Spiers on Sport: why it is time to rehabilitate "shamed" Craig Thomson in Scottish football

The way Thomson found his kicks online – and worse, with two juniors who were no older than 14 – threatened to damage their lives, and left his football career in ruins.

At his trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in June 2011 all of the circumstances of the case were examined. Some of these circumstances actually helped in Thomson’s defence – an otherwise decent young lad gone astray – but in the main his activities were found to be devastating.

There can be no diluting the wrong of what he did. Using Facebook, emails and webcams Thomson indulged in explicit sexual content with the two girls, including the displaying of intimate photos and chat about having sex.

It was only when one of the girls confessed to her mother about these conversations that the police were called, and the case came to light. Thomson was found guilty of “lewd and indecent behaviour” and fined £4000.

For all of this, Thomson’s court case was revealing.

He was just 17 and 18 years old when, like many other young kids today, he started browsing the net and discovered that easy sexual activity was to be had at the click of a button.

In court, the sheriff, under pressure from all and sundry to place a restriction order on Thomson, refused to do so, affirming that he posed no risk to the public. Nor did he bow to pressure to impose restrictions on Thomson’s movements or associations around young people.

Everyone I have spoken to at Hearts at that time – including Jim Jefferies – has offered a testimony about Thomson being a decent young lad who took a drastic wrong turn in his life.

Thomson himself said: “I make no excuses for what I did. I’m fully aware I have let everyone down. I am truly sorry for that.”

What we have here is a case of a young footballer, with too much time on his hands, going down a reckless road online, and ending up shaming himself and making two young girls very vulnerable.

Since those weeks of 2011 Thomson’s life has been one long agony of leper-status. He was shunted off to play in Lithuania by Hearts, who at first tried to stand by the player, but eventually caved in to the public’s outrage.

Having established himself as a Hearts regular in season 2010-11, Thomson never played for the club again.

When a proposed move to AEP Paphos in Cyprus was set up in 2012, the inevitable happened. Within hours of the move being proposed Thomson’s “baggage” was let loose and the disgraced player was sent home, restored to his non-person status.

More than four years on from this case, what is to be our attitude to Thomson today?

There is talk that, among more than one club, there is interest in bringing him back in to professional football. Thomson is currently playing for a village team, Newtongrange Star, where it is forever obvious he is good enough to step back up to the professional game.

Livingston, most prominently, are said to be interested in signing him.

It is not a question, surely, of us forgiving Thomson: only the two girls in question can offer that. It is more about this: is it time to say he has served his punishment, and now let’s rehabilitate him in football?

I hope Thomson can be brought back in to Scottish football. It is surely time. Four and a half years have passed since his incident. For his one-off internet crime, he cannot surely be a pariah forever.

Of course, in saying this, I am making a leap of faith here.

I am trusting Thomson when he expresses his regret over what happened, and he stated: “It was a learning curve for me. There will be no repeat.”

I am also trusting the testimony of those who worked with this player, knew him socially, and viewed him as a good kid who went wrong.

If these and other testimonies are true, I hope Craig Thomson can be rehabilitated in football. He has served his punishment, and good could emerge in his return to senior football.