Man admits abusing boys
Victims denied justice for 20 years
A pervert admitted the historical abuse of two schoolboys in East Kilbride while posing as a football coach.
John O’Neil, 52, instructed his victims to strip in a “cramped toilet cubicle” while he measured their naked bodies 20 years ago.
He admitted two charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards the youngsters when he appeared in the dock at Hamilton Sheriff Court yesterday.
A pervert admitted abusing two schoolboys in East Kilbride while posing as a football coach.
John O’Neil pled guilty to two charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards 12-year-old boys 20 years ago at Duncanrig Secondary and Dunedin Pavilion.
The 52-year-old instructed his victims to strip in a cramped toilet cubicle while he measured their naked bodies.
Hamilton Sheriff Court heard that O’Neil had escaped prosecution for his crimes, despite the boys reporting him to police in 1997.
The fiscal depute said O’Neil placed an advertisement in a local paper, looking for boys to play in a new youth team which he would coach.
He appealed for boys aged around 12 to sign up.
The court heard O’Neil described himself as selftaught and had no previous form of training.
The two victims were aged 12 at the time and were team members.
O’Neil had told the boys they needed football strips and gathered the team together.
He told them they would be measured for a new team strip and took them individually into a cramped toilet cubicle.
He instructed the boys to take off their tracksuit bottoms, T-shirt and then their underwear.
The fiscal told the court: “They were embarrassed by this.”
O’Neil stood behind the boys and measured their chests before giving them the top of the measuring tape to hold. He then crouched down and measured their naked bodies from their crotch to their ankles.
One of the boys was so embarrassed, the court heard, that he told someone about the incident.
O’Neil was interviewed by the police in 1997 and denied the allegations.
But 20 years on he was snared when new information came to light following “a recent operation into football coaches in Scotland”.
Following further investigations, O’Neil was interviewed at Kilmarnock Police Office on May 2 this year. “He admitted he had no form of coaching experience and indicated that he had no recollectiom of the incidents in question,” said the fiscal.
He was later charged with four counts of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour towards young boys.
O’Neil, of Newmilns, East Ayrshire, denied two of the charges and those pleas were accepted by the prosecutor.
The fiscal said yesterday that no report was sent to the procurator fiscal’s office when the boys first reported the crime 20 years ago.
The case was adjourned until November 20 for background reports.
O’Neil was bailed and told he will be put on the sex offenders’ register meantime.
O’Neil was interviewed by police in 1997 and denied the allegations.