AN SNP MSP is under fire after comparing child sex abuse and tax dodging.
John Mason said there were “some parallels” between abuse by former coaches at Celtic Boys Club and a past tax scheme at Rangers Football Club, as both hurt children.
The Glasgow Shettleston MSP made the remark in an email to a constituent who wanted a public inquiry into historic abuse at the Boys Club.
The Scottish Sun reported Mr Mason said the request was a “natural response”, but cautioned against rushing on Old Firm matters.
He said he believed there were parallels between the Celtic case, which exposed four paedophiles, and former Rangers staff and players getting tax-free loans instead of wages in the £47m EBT scheme that collapsed in 2012.
Mr Mason said: “In both cases young people are suffering. In the one, children are suffering directly at the hands of child abusers.
“In the other, very rich people are not paying the tax due which means schools and hospitals get less money than they need.
“I do accept they are different types of crimes, but they are both crimes with real victims, usually the most vulnerable in our society.”
Labour MSP James Kelly said: “These comments show how detached John Mason is from reality.”
A Tory spokesman said; “These remarks will go down very poorly with anyone who’s ever suffered at the hands of a child abuser.”
The Sun said Mr Mason explained people frequently tried to draw him into a “vendetta” against the Old Firm teams, and he tried to stay above the fray.
He said: “Both clubs have done things wrong or have links to individuals who have done things wrong.”
An SNP spokesperson said: “Everyone agrees child abuse is abhorrent.”
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