Paedophile coach had helped lead children’s squad trip to Holland
BY JANE HAMILTON HERE’S paedophile football coach Blair Barlow geting close to kids while performing as Stirling Albion mascot Bino the Bear.
The obese beast donned the cuddly suit while working on community projects with the League Two club.
Barlow was convicted this week of sending a photo of his penis to a 15-year-old boy.
A Stirling Albion insider said: “He’s been around the club for years.
“To be honest, he wasn’t much of a coach but he had qualifications coming out of his ears and he was a friendly lad.
“Every time you bumped into him, he was doing more and more around the place – he’d made himself indispensable, part of the furniture.
“A lot of people feel totally betrayed that he’s used friendships and the club itself to get close to children.”
Barlow, 22, was busted by police in May last year after the mum of the boy spotted suspicious correspondence on the phone of the youngster, who was a youth footballer, though not at Albion.
Weeks earlier, Barlow had helped lead an under-15s trip to Holland. Days after the squad came home, police contacted Stirling Albion and told them he wasn’t to be allowed to work with children and he was suspended.
Barlow, who denied the charge, claimed he had “misclicked” on his phone and had meant to send the photo of his penis to a stranger called “BentBoy” he’d met on the gay dating site Grindr.
But he admitted to police he had on another occasion quizzed the boy about masturbation, claiming it was “banter”.
Prosecutor Claire Rowan told Stirling Sheriff Court: “Barlow knew from having been a football coach the implications of communicating with a child. He knew the line that shouldn’t be crossed.”
Sentence was deferred for reports. Nobody from Stirling Albion was available for comment. Book online at: