A FOOTBALL coach has been cleared of sexually abusing young players – after one of the alleged victims admitted he was told to lie so he would get a bigger compensation payout.

Retired firefighter John Queen, of Wallace Avenue, Elderslie, ran youth teams in Paisley for many years.

But he was arrested and charged with abusing eight youngsters, who can’t be named for legal reasons, over a 23-year period.

Now 63-year-old Mr Queen has been cleared of all wrongdoing following a trial.

He faced 14 charges over his alleged conduct towards youngsters between 1984 and 2007 at a club also run by a Paisley police officer who has since died.

Former players claimed Mr Queen watched them in the showers, dried them and took them back to his home, where he made them shower and then gave them naked massages.

One of the boys, who is now 27, said Mr Queen also performed a sex act on him in a hotel in Blackpool while they were away on a trip.

He said that, along with his best friend, he went to the police in late 2016, following media coverage of sex abuse scandals involving celebrities and football coaches.

The man said Mr Queen would stare at him and his genitals when he showered after games, take his towel off him and dry his back.

He also claimed the accused invited him round to his home, got him to do odd jobs and then gave him naked massages before making him go for a shower.

The witness said: “He wouldn’t just take me upstairs for a massage, it would be relative to the activity that had been going on or the football that we had played, like if my legs were sore.”

However, another of Mr Queen’s alleged victims said he met that man by chance outside a shop in Hunterhill, Paisley, where he told him to lie so he would receive a bigger compensation payout.

Mr Queen, who became a carer after leaving the fire service, was adamant he had done nothing wrong.

He told the court: “It’s a figment of their imagination. I’ve been totally truthful.

“I’ve never been that way inclined and I don’t know where they’re coming from.

“I haven’t touched any of these boys. I don’t know why these boys have come forward.”

Mr Queen also said he’d had nothing but gratitude from parents and guardians for his work at the football club and that a committee member even said he should have been awarded an OBE for his work with children.

In his closing speech to the jury, defence solicitor Gordon Ritchie said: “Every single one of [these boys] has been tripped up by things they said before [the trial] which are different from what they said in court.

“There is a motive here – money.

“[One of the boys] said he had been recruited by [one of the other boys] to come forward to make an allegation, saying if John Queen touched him he would get ‘a couple of extra zeros on his compensation’ – something to do with criminal injuries.”

Mr Ritchie added: “You can’t, on the strength of the evidence, convict this man of being a paedophile.”

Last week, after just under three hours of deliberations at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, the jury cleared Queen of all wrongdoing.

They found him unanimously not guilty of two charges, not guilty of four charges by majority and found six charges against him not proven by majority, while two charges had been dropped during the trial.