SICK bigots started a Facebook page poking fun at tragic Cambuslang man Garry Lynch.
The vile profile, called ‘Gadger The Badger’ mocked his death from a brain haemorrhage.
One profile update reads: “Sore head tonight folks, feels like its about to explode, oh wait...”
Despite numerous complaints, the page remained online for nearly seven months.
It wasn’t until the Reformer intervened that it was taken down.
The page also contained sectarian terms such as ‘Hun’ and made disparaging remarks about ex-Gers players Paul Gascoigne, Ian Durrant, the late Davie Cooper, and Falklands War veteran, Simon Weston.
The profile was set up in March this year and had 56 friends, some of whom had posted disgusting messages.
The site, which was littered with spelling mistakes and included doctored pictures of Garry, described him as “currently dead”, and suggested that he had gone to hell.
Garry was only 51 when he died in February last year. He was a popular figure in Cambuslang and an avid follower of Cambuslang Rangers, as well as the Ibrox club.
He rarely, if ever, missed a Glasgow Rangers game, from the first team to youths, and was well known on internet forums and at Rangers functions around the globe.
In the summer, the Ibrox club sent an under-19 team to Somervell Park when Cambuslang Rangers organised a tournament in his memory.
Garry’s friends and family were said to be devastated about the page.
Cambuslang Rangers boss, Alan Wardlaw, was a lifelong friend of Garry, and said he “wouldn’t even know where to start” describing how he felt after being shown screengrabs of the website by the Reformer.
He added: “Most of what I want to say is unprintable.
“These are the kind of people that go about these days thinking it’s funny to make a joke about someone’s death. It’s reprehensible.”
The Reformer’s Cambuslang Rangers correspondent, Jim Logan, said he was disappointed the profile had stayed up for so long: “When the Facebook profile was pointed out to me, I was left raging. How could anyone do such a thing? I'm all for football banter and rivalry but this was just an insult of a very decent person and his family.
“Despite numerous e-mails to Facebook developers, from as early as Sunday, you were just sent around and around in the world of automated email responses. By Monday and Tuesday, there were many discerning voices on various threads all stating they too had called for the deletion of the profile.”
Facebook said the profile was removed because it violated policies on using fake names, saying it was profile rather than an actual page.
They said: “People set up profiles on Facebook to connect with the people and the things that they like just as we do in real life. These must be based on real identity and people are verified by the connections that they make.
“This real name culture also leads to greater accountability and a safer and more trusted environment for our users. It’s a violation of our policies to use a fake name or operate under a false identity, and we encourage people to report anyone they think is doing this, either through the report links we provide on the site or through the contact forms in our help centre.
“We provide users with report links on every page of the site and have a dedicated user operations team that reviews these reports and takes action as necessary. The most serious reports are reviewed within 24 hours.”
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