A football coach from Fife who used a mobile phone to take “upskirt” pictures of his former colleague has been ordered to pay the victim compensation.
Myles Allan, 44, snapped two images and two video clips of the woman’s thighs while she sat at her desk in an office in West Lothian.
Allan – who has had stints at clubs in Fife and Perth – claimed he had taken the pictures “accidentally” by brushing his hand against his phone while working alongside the woman in July 2019.
He was found guilty of a voyeurism charge following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year and sentence had been deferred for reports.
Images ‘designed to humiliate’
Allan, from Dunfermline, returned to the dock on Monday, where Sheriff Graham Primrose QC told him he had committed “a serious offence within the workplace”.
The sheriff said: “You were found guilty after trial of the offence of voyeurism.
“I noted during the trial the complainer herself stated she did not consider there to be a sexual element to the offence.
“Instead, she considered against the background of you being reprimanded about your performance that day that the taking of the images were designed to humiliate her rather than to provide you with sexual gratification.”
Allan was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and a supervision order for nine months and also ordered to pay his victim £400 in compensation.
Pics found on laptop
Allan started his football management career at Burntisland Shipyard and Dundonald Bluebell before moving on to Sauchie and Rosyth Juniors.
He then joined Berwick Rangers as a first team scout in 2016 and became co-manager of the team’s U20’s before being promoted to first team coach.
After leaving the Shielfield Park outfit Allan, a married father-of-two, was appointed to the coaching staff team at St Johnstone WFC in March 2019, months before he was caught.
He was immediately suspended and has played no role with the club since.
During the trial, the football coach admitted taking the pictures following an argument between him and his boss but said he had “immediately deleted” them.
He was caught out after copies of the images were uploaded from his phone to his work laptop through the iCloud function.
He was sacked from the firm soon afterwards.
After handing back his computer equipment, an ex-colleague subsequently found the images stored within a folder on the laptop.
‘I trusted him and I felt betrayed’
Allan’s former colleague, who cannot be identified due to legal reasons, told the court she was made aware of the images and had felt “disgusted and humiliated” on viewing them.
She told the court: “They [the images] were taken of the top of my thighs when I was wearing a dress.
“My legs are under my desk and showing my underwear.
“When my colleague showed me I was shocked and I was in disbelief it was there.
“I felt disgusted, humiliated and very angry.
“How could he think it was as acceptable to do that?
“I felt physically sick at what I should do.
“I trusted him and I felt betrayed.”
After contacting her husband the woman called in the police and Allan was subsequently arrested and charged.
Allan was found guilty of operating equipment beneath the clothing of a woman with the intention or enabling himself or others to observe her genitals, buttocks or underwear, positioning a mobile phone and taking two photos and two videos showing the legs and underwear of the woman at a premises in West Lothian on July 16 2019.
