Premiership footballer asked about his sex life by coach at former club

A Scottish Premiership footballer has told a jury that a football coach at his former club had made “inappropriate remarks” to him about his sex life and the size of his penis when he was a youth team member.

The footballer said he was still 14 when Alexander Robertson, who coached youngsters at a Scottish League Two side, started messaging him on Snapchat and Facebook.

Speaking yesterday from behind a screen at Falkirk Sheriff Court, the professional footballer, now 18, who cannot be identified, said though he played for the former club for several years he had never been coached personally by 22-year-old Robertson.

But he said he had contact with the coach since Robertson, from Bridge of Allan in Stirlingshire, approached him after watching him play for his high school in 2014. He told the court he had “sometimes weekly” discussions on Facebook with Robertson about football.

The footballer said when he was playing for the Scottish League Two side’s under-15s, Robertson sent him messages on Snapchat – where communications disappear unless specifically saved – that 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 on the lines of, ‘Have you shagged 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.” The footballer 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.”

Virgil Crawford, defending Robertson, suggested the youth coach “never sent” the footballer any message about his penis size or about his sex life with girls.

The player replied: “I’m saying it was.”

The footballer was giving evidence on the second day of a trial in which Robertson denies sending sexual 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.

The trial before Sheriff John Mundy continues today.