Ex-Celtic player spared jail over sexual assault

A former professional footballer who got into the bed of a stranger and touched her bottom after an eight-hour drinking binge has avoided a jail sentence for sexual assault.

Ex-Manchester City and Celtic player Chris Killen, 35, was in a “stupefied state” from alcohol when he went through the unlocked patio doors of a house where a group of women were sleeping after a party.

Killen, a father of two, went into a bedroom and got under the covers next to a woman who was sleeping alongside her friend and another woman in the room.

His victim, who had been drinking, suddenly became aware of a man next to her in bed and “froze” then felt a hand on her bottom over her knickers, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard.

She cried out to her sleeping friend who used her phone to light up Killen, who removed his hand and sat up in bed amid demands to know who he was and what he was doing there.

Gary Woodall, prosecuting, told the court Killen said his name was “John” and he had arrived at the house with “two girls” then quickly left the room and the house in Bury, Greater Manchester, which was rented out by a property firm he is involved in.

The defendant, of London Road, Adlington, near Macclesfield, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to an offence of sexual assault in the early morning of September 17 2016.

After his arrest he offered to go around with flowers and chocolates to apologise, but the court heard his victim, whose age was not given in court, felt “violated”.

Judge Maurice Greene sentenced Killen to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

He was also ordered to do 20 hours rehabilitation activity and 200 hours community service and must sign the sex offenders register for the next 10 years.

Chris Killen outside court. PA.