Former Easter Ross football coach facing child sex abuse charges became 'father figure' to boys, Highland court is told
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A youth football coach turned his attention to another younger boy when the player he befriended stopped going to stay with him because he "felt uncomfortable" sleeping in the same bed.
The youth, now aged 19, was giving evidence in the second day of the trial of 33-year-old Mark McAuley, who ran the Do Soccer Academy in Easter Ross.
Both boys told the jury that their parents had separated and McAuley became "a father figure" to them.
They took the witness stand to tell how they changed their opinion about McAuley when they realised as they got older that his behaviour was "inappropriate".
One told Inverness Sheriff Court: "Looking at the way he was with me and maybe others was quite weird and an adult shouldn't be doing that with a kid – sleeping in the same bed in just his boxers."
Two teenagers described how they would be massaged on their legs and thighs while McAuley wore only his boxers and often while he shared a bed with them.
"I was only 12 or 13 at the time. The last time I stayed was when I was about 14. I didn't like staying in the same bed with him. I was uncomfortable.
"He never did anything sexually to me. But he stayed in bed with me and that was crossing a line.
"I would say to my mum that I didn't want to stay. When I stopped going, he spent more time with another boy."
That boy gave evidence at the start of the trial and told the jury how McAuley would grab his private parts during play-fighting as he was pinned down on a sofa.
He also spoke of the same thing happening on many occasions when he stayed overnight in the only bed in McAuley's home at Hilton Farm Cottages outside Tain.
Two other boys told the jury how they were on a car journey back to Tain with McAuley who then spoke graphically about extreme sex acts when they were in their early teens.
One said: "I found it a bit funny at the time. But now I think about it, it's weird - makes me feel uncomfortable."
McAuley, from Dunfermline, denies sexually assaulting two children under the age of 13 and two charges of engaging in sexual activity with boys under the age of 16.
McAuley also faced three charges of directing a verbal sexual communication to a child and one of causing a child to hear a verbal sexual communication, as well as a single charge of causing a child to look at a sexual image.
The offences are alleged to have taken place at addresses in Tain, Dunfermline and Edinburgh, as well as in a vehicle on the A9 and elsewhere between February 2016 and August 2019.
The charges allege that McAuley, of Pitdinnie Place, Dunfermline, massaged boys legs, asked them to remove their clothing and tried to get them to share his bed while he wore only his underwear.
He is also accused of repeatedly pinning a child down and putting his hand down their trousers to touch his private parts, pushing a child’s shorts up to expose his private parts and photographing a child while he was asleep.
It is further alleged that he described sexual acts to children as well as describing a sexual image to one child and sending an image of a naked woman to another.
After police became involved, McAuley was interviewed by police.
He told them he had worked for Celtic's International Academy between 2018 and the start of lockdown, Dunfermline Athletic and Alloa Athletic.
McAuley denied anything inappropriate with his four accusers and any time the boys slept in his bed, everyone was fully clothed.
He said: "I am in shock. Nothing went on that was sinister."
The trial continues.
