Ex-football coach convicted of child sex abuse charges

Aformer football coach broke down in tears in the dock as a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing boys in his care.

Mark McAuley, who ran after-school football clubs across Easter Ross and Sutherland, was warned by Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald he faces a prison sentence after the jury took just over two hours to reject his version of events.

The 33-year-old had denied two charges of sexually assaulting a child, one of engaging in sexual activity with or towards a child and two of directing sexual verbal communications to children.

The five charges related to events that took place between June 2016 and April 2019.

McAuley’s family, who had been present at Inverness Sheriff Court throughout the four-day trial, sobbed in the public gallery as the verdict was returned.

The trial had heard how McAuley, from Dunfermline in Fife, who had also worked for Celtic and Alloa, had befriended two boys’ mothers after meeting them through his work as a football coach and had been trusted to care for the children.

The jury heard evidence from two teenagers, who said McAuley shared his bed with them when they were under 13.

One of the boys, now 17, declined the use of a privacy screen as he gave evidence and stared McAuley down in the dock as he described how the once-trusted family friend had pinned him down during playfights and put his hand down his boxer shorts.

The teenager, who cannot be named, said: “We would be wrestling about the couch, sometimes he would take my shorts off and then put his hand down my boxers.

“I couldn’t get up, I couldn’t move, he was stronger, he was holding me down.”

The boy also said McAuley had massaged him under the guise of treating a sore knee and while doing so had pushed his shorts up to reveal his penis.

A second boy had told of sharing a bed with McAuley, a friend of his mother’s, and also receiving a massage.

He said on one occasion the coach had also massaged him on the thighs and hip for around five minutes making him feel “uncomfortable”.

“He said it would make my legs feel better,” he said.

Asked by defence counsel Wendy Culross if Mark had ever “crossed a line” or done “anything inappropriate,” the witness

replied: “He stayed in a bed with me. In terms of anything sexual he never crossed that line.”

The jury also heard how McAuley had described a degrading sex act to two boys during a car journey, something the coach claimed he had done because the children had asked what the term meant.

Taking to the stand in his own defence, McAuley tearfully told the court he “walked a very fine line” between being the boys’ friend and their football coach.

He said: “I regret it now because of how it was looked at by outsiders with no context. I loved those boys like they were my family.”

But fiscal depute Susan Love told the jury: “He was

in a position of trust and he abused that trust.”

She added: “Why would a grown adult have two young boys sleeping in his bed with him?”

Following the verdict, Sheriff MacDonald called for pre-sentencing reports, including an assessment for Moving Forward, Making Changes, a programme aimed at sex offenders.

“Clearly, given the nature of these charges the court will be considering a custodial sentence,” she told McAuley, of Pitdinnie Place, Dunfermline.

She placed him on the sex offenders register with immediate effect – the eventual length of registration will be determined at sentencing.

McAuley was released on bail until the case calls again in July.

POSITION OF TRUST: Mark McAuley was warned he could face a prison sentence.