Dundee’s Paul McGowan faces jail for police assault

The incident happened less than 24 hours after Paul McGowan had played in Dundee’s 2-1 defeat to Celtic at Celtic Park last November.

Dundee star McGowan, 27, from, Airdrie, Lanarkshire, was arrested in the early hours of

23 November, 2014, after an incident at a house in Airdrie.

He pled guilty yesterday to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm.

He was aggressive and was shouting and swearing. He also pled guilty on the same day to assaulting PC Jamie White in the execution of his duty, by kicking him on the body. The attack happened at Coatbridge police station.

The midfielder, who began his career with Celtic and also played for St Mirren, denied resisting arrest, obstructing and hindering five police officers – Constables Burton, Harvey, Miller, Divers and Patrick – in the execution of their duty, and struggling violently with them. His plea of not guilty was accepted by Crown prosecutor Claire

Nichols.

McGowan pled guilty to two of the three charges he faced when he made a brief appearance at Airdrie Sheriff Court before Sheriff Janice Scott.

The player only spoke in court to confirm his guilty pleas, confirming “yes” to both.

Sentence was deferred on McGowan, who was released on bail, until 13 April after the sheriff called for a full range of background reports.

The sheriff told him: “You have a bit of a recent history and I will be calling for reports to consider sentence.”

The player started his career with Celtic, and made his debut in 2007. However, he failed to break into the first team and was sent out on loan several times.

After this Celtic released him from his contract and he signed with St Mirren permanently. In December 2011 he won the SPL player of the month award.

He left the Saints this summer and joined Dundee. The player escaped jail on 8 January, 2014, when Sheriff Frank Pieri gave him a chance and instead ordered him to carry out 130 hours of unpaid work and undergo alcohol treatment.

He admitted kicking out wildly at two officers after he was held in a late night row.

In his previous attack on police, he lashed out at two officers who had been sent to deal with a disturbance in Airdrie in August, 2013. McGowan has a further conviction for police assault when he was younger.