A Scottish Premiership player admitted a city centre confrontation with police after his team drew a match just before Christmas.
But 23 year old Josh Meekings denied his breach of the peace was aggravated by sexual orientation prejudice and he will now have to go on trial later this year.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle defender Meekings did not appear personally at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, but was represented by solicitor Rory Gowans.
Mr Gowans told Sheriff Margaret Neilson that his client was willing to plead guilty to the charge with the aggravation deleted.
He added: “But I believe this is not acceptable to the Crown.”
Fiscal depute Karen Smith confirmed that she would not accept the plea offered and asked for the usal dates to be fixed.
An intermediate diet was set for October 4 and trial for November 2 when Meekings will have to be present.
The case had already been continued without plea three times – in March, April and May before the guilty plea was tendered.
Meekings was charged by police after the alleged offence which took place hours following ICT’s draw 2-2 with Dundee United,
Meekings is charged that on December 20, at Bridge Street, Inverness, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner likely to case a reasonable person fear and alarm in that he did shout, swear, challenge people to fight, utter offensive remarks, and behave in an aggressive manner towards police officers, an offence aggravated by sexual orientation prejudice.
Meekings was a former under 18 captain for Ipswich Town but never played for the first team. He was due to sign for Stevenage but chose the Highland Capital side in 2011 instead because of the then manager Terry Butcher.
