Celtic Supporter Arrested for Alleged Assault on Frankie Kent
A Celtic supporter has been arrested over an alleged assault on Hearts defender Frankie Kent during last season’s dramatic title-clincher at Parkhead.
The man was detained four months after hundreds of Celtic fans poured onto the pitch in May, scenes that triggered angry flashpoints with Hearts players and staff in the immediate aftermath of the final whistle. He has since been released on an undertaking to appear in court at a later date.
The development comes in the wake of BBC pundit Pat Nevin publicly apologising for “heat of the moment” comments in which he claimed former Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland had been assaulted during the same invasion. Those claims were later withdrawn.
SunSport understands the alleged victim is centre-back Kent, who came off the bench shortly after half-time in that match and has since left Tynecastle for Oxford Utd in the summer window.
That chaotic afternoon has sparked months of accusation and rebuttal between the clubs and their supporters. The fallout saw Celtic fined £7,500 and warned they could be forced to close 1,000 seats for a home Scottish Premiership fixture if there is another “significant incursion” onto the pitch before the end of the 2027-28 season.
The Glasgow club were also hit with a £2,500 fine for a separate incident involving their fans entering the pitch and using pyrotechnics away to Motherwell, a game settled by a 99th-minute penalty from Kelechi Iheanacho.
Celtic chairman Brian Wilson pushed back strongly against claims of serious disorder after the Hearts clash. He said: “There was nobody attacked. The game did finish.
“The Hearts players were not advised by police to leave the stadium promptly. It was all rubbish.
“And yet people who should have known better or people with axes to grind who couldn’t quite conceal them, made this into a running narrative until it ran out of steam. So we weren’t going to get involved in that stupid debate.”
Hearts, for their part, issued a blistering statement in the hours after full-time, painting a very different picture of what their squad and staff had faced.
“Heart of Midlothian utterly condemns the shameful scenes at Celtic Park this afternoon which have, once again, embarrassed Scottish football.
“Reports of serious physical and verbal abuse towards our players and staff, both on the pitch and elsewhere, are deeply disturbing.
“We are investigating this fully and are in dialogue with Police Scotland.
“We will make no further comment at this time other than to say that it is completely unacceptable that our players and staff were put in that situation.”
Now, with an arrest made and a court appearance to come, the legal process will take over from the noise and narrative that have rumbled on since that title-deciding afternoon.
