Neil Lennon, racism, and me

Back in March, the BBC ran this story in the aftermath of "that" Celtic-Rangers game http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12659077 along with front page headlines in many papers. It seemed odd to me that the police would publicise unsubstantiated allegations in this way, especially when the defendant was the victim of death threats. This case seemed particularly odd as the complainants had already published their "evidence" on youtube and it was clearly farcical. Maybe this level of exposure was normal; I'm not a media person or a police spokesman.

Around the same time, the RST were given the freedom of the BBC to speculate as to what other crimes Neil Lennon may have committed when no-one was looking. This monologue was only interrupted when Paul McBride joined the programme and pointed out that the man they were impugning was at the centre of death threats (this was before they were known to be "viable") and that maybe that should be given some attention. The latest batch of suspect devices had hardly merited a mention in the media, and I was told this was because it had happened before and it was old news.

The media did at least report that Diouf was distancing himself from the allegations of racism, but there the matter was left. There was no follow up to say whether the Celtic manager was guilty or not, and no statement from the police as to the results of their much heralded investigation.

(Lest my interest be considered too partisan, I think the same is true of Steve Jennings of Motherwell who denied allegations of betting fraud. Those allegations were widely reported on and then forgotten without his name being cleared. I don't know what organisation is responsible for that investigation, so i don't know who should be pestered).

Months later the Lennon racism situation had still not been cleared up and various internet "facts" and grown in the vacuum, such as if Celtic didn't sack Lennon, Rangers were going to produce proof he wasn't born in Hawaii. So I approached a few journalists on twitter asking about that and the Jennings case, but got nowhere. Eventually I contacted police spokesman and pillar of the establishment Rob Shorthouse, who was very helpful and looked into it for me and then released a statement to the press. Hence the story in today's Daily Record (which I'm not going to link you to as it's still the Daily Record) clearing up that Lennon was not guilty of racially abusing Diouf. I know we all knew that but, I think it's important to have the police put it to bed.

Here are some quotes from the article:
Strathclyde Police: "The matter was investigated and reported to the fiscal. The file was returned marked 'no proceedings' due to a lack of evidence."
Paul McBride QC [PMQC]: "This has been a waste of time and money. The alleged victim didn't even make a complaint"
Sources close to Diouf branded the claims "nonsense".