Morning Briefing: Hearts braced for SPL wrath after manager and players not paid

THE Scottish Premier League looks set to throw the book at Hearts after the Tynecastle side failed to pay manager John McGlynn and six star players on time for the second month in a row.

Hearts have already been punished with a transfer embargo for failing to pay wages last month.

But when the SPL next meets its feared that even tougher penalties could be imposed upon them.

Hearts have 48 hours to formally inform the league of their failure to pay all staff in writing, There is as yet no time-frame for when the unpaid players can expect to receive their due monies.

• TWELVE patients at two Edinburgh hospitals were forced to wait for more than 24 hours in Accident and Emergency units, new figures obtained by the Tories show.

More than 50 people over the last four years, including some children, waited more than a day to be seen by doctors and either admitted to a ward or discharged. A further 65 were delayed by at least 18 hours.

Twelve patients, split equally between the city’s ERI and Western General waited over 24 hours for treatment to conclude.

The Scottish Government’s target is a maximum four hours’ wait after arriving at A&E units before patients should be transferred to a ward or allowed home.

Health campaigners say although the figure is only a fraction of the total number of patients who visit A&E, the number of people waiting to be treated highlights “severe staffing and resource issues”.

• A MAN who downloaded more than 60,000 images of child pornography from the internet was arrested following a tip-off to police.

Michael Ragan, 57, was caught after police raided his home in Granton Mains Vale, Edinburgh, in December 2011.

Yesterday, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how officers who searched his computer found he kept a total of 67,889 indecent photographs on the machine. Detectives also found 273 pornographic movies featuring children on the PC which was seized following a search of his property.

Officers acted after receiving a tip-off that Ragan visited websites which hosted child porn between November 2004 and November 2005.

The court heard how officers also found a series of images of a young girl which Ragan had manipulated to make illegal and that Ragan immediately confessed his wrong doing to police.

Ragan, a first offender, pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing child pornography. Sentence was deferred for reports about his mental health. He will be sentenced on November 13.