Unnamed witness

communications to minors. He is said to have “repeatedly” sent online sexual messages to three of the boys, who were aged 13 to 15 at the time, “for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, distressing, or alarming” his alleged victims.

It alleged he repeatedly asked two of the boys to send him pictures of their bodies, eventually inducing the boy who gave evidence on Monday to send him pictures of himself “in a state of undress”.

The messages are said to have been sent on a number of occasions over a period of some three-and-a-half years between August 2013 and February 2017, during which time it is also claimed Robertson repeatedly asked two of the boys to accompany him on car journeys.

Earlier, another witness, a boy now aged 16, told a jury that Robertsonhad messaged him on Snapchat.

The boy alleged the messages went from general discussions about football to more personal things “like pubic hair” or if he hads sexual involvement with girls.

The boy said after he had moved up to the Under 15 team, he became aware that “a few of the boys” had also been talking to Robertson and were “a bit concerned” about things the coach had said.

Eventually in January or February last year the topic was being talked about by two age groups of youngsters returning from a fixture in Inverness when some of the adults on the bus overheard.

Stirling Albion’s head youth coach Stewart Taylor then “had a conversation” with everyone involved.

The boy said: “Stewart Taylor spoke to all of us and our parents as a group and told us to come forward if we had information.

“I wasn’t that fussed but somebody else told the police things had happened to me.”

Cross-examining, Mr Crawford put it to the boy that Robertson had never asked him about pubic hair or doing things with girls. The boy replied: “I don’t agree.”

The trial, before Sheriff John Mundy and jury, continues.