EX SPORTS COACH SENTENCED OR ABUSE

Crime: Attacks took place in his hostel bedroom

A youth football and swimming coach was jailed for nine months yesterday for luring young boys into his hostel bedroom and indecently assaulting them almost four decades ago.

Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday that 68-year-old Robert Russell had “a significant fall from grace”.

Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood was told a number of people including an honorary sheriff had come forward to support Russell, who was described as “inspirational and generous”.

But jailing the awardwinning registered football and swimming coach, the sheriff told him: “You were in a trusted position and you deliberately chose to abuse that trust in a flagrant way. Only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”

He also criticised Russell for continuing to deny responsibility to social workers for his actions.

Russell’s secret past was only discovered when he wrote to one of his victims, now an adult, offering to act as a soccer scout for his two sons.

Police became involved and three other victims were traced.

Sentence had been deferred on first offender Russell, of Cooper Street, Elgin, until yesterday after he previously admitted a sexual assault on one teenager, and indecently assaulting three others.

The offences were said to have taken place between August 1977 and August 1984.

At the time of the offences, Russell was teaching swimming at Dingwall Sports Centre and working as a community education officer with Highland Council.

The court heard he stayed in a hostel flat in Dingwall where three of his victims were assaulted.

Russell fondled and carried out a sex act on one boy as he got ready for bed.

The court was told that two other boys who lived outside Dingwall were invited to stay in his hostel flat. He groped the buttocks of one before later exposing himself in his room. Russell then tried to grope the genitals of another.

His fourth offence took place in the swimming pool area where he molested a teenage boy.

Defence solicitor Alison Foggo said: “This is a significant fall from grace for a man who devoted his life to the care and welfare of young people.”

BREACH OF TRUST: Robert Russell was sentenced to nine months in prison