FORMER Rangers stars Maurice Edu and Kyle Bartley have told a court they were "intimidated" and "shocked" by racist tweets they received.
The players - who have since left the club - were sent the messages on Twitter from Michael Convery after a game against St Johnstone in Perth on January 14, 2012.
Mr Bartley, 22, said he found the messages "intimidating" and thought that "society had got over these sorts of comments".
Mr Edu, 27, described feeling shocked on seeing the messages he had been sent.
They gave evidence at the trial of Convery, 43, from Linthouse, Glasgow, who was yesterday convicted at Glasgow Sheriff Court of sending racist remarks on Twitter to the players.
The court heard Mr Bartley was sent a direct comment from Convery and mentioned in a second one and Mr Edu was sent two direct comments.
Mr Bartley said: "I actually re-tweeted the tweet. It allowed the public eye to see the comments, and I reported it to David Martin, who is head of security at Glasgow Rangers."
The court heard the word "monkey" was used, Mr Bartley said it was "a comment he was used to".
Procurator fiscal depute Jonathan Kemp asked how he felt. Mr Bartley said: "I just felt a little bit hurt and disappointed really. I thought, 'it's 2012', I just thought society had got over these sorts of comments."
Convery accepted the Twitter messages came from his phone and his account.
The court heard there had been searches using the search engine Google, hours after the tweets were sent for "How to delete Twitter".
He was found guilty and Sheriff Valerie Johnston deferred sentence until next month and continued bail.
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