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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Rory Cassidy

Ex-Scots football coach accused of sexually abusing boy at Hampden Park

A former football coach has appeared in court accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a boy at Hampden Park.

Retired teacher Kenneth Divers was extradited from Vietnam to face charges which also claim he abused another youngster at the school where he worked.

And Divers, who coached football teams at the school, is said to have targeted a third in a house during an alleged 22-year reign of child sex abuse.

Divers, 77, faced four charges spanning 1968 to 1990 when he appeared in the dock today.

Prosecutors claim that "on various occasions" between June 1968 and June 1970 he "did use lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour" towards a boy.

The case called at Paisley Sheriff Court on Friday. (Daily Record)

He is alleged to have engaged the boy in "sexual conversations", shown him porn magazines and pictures, and encouraged him to perform sex acts on himself, when the youngster was aged 12 and 13.

He is also said to have exposed himself to the boy and forced the boy to perform sex acts on him, with the alleged abuse taking place in Dunoon, and Hampden Park, Glasgow.

Court papers claim Divers took the boy to watch Celtic at Celtic Park and Scotland at Hampden.

He is also alleged to have targeted the same boy between June 1970 and August 1971, at the then-youngster's home in Paisley when the boy was 14 or 15.

He is said to have entered the youngster's bedroom in his home in the Renfrewshire town, lay on top of him, kissed him and then "simulated" sex with him.

Court papers claim he also repeatedly targeted a second youth between May 1972 and December 1975, at another address in Paisley.

It's claimed that "on a number of occasions" he showed the boy porn magazines and pictures, unbuttoned the youngster's trousers and touched him inappropriately.

He is then said to have performed a sex act on the youngster, exposed himself to the boy and performed sex acts on himself in front of the youth, when the boy was aged between 13 and 17.

And he allegedly repeatedly abused a third boy at a school in Paisley in the 1980s and 1990s.

The charge states he targeted the boy at St Aelred's Secondary School, in the town's Glennifer Road, between November 1984 and November 1990.

Divers, who worked as a Technical Education teacher at the school, is alleged to have pressed himself against the boy and touched him inappropriately "on various occasions".

He's also alleged to have performed sex acts on the boy and made the boy perform sex acts on him, when the youngster was aged between 11 and 16.

Divers, whose address was given on court papers as Quangos Nam Province, Vietnam, made no plea to the four charges against him.

Sheriff Gillian Craig continued the case for prosecutors to investigate further and remanded him in custody.

No future court dates have been set, but Divers is expected to make a second appearance in connection with the case next week.

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