A junior football cup tie in Fife ended in chaos when fans, players, coaching staff and club committee members clashed at full-time.
Trouble erupted after fans targeted a player previously convicted for sex offences, chanting “paedo” during a Scottish Cup tie between Kelty Hearts and Kilwinning Rangers.
Kelty players broke off from their post-match warm down to jump over the barriers and confront visiting fans after the repeated taunts aimed at their team-mate Craig Thomson who was convicted of sex offences involving children when a player at Heart of Midlothian.
The violence resulted in two Kilwinning supporters being seriously injured and both required to have plates inserted in their faces.
Kelty Hearts club stalwart Stefan Winiarski, who has served them as a player, assistant manager and head of community club development, was accused of the assaults.
However, on the second day of a jury trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, the charges against Winiarski, 40, of Clentry Crescent, Kelty, were dropped and he was formally acquitted.
He had denied assaulting James McComb on February 18 last year by punching him on the head to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and permanent impairment.
He also denied that he assaulted Darran Telford by punching him on the head to his severe injury.
James McComb, 33, from Kilwinning, admitted he was “a bit tipsy” by the end of the game, having started drinking on the mini-bus from Ayrshire.
He said that at the end of the match – won 2-1 by Kilwinning – he was walking towards the exit when he got into an argument with someone from the home club who was retrieving a corner flag.
“There were a few swear words exchanged on both sides. I said to him, ‘It’s just a game of football. There’s no need to act like that just because your team lost’.
“He held up the corner flag as if he was going to hit me with it.”
As he continued to walk towards the exit he was struck to the left side of his face. “I can’t remember much. I just fell or crouched down, I think.”
He had sustained a fracture to an eye socket and required surgery which involved a titanium plate being inserted into the left side of his face.
Mr McComb said he has been left with no feeling in the injured part of his face and has also lost his sense of smell. He told the court he did not know who it was who struck him.
Darran Telford, 44, from Kilwinning, travelled through on the same mini-bus.
He said: “I saw James on the floor but I couldn’t get close to him because I was punched.”
Mr Telford went to hospital the next day and it was found he had a fractured cheekbone which required an operation to have a metal plate inserted.
Kelty Hearts player Stephen Husband said: “Their fans were being drunk and disorderly and I was trying to calm them down.”
