Star tells trial of online messages

A Scottish professional footballer told a jury yesterday (Tuesday) that a coach at former club Stirling Albion had made “inappropriate remarks” to him about his sex life when he was in the youth team.

He said he was only 14 when Alexander Robertson – from Bridge of Allan, who coached youngsters at Albion – began messaging him on Snapchat and Facebook.

Speaking from behind a screen, the professional footballer, now 20, who cannot be identified, said though he played for Albion for several years, he had never been coached personally by Robertson – but he’d had contact with him since Robertson approached him after watching him play for his high school in 2014.

He told Falkirk Sheriff Court that he’d had “sometimes weekly” discussions on Facebook with Robertson about football. He said when he was playing for Stirling Albion’s under15s, Robertson sent him messages on Snapchat – where communications disappear unless specifically saved – which he described as “at times out of the ordinary”

and “inappropriate”. He said: “Robertson started asking me about girls and my involvement with them and stuff. He brought up the topic.

“It was something along the lines of ‘Have you s ****** any birds yet?’

“He asked how many. I eventually stopped replying. I thought it was a bit weird that he was asking that.

“Sometimes he’d make a comment about the size of my penis.

“I think he meant it as a jokey comment, saying that I had a small penis.”

He said Robertson, known as Sandy, had also sent him “points” to buy players on computer football game FIFA.

He said: “He did it a couple of times, it was either £10 or £20 worth. He’d send me over the code and I’d type it into my Playstation. He’d say to me don’t tell anyone about him buying the FIFA points.”

He said he “eventually stopped replying” to Robertson after the questions about his sex life, but continued to communicate with the coach to get “information” about how his progress was being viewed at Stirling Albion.

The player, who was interviewed by police after officers launched an investigation into Robertson, added: “It was quite an awkward thing. As I got older I felt a bit embarrassed about it.”

Virgil Crawford, defending Robertson, suggested to him that the youth coach “never sent” to him any message about his penis size or about his sex life with girls. The player replied: “I’m saying it was.” He was giving evidence on the second day of a trial in which Robertson, 22, of Fishers Green, denies sending sexual