An Aberdeen fan attacked a 12-year-old boy he spotted wearing a Celtic shirt in a Dundee supermarket after his club’s 4-0 defeat in the Scottish Cup semi-final on Sunday.
Sheriff George Way told Matthew Brown he could be facing a football banning order after the 20-year-old admitted the unprovoked attack on the schoolboy in Tesco Extra, Kingsway West.
Brown (20), of Charleston Way, Aberdeen, had been on a supporters’ bus heading back from the game which had stopped for a break in Dundee.
The court heard that the boy was shopping with his parents when Brown approached him and made a comment before leaving the store. He then returned and whispered something in the 12-year-old’s ear before headbutting him.
The boy was left with a large bump on the back of his head and felt sick after the assault, depute fiscal Emma Stewart told Dundee Sheriff Court.
Brown’s lawyer David Sinclair said the apprentice electrician was a genuine first offender.
He had been drinking and his recollection of events was “extremely hazy,” but did remember staggering around and colliding with someone though he was surprised at the boy’s young age.
Brown was genuinely remorseful for his actions, Mr Sinclair continued, and had spent a “difficult night in custody” recovering from a hangover and faced with a court appearance.
The youth had held a season ticket for Aberdeen for 15 years without “a hint of bother,” said Mr Sinclair, and he asked the sheriff not to impose a football banning order.
“At the end of the day it’s all very well people coming as first offenders and seeking the leniency of the court but this crime is an unprovoked assault in a public place in Dundee on a 12-year-old boy,” replied the sheriff.
He said he had to give serious consideration to a football banning order.
He deferred sentence to May 18 and called for a background report on Brown.