His mother Ann said she shared her son’s surprise.
“We just brushed it off straight away,” she said. “You could see it wasn’t Shaun. He looked completely different.”
However, after he was later picked out of a police line up the odds were stacked against him, and, on 28 March 2023, he was found guilty at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court of outraging public decency.
He was give an 12-month community order and told to pay £250 in compensation.
The story was picked up by a number of newspapers, with one national publication running the story beneath the headline “Perv Nailed”.
Following his conviction his contract with Whitby was terminated.
“It was heartbreaking,” he said. “I was branded as this horrible human.
“I lost my club and I lost my income because of this.
“I told them I would be appealing. They could have waited.”
The BBC has approached Whitby Town for a comment but received no response.
