Rangers fans have invited James Dornan MSP to stay true to his word and apologise to the Rangers squad for false allegations regarding the club’s trophy day celebrations.
SNP politician Dornan was one of a number of leading political voices who dissented against the club’s first-team regarding allegations of sectarian singing in a video of the players singing the song Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond.
Police Scotland would then – in a move many felt strange – comment on the video claiming they were investigating it.
This would be retweeted by then justice minister Humza Yousaf – another SNP MSP who is a known Celtic fan – who irresponsibly commented on a live case to spread the assertion.
This was then picked up by BBC Scotland and journalist Chris McLaughlin who led with the story on one of the broadcaster’s main TV news bulletins further spreading it around the country.
Dornan criticised the first team in condemning the video and promised that he would retract the comments if the video was found to be false.
Since then Police Scotland have found “no criminality” relating to the first team and earlier in the year released a tweet absolving them of any guilt.
James Dornan – who worryingly represents Rangers fans as the MSP of Glasgow Cathcart – would then explain that Police Scotland found the original video to be doctored.
Dornan stated to the Scottish Parliament on 10th June 2021:
“I’m happy to report that after explaining the importance of a fuller response I’m content that Police Scotland had a thorough investigation including an electronic investigation and the video was – as I had always hoped – a fake.”
Despite this, James Dornan has already previously backtracked regarding the publication of an apology to the Rangers first team.
Now, a Freedom of Information request obtained from Police Scotland has gone into greater detail regarding Police Scotland’s investigation of the situation.
The request reveals that Police Scotland investigated the claims by interviewing those who were there – something wholly disruptive to the club’s celebrations – and established that there was no “anti-Catholic language” used at any point.
It then claims that the “technical assessment” of the video found it be a fake.
The Freedom of Information request was submitted and published by Twitter user @RFC_Falkirk.
Since its publication Rangers fans have – in our assessment quite rightly – been demanding an apology as James Dornan is encouraged to stay true to his word:
https://twitter.com/bluebreeze1970s/status/1408145205564428295
https://twitter.com/GoodCopBabcock/status/1408132060393480202
https://twitter.com/TheRailwayBears/status/1408139542096384020
Amid complaints about Gers fans congregating and the demonisation of the support, salty comments over a league title defeat in May are coming back to haunt in June.
At the very heart of all this is the unsolicited and defamatory attack on our players, who remain the innocent victims and pawns in a murky political game.
