St Johnstone Fan Fined


Guest Nairn Saint
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Guest Nairn Saint

Taken from the Press and Journal (The Neep Times) Saturday December 2nd 2006

A ST JOHNSTONE football fan was fined £200 at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday after he admitted being involved in a disturbance with Hearts football fans in Inverness city centre earlier this year.

Darren Patterson, 19 of 19 Maxton Place, Perth, pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace on March 11 in Barron Taylor Street.

Patterson, a painter and decorator, had travelled to the city by train en route to Dingwall where he planned to watch his team play Ross County FC.

But after breaking the journey at Inverness for a spot of lunch he became embroiled in a stand-off with Hearts fans who were also in the city to see the Tynecastle side play Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Fiscal depute Fiona Murray said Patterson could be seen on CCTV video footage at the front of the Keg bar. Miss Murray said: " He was behaving in an aggressive manner."

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Taken from the Press and Journal (The Neep Times) Saturday December 2nd 2006

A ST JOHNSTONE football fan was fined £200 at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday after he admitted being involved in a disturbance with Hearts football fans in Inverness city centre earlier this year.

Darren Patterson, 19 of 19 Maxton Place, Perth, pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace on March 11 in Barron Taylor Street.

Patterson, a painter and decorator, had travelled to the city by train en route to Dingwall where he planned to watch his team play Ross County FC.

But after breaking the journey at Inverness for a spot of lunch he became embroiled in a stand-off with Hearts fans who were also in the city to see the Tynecastle side play Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Fiscal depute Fiona Murray said Patterson could be seen on CCTV video footage at the front of the Keg bar. Miss Murray said: " He was behaving in an aggressive manner."

I think it's about time this was laid to rest as opposed to being dragged up whenever the next one is convicted.

A number of the 22 banned individuals have been in court/are due in court and only one of them who has already been up has come back with the charges dropped. Suffice to say they've broken the law and have been punished for doing so.

No need to re-hash this incident over and over. :shock:

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Guest Nairn Saint

I think it's about time this was laid to rest as opposed to being dragged up whenever the next one is convicted.

A number of the 22 banned individuals have been in court/are due in court and only one of them who has already been up has come back with the charges dropped. Suffice to say they've broken the law and have been punished for doing so.

No need to re-hash this incident over and over. :shock:

Meerly quoting our local press up here for the benefit of anyone who may be interested, unlike yourself obviously.

Personally I hate seeing items like this in the press but must say that what has been reported on and indeed quoted in the Sheriff Court falls short of a "near riot" as some locals had described the incident as.

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I think it's about time this was laid to rest as opposed to being dragged up whenever the next one is convicted.

A number of the 22 banned individuals have been in court/are due in court and only one of them who has already been up has come back with the charges dropped. Suffice to say they've broken the law and have been punished for doing so.

No need to re-hash this incident over and over. :shock:

It's surprising to the rest of us given the comments at the time and the slagging off of the board and of the Club because of their ban. According to them they had never been charged and never arrested and had all been good little boys. Someone was obviously telling porkies.

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No need to re-hash this incident over and over. :shock:

Its not rehashing it..its still going on by the looks of it. It wont start to be over until the last case has been heard in court.

Nairn Saint is quite right to let us read what is happening. It looks like the only way most of us will get an biased view of events.

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It's surprising to the rest of us given the comments at the time and the slagging off of the board and of the Club because of their ban. According to them they had never been charged and never arrested and had all been good little boys. Someone was obviously telling porkies.

The charges weren't sent out until a few months after the incident occured. When they were protesting innocence, they'd heard nothing from the Northern Constabulary or the Inverness Procurator Fiscals office and obviously they themselves felt they'd done nothing wrong.

Obviously, that subsequently changed. I think most of the arrested have appeared in court, my father is in court for his final hearing on Friday. No need to post from the Inverness newspapers, Nairn Saint. I'll be able to post a full and frank assessment of his case on arrival back in Perth on Friday night! :roll:

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The charges weren't sent out until a few months after the incident occured. When they were protesting innocence, they'd heard nothing from the Northern Constabulary or the Inverness Procurator Fiscals office and obviously they themselves felt they'd done nothing wrong.

Obviously, that subsequently changed. I think most of the arrested have appeared in court, my father is in court for his final hearing on Friday. No need to post from the Inverness newspapers, Nairn Saint. I'll be able to post a full and frank assessment of his case on arrival back in Perth on Friday night! :roll:

Full and frank, I have no doubt, but perhaps not entirely unbiased or objective? Nevertheless, I'm sure your father will be treated fairly and wish him well. Whilst the Press and Journal is indeed a parochial newspaper, it's not actually from Inverness as I'm sure you are aware.

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Guest Nairn Saint
Did the hearts fans also get the same treatment from the local polis and have also been rocking up their to appear before the court?

I haven't heared of any Jambos being done. Being a Saints fan up here I got quite a bit of grief from the whiter than white locals. From the article in the P and J it does appear to have been blown out of all proportion!

The article was taken from the editorial which obviously named the individual in question.

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......................... but I thought all the fans were innocent and the SJFC board and police were evil and wrong. :roll:

One guy was banned and charged and has been since pardoned as he was in Perth train station 30 minutes before the incident took place so I still think the ban was too quickly imposed...

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One guy was banned and charged and has been since pardoned as he was in Perth train station 30 minutes before the incident took place so I still think the ban was too quickly imposed...

That might have been the case. The police have a difficult problem since they have to make rapid decisions in situations where violance is starting and of course innocent people do occasionally get caught up in it. The reason innocent people get caught up in it is often not the fault of the police, it is the fault of those starting the trouble. If Saints had decided to wait until the court hearings of which this thread highlights one then the fans that caused the trouble would have had no punishment and just carried on as usual. Maybe the ban should start after the court appearances but then the ban should be for longer.

OK so some St.Johnstone fans? have the English disease, the art of being a spoilt brat in an adult body but surely they should not be allowed to bring the best football club in the world's reputation down after years of our families representing it in some way or other and the fact that the club represents Perth and Perthshire. Surely people see the need for the club to act.

It's always amusing when you watch these TV docunmenteries about football hooliganism and the guys who have committed the crimes are crying innocent when in fact they're simultaneously being shown on CCTV or TV being violant. It's a myth that casuals only harm each other since on many occasions it spills over and affects innocent members of the population.

Everybody's always innocent nowadays. Even their mummy's and daddy's say that.

When I was working up there (the Inverness area) there were two debates going on in a football sense. One was whether Caley should merge with Thistle to become ICT and the other was whether the Highlands really wanted the southern central belt culture inflicting itself on them or not. There was the view that the central belt was more group orientated (follow the leader) and that the Highlands was a place with more individuality. 'Och no' I said "you'll love the big teams coming here it'll be great for football here and the town". :roll: I sued to go up and down every week to see Saints (home and away) and I enjoyed the journey even though the day's out were long. The railway staff got to know me and were really nice. Nice people, nice place.

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