Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Caley Thistle football fan banned from every ground in the UK

Kevin Denholm
Kevin Denholm

An Inverness Caledonian Thistle fan was banned from every football ground in Britain and fined £400 at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday.

Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood was told it was the third time 34-year-old forestry contractor Kevin Denholm had been convicted of disorder at a match after finding him guilty of racial abuse.

The offence took place on July 16 last year during ICT’s first ever European match against Astra of Romania.

Denholm of 28 Old Mill Road, Inverness, denied the charge of behaviour likely to incite public disorder but was convicted after a four witness trial.

The two prosecution witnesses were match stewards, 23-year-old Patrick Maclennan and Alan Gray, 21.

Both said they were told by their superiors to go to the North Stand and monitor a part of the crowd where racial abuse had been heard.

Mr Gray said: “We were told someone was shouting racial remarks.” Both stewards identified Denholm as the culprit and denied to defence agent Neil Wilson they were mistaken.

“Mr Gray went on: “I heard him shout ‘dirty gypsy b******s’. I didn’t like it as it is a derogatory remark used against people from that area.

“We don’t take immediate action because in a crowd of people we would be outnumbered and we are told to wait until either the person involved goes to the toilet or half time or full time.

“When the final whistle was blown, we intercepted him and then handed him over to the police.”

Asked by Mr Wilson if he could have misheard the shout and it was actually “cheating” instead of “gypsy”, he replied: “I can tell the difference between cheating and gypsy. The club have a zero tolerance policy for this type of abuse.”

But season ticket holder Denholm also gave evidence and said: “People behind me were singing it and I can only assume the stewards thought I was involved too.

“I would not have shouted that with stewards 30m in front of me. That would have been madness. One of the players faked a foul and I shouted ‘dirty cheating b*****d. I did say it more than once.”

ICT lost the first leg 1-0, drew 0-0 in the return in Romania and were eliminated in the Qualifying round.

Sheriff Fleetwood told Denholm: “Given your history of behaviour at football matches, you will be banned from attending any matches in the UK for a year and fined £400.”