Footballer placed on sex offenders register after sexually assaulting 65-year-old man on train

A footballer returning from a night out who sexually assaulted a stranger on a train has been placed on the sex offenders’ register.

Ali Abboud, 39, left the 65-year-old man “shocked and angry”, a court heard.

The incident, on a 11.10pm Saturday night service from Glasgow to Perth, happened as the man, who was returning from a comedy club evening with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law, got up to leave at Stirling.

As he passed a table where Abboud was travelling with a “noisy” group drinking alcohol from plastic cups, Abboud reached into the aisle.

The man said: “I made my way towards the exit before the train actually stopped.

“I was standing and he was sitting facing me.

“He grabbed me between the legs and started squeezing.”

The man said he slapped Abboud with the back of his hand to get him to stop, and left the train.

He told prosecutor Lucy Clarke he’d had “no interaction whatsoever” with Abboud before he was grabbed through his clothing.

The man’s son said that on the platform afterwards, his father had appeared “angry and shocked”.

The incident occurred on April 19, 2025.

At a summary trial at Stirling Sheriff Court on Thursday, Abboud, of Perth, a self-employed electrician who played as a striker for Perth-based Jeanfield Swifts Amateurs, denied sexual assault.

He said that he had been “silly drunk” and had touched the man on the body after the man had “said something cheeky”.

He told his solicitor Virgil Crawford he was “very clear” he had not grasped the man’s genitals and squeezed.

He said: “That’s just not something I would do.”

The assault was captured on CCTV and Abboud was arrested after British Transport Police circulated his picture to the media.

Footage played to the court showed Abboud laughing and sticking out his tongue as he carried out the assault, and after the man left the train, appeared to mime to his table companions what he had done.

Describing the footage to Abboud in cross-examination and cupping her hand to demonstrate, Ms Clarke said: “Focussing on your actions after the complainer and his family have exited the train, you seem to put your hand out and imitate grabbing like this with your hand.

“Then you slap yourself on the back of the head.

“Is that your re-enacting that you have just had this man by his genitals?”

Abboud replied: “No.”

Sheriff Euan Gosney found Abboud guilty of sexual assault.

He said he found that the Crown witnesses were credible and reliable and Abboud was not.

He said: “On the CCTV footage you can clearly be seen to have touched the complainer and from your reaction it can be inferred that you knew exactly what you were doing and you thought this was all some kind of joke.”

He called for reports and placed Abboud, who was said to have previous convictions for drug offences, on the sex offenders’ register. He ordained him to reappear for sentence on October 21.

Abboud’s career highlights for Jeanfield Swifts Amateurs include scoring the opener and a hat-trick in a pre-season 14-0 win against Ballinluig FC in 2022, only hours after being caught with crack cocaine and cannabis when police raided his Perth flat – an offence which led to a £500 fine.