A Scottish football coach who used a mobile phone to take ‘upskirt’ pictures of his former boss 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 had a short stint in charge of Berwick Rangers - claimed he had taken the pictures “accidentally” by brushing his hand against his phone while working alongside the woman in July 2019.
But 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. Allan, from Dunfermline, Fife, returned to the dock on Monday where Sheriff Graham Primrose QC told him he had committed “a serious offence within the workplace”.
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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.
Allan started his football management career at Burntisland Shipyard and Dundonald before moving on to Sauchie and Rosyth Juniors. He then joined Berwick Rangers as a first team scout in 2016 and soon 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 Jeanfield Swifts women’s team in March 2019. During the trial, the football coach admitted taking the smutty 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 then sacked from the firm soon after and after handing back his computer equipment a ex-colleague subsequently found the images stored within a folder on the laptop.
Allan’s former manager, 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 and did position a mobile phone and take two photos and two videos showing the legs and underwear of the woman at a premises in West Lothian on July 16, 2019.
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