Man accused of indecently assaulting boy at Celtic Park

A man will stand trial in July accused of indecently assaulting a teenager at Celtic Park and another at the club’s former Barrowfield training ground.

Frank Cairney, 85, is also charged with indecently assaulting another teenage boy at a hotel room in Aviemore and in a car in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, on various occasions between August 1, 1988, and June 30, 1989.

Prosecutors claim the first boy – when aged between 15 and 16 – was earlier assaulted within a car in Paisley, Renfrewshire and in the dressing rooms at Barrowfield between July 1, 1978, and June 30, 1979.

Cairney is further charged with repeatedly punching and slapping the same boy to his head and body at Barrowfield.

It is also alleged that Cairney assaulted the second boy aged when he was aged between 15 and 18 within the Barrowfield dressing rooms as well as Celtic Park between February 1, 1986, and December 31, 1988.

Cairney, who did not attend court, pleaded not guilty to the charges through his defence advocate Mark Lutton at a hearing in Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday.

Mr Lutton said: “He is absent standing the current pandemic. He maintains his pleas of not guilty.

“A trial date has been identified and there is nothing from our perspective stopping a trial being set.”

Prosecutor Graham Macdonald said: “The Crown joins in the motion to set a fixed trial.”

A five-day trial was set for the start of July by Sheriff Ian Fleming.

Cairney, of Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, had his bail continued meantime.