A former Highland football coach who sexually assaulted two teenage boys has been jailed for 18 months.
Mark McAuley previously told the jury he was naive, nothing “sinister” had gone on when he shared a bed with the boys but insisted he would “do things differently now”.
But he was described today by Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald as “not naive but deliberate and calculated”.
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.
The trial had heard how McAuley, 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 jury took two hours and 15 minutes to return majority guilty verdicts.
Appeal for mercy
Defence solicitor Kelly Duling had appealed for “mercy” from Sheriff Macdonald as she asked the court to impose unpaid work and supervision as a punishment.
But she conceded it was difficult for him to show remorse given that he still denies committing the offences of which he was convicted.
She added: “He is deeply remorseful. Consider the impact of a custodial sentence on his family. They pray your ladyship will exercise mercy.”
Ms Duling told the court that her client had co-founded a mental health charity to help prevent suicide in young men and had volunteered to be a kidney donor to his father.
“A community payback order will afford him the opportunity to make amends to the community,” she told the court.
‘There was a significant breach of trust’
Ordering him to be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years, Sheriff Macdonald told him: “You professed to be a father figure and a friend to these boys but you were their abuser.
“You displayed typical grooming behaviour by targeting the most vulnerable and it was sexually motivated. The effect of your behaviour has been damaging for them.
“There was a significant breach of trust and you have displayed a lack of remorse or recognition for what you have done.
“It was a course of conduct pursued by you over a period of time when these boys were entrusted in your care by their parents.”
McAuley, of Pitdinnie Place, Dunfermline, fought back tears as he was led away to begin his prison sentence, watched from the public gallery by his parents and fiancee, who continue to support him.