The case against a Highland League stalwart accused of historic sex crimes has been temporarily deserted after new evidence came to light.
Former Forres Mechanics secretary John Henderson, 77, had been facing four charges all related to alleged incidents at football training grounds in the north.
Henderson, of Bogton Road, Forres, denied the charges against him when he appeared in court in April.
At a hearing at Elgin Sheriff Court yesterday, depute fiscal Kevin Corrins moved to desert the case temporarily after new evidence was lodged following media coverage of the case.
Despite arguments from defence solicitor, Duncan Henderson, who wanted to carry on to the original trial date at the end of July, Sheriff Robert McDonald agreed to the request to allow the Crown Office more time to build a case.
Henderson, who was secretary of Forres Mechanics in the 1970s and 80s, and was on the club’s committee into the 1990s, was released on bail.
He is accused of indecently assaulting one teenager by touching him inappropriately over his trousers, and on one occasion trying to pull them down.
The offences are alleged to have taken place at the club’s Mosset Park ground in Lea Road and Grant Park in Forres in the late 1970s and early 80s.
Henderson is also accused of two sexual breaches of the peace around the same time.
It is alleged that on one occasion he entered the dressing room and stared at a teenager as he showered at former Highland League club Inverness Thistle’s stadium at Kingsmills Park.
It is also alleged that on another occasion, in the late 1980s at Forres, Henderson induced another teenager into entering a room with him and then blocked his exit and made sexual remarks.
Henderson is further accused of staring at a boy on various occasions and following him into the toilets of the Forres Mechanics Social Club. The charge dates back to the late 1980s and mid 1990s.