Celtic Supporter Arrested for Assault on Frankie Kent During Title Clash

A Celtic supporter has been arrested over an alleged assault on former Hearts defender Frankie Kent during last season’s explosive title-clincher at Parkhead.

The arrest comes four months after hundreds of Celtic fans flooded the pitch in May, turning a day of celebration into a flashpoint as Hearts players and staff found themselves caught up in angry confrontations.

Police confirmed a man has been arrested and released on an undertaking to appear in court at a later date.

The incident has sat at the centre of a storm that has rumbled on all summer. Early claims focused on Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland, after BBC pundit Pat Nevin said in a live broadcast that the striker had been assaulted during the invasion. Nevin later apologised, admitting his comments were made in the “heat of the moment”.

It is now understood the alleged victim is Kent, the experienced centre-back who came off the bench shortly after half-time that afternoon and has since left Tynecastle for Oxford Utd.

What followed that chaotic finale was months of bitter back-and-forth. Celtic were hit with a £7,500 fine 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.

The club had already been punished with a £2,500 fine for their supporters entering the field of play and using pyrotechnics away to Motherwell, a match settled by a dramatic 99th-minute penalty from Kelechi Iheanacho.

Celtic chairman Brian Wilson pushed back strongly against suggestions of serious disorder after the Hearts game. 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 took a very different view. The Edinburgh club issued a scathing statement in the aftermath, 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 fallout from that title-deciding afternoon is set to move from the court of public opinion into an actual courtroom.