Mark McAuley 34

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A former football coach from Dunfermline has been convicted of sexually assaulting young boys who he had befriended while running a soccer academy in the Highlands.

Mark McAuley, 33, of Pitdinnie Place, broke down in tears when he was found guilty after a trial at Inverness Sheriff Court and told he's facing a prison sentence. 

The former Celtic youth coach, who also worked with Alloa Athletic, was convicted of two charges of sexually assaulting a child, two charges of directing sexual verbal communications to children and of engaging in sexual activity with or towards a child.

The sexual offences were committed between June 2016 and April 2019 and took place in properties in Dunfermline, Tain in Easter Ross, Edinburgh and a car on the A9.

A jury took two hours and fifteen minutes to return majority verdicts on all five remaining charges.

McAuley broke down when he heard he had been found guilty. Family and friends in the public gallery also sobbed as his bail was continued by Sheriff Elidh Macdonald.

The sheriff told him: "The court will be considering a custodial sentence."

She ordered him to co-operate with a social background report and a sex offender's programme assessment. He will return to Inverness Sheriff Court on July 4 for sentence.

McAuley had worked for Celtic's international academy for around a year after setting up his own football coaching enterprise, the Do Soccer group, in Tain.

The court heard that he would prey on boys with vulnerabilities.

Two of the youngsters were from broken homes, he took them on trips and for meals and would then molest them outwith the presence of other adults. McAuley also shared a bed with his victims.

One boy told how the coach would take off some of his clothes, grab his penis after pushing up his shorts and massage his thighs while they shared his bed in a cottage near Tain.

Another boy said McAuley also massaged his thighs while in the same bed.

Two more of his players said the coach asked them about their sex lives and spoke graphically about sex acts.

Fiscal depute Susan Love told the jury: "He was in a position of trust and he abused that trust to sexually assault two of his students - his favourites - having installed himself in two families who were going through a hard time."

His defence counsel, Wendy Culross, asked the jury to believe her client that "nothing sinister went on".

She said there had been bad judgement and McAuley told the jury he would do things differently now.

He admitted sleeping in the same bed as the boys because "there was no alternative in my one bedroom cottage" and giving two of them massages "in the sporting context".

He denied there was sexual motivation but the jury didn't believe him. 

McAuley was placed on the sex offenders register and he is now facing a jail sentence.