A former professional footballer wrongly convicted of performing a s.e.x act in public is fighting to rebuild his career after what he described as “the toughest time of his life”. Ex-Barnsley striker Shaun Tuton was dropped by Whitby Town after he was found guilty of outraging public decency, with details of the case reported in the national press.
His conviction was later overturned on appeal, but the 32-year-old said the damage had been done, having lost his club and profession almost overnight. Speaking to the BBC, he said: “It’s taken up so many years of my life already, now I want to use these last years I’ve got to try and play at the highest level I can and try and enjoy something I love.
Mr Tuton said he had risen through the ranks “the hard way”, progressing from academy football to spells with non league sides Matlock, Buxton and Halifax. In 2016 he joined Barnsley and was part of the squad which won promotion to the Championship that year. He went on to play for a number of other clubs, eventually joining Whitby in 2023.
However, within months of signing for the club he was arrested by police investigating an incident at Sheffield railway station dating back to 2021. I was gobsmacked,” he said. When they first started to arrest me they said it was an incident at a train station, but in my head I knew whatever situation it was it was impossible because I’d not been on a train in years.
“When they actually said what it was I was in disbelief. No one wants to be put in that category. He said he was shown CCTV footage of the man believed to be him and was “in shock”, saying the suspect looked “completely different” to him. His mother Ann said she shared her son’s surprise.
“We just brushed it off straight away,” she said. “You could see it wasn’t Shaun. He looked completely different.”
However, after he was later picked out of a police line up the odds were stacked against him, and, on 28 March 2023, he was found guilty at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court of outraging public decency. He was give an 12-month community order and told to pay £250 in compensation.
The story was picked up by a number of newspapers, with one national publication running the story beneath the headline “Perv Nailed”. Following his conviction his contract with Whitby was terminated. It was heartbreaking,” he said. “I was branded as this horrible human. I lost my club and I lost my income because of this. I told them I would be appealing. They could have waited.” The BBC has approached Whitby Town for a comment but received no response.Mr Tuton said the months after his conviction were the “toughest period” of his life.
“It was horrible,” he said. “I used to sit in my bedroom and just cry. I’ve played football since I was six. It was never a job for me. It was my place of freedom and it was just taken away. His mum said she also remembered the “dark days” after his conviction. I used to watch him 24 hours a day. I used to sit outside his bedroom door listening to him breathing. He didn’t want his life at that moment,” she said
Source: BBC
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