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 explosive title-clincher at Parkhead.

The arrest comes four months after hundreds of Celtic fans poured onto the pitch in May, turning a night of celebration into a flashpoint as Hearts players and staff suddenly found themselves surrounded in the chaos.

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

The development lands just weeks after BBC pundit Pat Nevin publicly apologised for his “heat of the moment” claims that then-Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland had been assaulted during the same invasion. Nevin rowed back after further footage and accounts emerged, but the controversy around what actually happened that afternoon refused to die down.

SunSport understands the player at the centre of the alleged assault is centre-back Frankie Kent, who came off the bench shortly after half-time in that match. Kent has since left Tynecastle, joining Oxford Utd in the summer, but his name has remained tied to one of the most contentious scenes of the Scottish season.

The pitch invasion has already carried a heavy price for Celtic. The club were fined £7,500 and hit with a suspended sanction that could see their home attendance cut by 1,000 for a Scottish Premiership fixture if there is another “significant incursion” before the end of the 2027-28 campaign.

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

At the time, Celtic chairman Brian Wilson dismissed talk of serious disorder in 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, though, painted a very different picture. The Edinburgh club issued a strongly worded statement in the aftermath, slamming what unfolded 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.”

Now, with an arrest made and a court appearance to come, the fallout from that title decider is far from over – and the spotlight on crowd behaviour in Scottish football just got sharper.