On the evening of this years UEFA Cup Final, on the 14th of May, and just minutes after the match ended in Manchester, twenty year old Michael Devlin was walking along Hillington Road South, on the south-side of Glasgow, wearing a t-shirt that said "dirty horrible huns" on the back and "Zenit St Petersburg, Champions Uefa Cup Final 2008" on the front.
Devlin's lawyer told the court that the young man had been watching the game in a house with his friends. When the match finished they decided to go out and get a takeaway from a local shop.
On the way to the takeaway they were spotted by Constable Andrew Gunn who was out on another call. Constable Gunn found the article of clothing offensive and stopped the youth.
Gunn said: "I informed him that the T-shirt was offensive and told him to take it off. He had a Celtic top on underneath." Constable Gunn did not say whether he also found the Celtic shirt offensive but he did say "There were members of the public there and Rangers fans were walking along Paisley Road West nearby. There were no other difficulties, just that he was wearing that T-shirt."
Devlin was convicted of "religiously aggravated breach of the peace" by Sheriff Iain Peebles, who said "This was an act of gross crassness and stupidity taking into account the timing and the place you were when wearing the T-shirt."
Devlin's lawyer Bob MacKinnon had earlier told the court that the top was just a bit of "Glasgow banter" as he pleaded with the judge for common sense, he said "From school to university to working life, almost everyone in Glasgow is affected by this divide and will get on the case of their friends and colleagues." But the judge replied that his decision was based purely on law and he deferred sentencing on Devlin until October next year for him to be of good behaviour.
Maybe Mr Devlin's lawyer could have argued the case a wee bit better than he did especially with the connotations that this conviction implies. But it seems Mr MacKinnon just wasn't up to the task of pointing out that there was no religious element to this case at all. I'm no expert on the law but from what I gather there is very little chance of this decision being appealed because the sentence is of the deferred type.
That being the case it would seem to the layman that the hun hordes have succesfully won their fight to have the term 'hun' deemed sectarian by the law of the land despite it being used by football fans the length and breadth of the country to describe Rangers fans.
I hope the next Celtic fan charged with "religiously aggravated breach of the peace" for using the word 'hun' is a church-going protestant fan, or a protestant Aberdeen fan or a protestant St Mirren fan. Then we'll open a whole new can of worms...........