Supporter who lunged at Lennon walks free

John Wilson, 26, was also handed a five-year football banning order following the incident at Edinburgh’s Tynecastle stadium on 11 May.

Sheriff Fiona Reith, QC, told Wilson his actions that night, amid an already “tense” and “poisonous” atmosphere, had “serious potential consequences”.

“It has to be clearly understood by you and others that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated and will be punished, and punished firmly, by the courts,” she said.

Television viewers looked on as, with Celtic two goals ahead, Wilson approached the pitch and lunged towards Lennon.

After a three-day trial last month, a jury found Wilson guilty of conducting himself in a disorderly manner, running on to the pitch, running at the away team dugout, shouting, swearing, causing disturbance to the crowd and breaching the peace.

But the panel of eight men and seven women deleted an allegation that the offence was aggravated by religious prejudice and cleared him of making a sectarian remark.

The unemployed labourer was also accused of assault, but was acquitted after jurors found the charge was not proven.

The verdict came despite Wilson admitting in open court that he had lunged at the Celtic manager and struck him on the head.

Last night, Paul McBride, QC, said people would be surprised by the sentence.

“Some people may be wondering, given the circumstances of when the offence was committed, during a very inflammatory match, whether a more severe sentence should have been appropriate,” he said.

“Some people may wonder if that was unduly lenient.”

Under Scots law, people sentenced to less than four years in prison are automatically entitled to release after serving half their time. Wilson’s sentence was backdated to 12 May and it is understood he was freed yesterday.

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “We no longer have a prisoner of that name at Edinburgh prison.”

The case has led to concerns about the Scottish Government’s aim to stamp out sectarianism at football matches through new legislation.

Former home secretary John Reid wrote to First Minister Alex Salmond, saying: “There is a widely held view that present laws should be robustly applied before new legislation is introduced.”

The Scottish Government decided to take action after a bad-tempered season, which saw explosives and bullets sent to Lennon, Mr McBride and former MSP Trish Godman.

Sheriff Reith told Wilson he had been convicted of a “serious” crime in a crowd of more than 16,000 football supporters.

She told him: “The football match was a high-profile game between Celtic and Hearts. There was evidence that there was a ‘terrible’, ‘very tense’ and ‘poisonous’ atmosphere in the stadium between both sets of supporters, with racist and sectarian shouting and chanting coming from supporters.

“The atmosphere got even worse after a Hearts player was sent off and then when Celtic scored a second goal in the second half of the game.

“It was just after this that you ran on to the field of play and committed the breach of the peace of which you have been convicted.”

She said one police officer told the court the whole stadium “erupted” after Wilson’s actions.

“He described how extreme antagonism between both sets of supporters of a bigoted, sectarian nature ‘really kicked off’, as he put it,” she said.

“A breach of the peace can sometimes be a quite minor crime, but sometimes it is not.

“In this case, it was not minor at all. It was serious, and with serious potential consequences in the context of what was already a highly volatile atmosphere.”

Wilson’s football banning order will prevent him from attending any UK football matches for the next five years.

Defence advocate David Nicolson told the court Wilson’s actions that night had been “completely out of character” and were a “completely irrational” response to what had been happening in the game. He said Wilson was remorseful and had described it as “one of those five-second moments in your life”.

When asked about Wilson’s sentence, Lennon, who was in Spain preparing for Celtic’s Europa League clash with Atletico Madrid tonight, said: “I’m not here to discuss that. No comment at all. That’s for another time and another day.”

There was no apparent sign of Wilson at his Edinburgh home yesterday, and his father said he did not want to comment.