West Lothian crime news: Premiership football club has sparked controversy by posting a gallery of pictures of children it says broke into its ground

Livingston FC faced a backlash after posting a series of photographs of teenagers on social media who it said had broken into their ground.
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The Premiership club shared the pictures on Twitter of the teenagers on their pitch and inside the concourse - before deleting them a few hours later.

The club has reported the incident to the police, but said it was asking parents to “have a word” with their children and was posting the photos to help identify those they say are responsible.

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The club alleges that this is the fifth time in the last few weeks that the pitch has been broken into, which they add is costing them a lot of “time and energy”.

Their online statement read: "The club is annoyed to report that yet again we have had a break in at the club from a group of teenagers over the weekend.

"This has been the 5th time in as many weeks this has happened. We have reported the matter to the police and handed them all CCTV footage of those involved.

“Please look at the footage and if you know the kids involved, have a word with as it’s starting to cost a lot of time and energy trying to stop this happening but for the sake of the kids involved it has to stop before they get hurt breaking in or have the police chapping their door.

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“We are a community club and want to help and support the community but this is the last thing we want to be doing.

West Lothian crime news: Livingston FC speak out after teenagers break in to club over weekendWest Lothian crime news: Livingston FC speak out after teenagers break in to club over weekend
West Lothian crime news: Livingston FC speak out after teenagers break in to club over weekend

“So please, have a look and if you know the kids involved alert their parents and hopefully we can stop it that way rather than wasting police time."

However, after receiving criticism online for posting the pictures, with some saying that the approach from the club had been unreasonably heavyhanded, the tweet was deleted around six hours after it was posted.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We are aware of recent reports of break-ins, vandalism and youth antisocial behaviour around Almondvale Stadium in Livingston.

"Enquiries into these incidents are ongoing and we continue to work with the football club to address any ongoing issues.”