Footballer Fights for Career After Wrongful Conviction
Shaun Tuton Aims for Career Revival After Wrongful Conviction
Shaun Tuton, a former footballer for Barnsley and FC Halifax Town is determined to revive his career following a wrongful conviction for indecent exposure. Tuton is focused on proving his innocence and reclaiming his reputation in the football world after what he described as “the toughest time of his life.”
The ex-Barnsley striker was dropped by Whitby Town after being found guilty of outraging public decency, a case that garnered national media attention. Although his conviction was later overturned on appeal, the damage had already been done, and the 32-year-old found himself without a club or profession almost overnight.
Speaking to the BBC, Tuton said, “It’s taken up so many years of my life already. Now I want to use these last years. I’ve got to try and play at the highest level I can and enjoy something I love.”
Tuton’s career began with academy football, including stints with non-league sides Matlock, Buxton, and Halifax. In 2016, he joined Barnsley and was part of the squad that achieved promotion to the Championship that year. He went on to play for several other clubs before joining Whitby in 2023. However, months after signing with Whitby, Tuton was arrested in connection with an incident at Sheffield railway station dating back to 2021.
“I was gobsmacked,” he said. “When they first started to arrest me, they said it was an incident at a train station, but in my head, I knew whatever situation it was, it was impossible because I’d not been on a train in years. When they actually said what it was, I was in disbelief. No one wants to be put in that category.”
Tuton was shown CCTV footage of the suspect, who looked “completely different” from him. His mother, Ann, shared his disbelief, saying, “We just brushed it off straight away. You could see it wasn’t Shaun. He looked completely different.”
Despite this, Tuton was picked out of a police lineup and, on March 28, 2023, was found guilty at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court of outraging public decency. He received a 12-month community order and was ordered to pay £250 in compensation. The national press covered the story, with one publication running the headline “Perv Nailed.” Following his conviction, Whitby terminated his contract.
“It was heartbreaking,” Tuton 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 months following his conviction were the “toughest period” of his life. “It was horrible,” he recalled. “I used to sit in my bedroom and just cry. I’ve played football since I was six. It was never a job for me. It was my place of freedom, and it was just taken away.” His mother also remembered the “dark days” after his conviction, saying, “I used to watch him 24 hours a day. I used to sit outside his bedroom door, listening to him breathing. He didn’t want his life at that moment.”
Tuton appealed his conviction, which was quashed during a hearing at Sheffield Crown Court on September 20, 2023. He had been “better prepared” for the appeal, providing mobile phone and training records. At the time of the incident, his manager and a former teammate also gave evidence. “When they said I was not guilty, I froze. It took for me to look at my friends and my family, and they were hugging… that’s when it hit, I’d finally, after all this time, got this massive weight off my shoulders.”
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson commented on the case: “After carefully reviewing all the evidence available at the time, we proceeded with the prosecution based on our view that there was sufficient evidence to put before the court, and we respect the decision of the court to overturn Shaun Tuton’s conviction on appeal.”
Despite overturning his conviction, Tuton has yet to return to professional football and is playing with friends at his boyhood club, Handsworth FC. He now seeks to “set the record straight.” “People were quick to put it out there that a footballer was getting done in a court for this,” he said. Now I’ve proved that it wasn’t me; there’s nothing that’s been put out there to say I was done wrong.”
