Celtic Supporter Arrested for Alleged Assault on Hearts Defender
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 arrest comes four months after hundreds of Celtic fans poured onto the pitch in May, igniting ugly flashpoints with Hearts players and staff in the aftermath of the final whistle. Tensions that had simmered through a high-stakes afternoon boiled over in chaotic scenes that have rumbled on all summer.
The man detained by police has been released on an undertaking to appear in court at a later date.
SunSport understands Kent, who came off the bench shortly after half-time in that match and left Hearts for Oxford Utd in the summer, is the player at the centre of the alleged incident.
The development lands amid a backdrop of accusation and denial that has surrounded the pitch invasion. For months, the fallout has been dominated by claims and counter-claims about what exactly happened on the turf as Celtic celebrated the title and Hearts players tried to leave the field.
The storm intensified when BBC pundit Pat Nevin publicly apologised for comments he made in the “heat of the moment”, after he suggested former Hearts talisman Lawrence Shankland had been assaulted during the same invasion. Nevin rowed back, but the damage to the debate had already been done, feeding a narrative of chaos and confrontation.
Celtic have already felt the consequences. The club were fined £7,500 and warned they could be forced to close 1,000 seats for a future Scottish Premiership home game if there is another “significant incursion” onto the pitch before the end of the 2027-28 season.
They were also hit with a £2,500 fine for a separate incident away to Motherwell, where supporters again entered the field and used pyrotechnics on a day decided by a dramatic 99th-minute penalty from Kelechi Iheanacho.
In the immediate aftermath of the Hearts clash, Celtic chairman Brian Wilson pushed back hard against suggestions of serious disorder.
“There was nobody attacked. The game did finish,” he said. “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 saw it very differently.
The Tynecastle club issued a strongly worded statement on the day, saying: “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 arguments that many thought had “run out of steam” are set to be dragged back into the spotlight, and the handling of that title-deciding afternoon will face fresh scrutiny.
