An amateur footballer who threatened to burn down the house of a referee who sent him off has been ordered to pay compensation.
Arbroath Sheriff Court heard Stephen Fitzsimmons was booked for dissent in the first half of the match and then sent off in the second half for threatening a member of the opposing team with violence.
As he left the field, Fitzsimmons called the referee a “fat, useless p****” and threatened him with violence at full-time.
The incident took place at a match between The Yard from Montrose and Cliffburn Hotel, Arbroath, at Broomfield playing fields in Montrose on August 12 last year.
Depute fiscal Jill Drummond said: “A member of the opposing team made a poor tackle against the accused in the first half.
“The accused responded verbally and was shown a yellow card by referee Kenneth Lutton. He responded to this by saying ‘this is a f*****g joke’.
“Ten minutes in to the second half the offending player from the opposition began to taunt the accused from the sidelines.
“The accused began to shout saying he was going to ‘open him up’. The remark was heard by the referee, who showed him the red card.
“He called the referee a fat, useless p**** before he was removed off the pitch.”
Ms Drummond said Fitzsimmons continued to abuse the referee after the match.
“The accused approached Mr Lutton and said ‘just wait until it’s me and you alone on the street, or if I don’t find you on the street, it will be elsewhere’.
“He had to be restrained by a team-mate. He added that he intended to lock Mr Lutton in his house so he could burn it down.”
The referee made a report to the Scottish Amateur Football Association, who banned Fitzsimmons for 15 games.
Fitzsimmons, 27, formally of Montrose but now of Glasgow, admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm by repeatedly shouting and swearing and threatening violence to Kenneth Lutton and threatening damage to his property.
Defence agent Nick Markowski admitted his client “lost his temper”.
He added: “The referee is a local man who is known to the accused. They have seen each other several times since and there are no difficulties. He apologises to the court for his behaviour.
“The incident came to an end when Mr Fitzsimmons girlfriend came to collect him after the game.”
Sheriff Peter Paterson ordered Fitzsimmons to pay Mr Lutton £200 compensation.
He said: “A referee has an extremely difficult job and is entitled to conduct a game how he sees fit.”