Hundreds of reports of sex abuse in Scottish football may have been 'lost' as Police Scotland admit over 30 years worth of data is missing.
The cops revealed "very little" information exists of reports made to Strathclyde Police between 1966 and 1997 in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
It has raised fears hundreds of reports of historic child sex abuse in Scottish football could have been lost by the police, meaning abusers escaped justice, according to the Scottish Daily Express.
Last month, the Scottish Daily Express reported that an FOI into a list 14 potential paedophiles was handed to the former Strathclyde Police in 1995 but they have been unable to find it.
Only two men on the list have ever been jailed.
Much of the data loss appears to be the responsibility of Police Scotland's predecessors.
The former Strathclyde force itself was an amalgamation of City of Glasgow Police and Lanarkshire, Renfrew and Bute, Dunbartonshire, Argyll County, Ayrshire and a small portion of Stirling and Clackmannan Constabulary.
The FOI, seen by the Scottish Express, reads: "During the time period in question, in addition to the Strathclyde area being policed by different police forces, practices relating to the retention of information have also changed significantly.
"Whilst Scotland’s legacy police forces did have policies in place to manage the retention and disposal of information, including information which is generated during police investigations, these policies were not managed as efficiently as they are now by Police Scotland.
"It is also worth noting that the policies of the past did allow for the disposal of information under certain circumstances, for example where persons had been convicted.
"As a result of the aforementioned changes in organisations, the passage of time and retention policies/practices, very little information is held in respect of any reports to Strathclyde Police for the majority of the time period 1966-1997."
Digital recording was only introduced in 1997, meaning that much of the data between 1966 and 1976 is believed to have been destroyed or lost.
Authorities say that some hard disk files sourced from the eight regional forces contained "non-recent child abuse within institutions" which have now been catalogued and recorded on a searchable database.
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