Celtic Supporter Arrested for Alleged Assault on Frankie Kent

Police have arrested a Celtic supporter over an alleged assault on Hearts defender Frankie Kent during last season’s explosive title-clinching clash at Parkhead.

The arrest comes four months after hundreds of Celtic fans flooded onto the pitch in May, turning a night of celebration into a flashpoint as Hearts players and staff found themselves face to face with jubilant – and in some cases furious – home supporters.

The man detained has been released on an undertaking to appear in court at a later date.

Kent named as alleged victim

For months, rumours swirled about what exactly happened in the chaos of that pitch invasion. Claims, denials, and pointed accusations bounced between both clubs and pundits.

SunSport understands the player at the centre of the alleged assault is Frankie Kent, the experienced centre-back who came off the bench just after half-time that day. Kent has since left Tynecastle for Oxford Utd, but the fallout from that afternoon in Glasgow has followed him into the new season.

The incident has resurfaced just weeks after BBC pundit Pat Nevin publicly apologised for “heat of the moment” comments suggesting then-Hearts talisman Lawrence Shankland had been assaulted during the same invasion. Nevin rowed back after those claims could not be substantiated.

Celtic punished after pitch chaos

The title party carried a cost. Celtic were fined £7,500 for the scenes against Hearts and hit with a suspended punishment that could see 1,000 spectators locked out of a future Scottish Premiership home match if there is another “significant incursion” onto the pitch before the end of the 2027-28 season.

That wasn’t the only sanction. The club were also fined £2,500 after supporters entered the field and used pyrotechnics in the previous league game away to Motherwell – a dramatic contest settled by a 99th-minute penalty from Kelechi Iheanacho.

Celtic’s hierarchy pushed back hard against suggestions that Hearts players had been attacked or ordered to leave quickly for their own safety.

Chairman Brian Wilson said after the Hearts match: “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 fury at “shameful scenes”

Hearts took a very different view.

Within hours of the final whistle, the Tynecastle club issued a strongly worded statement condemning what their players and staff had experienced at Celtic Park.

“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.”

The arrest of a supporter months on from that chaotic afternoon ensures the controversy around Celtic’s title decider with Hearts will not fade quietly into the background of a new campaign.