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Football louts banned for years
by Scott McClymont
wee-county-news.co.uk[/align]
THREE vicious Wee County football hooligans were hit with lengthy football banning orders last week after rampaging through Alloa. Mindless Tullibody thugs Elliot MacRae and Lee McKellican, along with Leigh Wheater from Alva, were convicted after attacking supporters outside Recreation Park after Alloa’s glamour Scottish Cup tie against Aberdeen last January.
The Rangers fans targeted the match believing there would be a low police presence; but officers quickly turned them away from the ground as they began yelling anti-Aberdeen chants. Incredibly, the yobs waited until the end of the match before carrying out a number of sickening attacks yards from the stadium, leaving several visiting fans bleeding.
Notorious hooligan MacRae (39) was banned from all UK football grounds for five years and given 150 hours of community service. The Cragganmore resident has been subject to a life-ban from Ibrox for the past decade after causing trouble at a Champions League game with Austrian giants Sturm Graz in 2000. In March 2007 he was pictured in a clash with police at a UEFA Cup game in Osasuna.
McKellican (21), of The Glen, was given a one-year ban and fined £300, while Wheater (32), of Caroline Crescent, got a three-year ban and 150 hours’ community service. The trio were sentenced at Alloa Sheriff Court after being found guilty of breach of the peace and football-related violence.
The violent trio aren’t the first Wee County football fans to be hit with a banning order. Last year Tullibody father-of-three Graham Hill was handed a 10-year ban and jailed for five months after clashing with Hibernian fans at Glasgow’s Queen Street station. The former operator of G and H taxis was seen challenging rival fans to a fight in what Crown Office sources described as “a pre-planned encounter”.
Procurator fiscal Andrew Grant said: “Disorderly conduct at football matches, and particularly between rival fans, will not be tolerated. All such conduct will be robustly investigated and prosecuted and if individuals are found guilty, the Crown will advise the court, as in this case, of the availability of imposing Football Banning Orders for such offences. The imposition of football banning orders in this case will prevent the accused attending any regulated football match, protecting genuine fans from being subjected to such behaviour.”
Assistant Chief Constable John Neilson of Strathclyde Police, who leads on football issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, said: “Football hooliganism is unacceptable and we are determined to work with clubs and genuine supporters to try to eradicate it from the game. The continued enforcement of Football Banning Orders in Scotland will un-doubtedly send a message to those who use football as an excuse to create disorder that this anti social behaviour will not be tolerated.”
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