The alleged victim of a homophobic comment by a Scottish Premiership player has not been cited to give evidence at his trial.
It emerged yesterday that only police witnesses have been called to give evidence against 23-year-old Inverness Caledonian Thistle defender Josh Meekings at Inverness Sheriff Court on November 2.
Meekings’s lawyer John MacColl told Sheriff David Sutherland yesterday that his client had already offered a plea admitting a city centre confrontation with police after his team drew a match just before Christmas.
However he repeated that Meekings still denied that his breach of the peace was aggravated by sexual orientation prejudice.
Fiscal depute Stewart MacIver confirmed that Meekings guilty plea would not be accepted and he was ready to go to trial, he added: “All police witnesses.”
Mr MacColl also said he was ready for trial and added: “The person to whom the comments are allegedly made is not on the list of Crown witnesses.”
Meekings did not attend court for the hearing with Mr MacColl asking that his client’s attendance be excused once more.
The case had already been continued without plea three times – in March, April and May – before the guilty plea was tendered.
Meekings was charged by police after the alleged offence which took place hours following ICT’s draw 2-2 with Dundee United,
Meekings is charged that on December 20 last year, at Bridge Street, Inverness, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner likely to case a reasonable person fear and alarm in that he did shout, swear, challenge people to fight, utter offensive remarks, and behave in an aggressive manner towards police officers, an offence aggravated by sexual orientation prejudice.
Meekings was a former under 18 captain for Ipswich Town but never played for the first team. He was due to sign for Stevenage but chose the Highland Capital side in 2011 instead because of the then manager Terry Butcher.