this. However, on a matter of such gravity we do not think it is unreasonable to expect better than Mr Daly’s report.

'The important people here are the victims of abuse and we owe it to them to deal sensitively and supportively with the issues they raise.

'Rangers will do all it can to assist in offering support and counselling to anyone affected. Their wellbeing should be at the centre of every right thinking person’s concern.’