Former Barnsley and FC Halifax Town forward Shaun Tuton is aiming to revive his career after being wrongly convicted of performing a sex act in public. Tuton, now 32, was arrested in connection with an incident at Sheffield railway station in 2021. In March 2023, he was found guilty of outraging public decency at Barnsley Magistrates Court.
He received a 12-month community order and was ordered to pay £250 in compensation. Following the guilty verdict, his time at Whitby Town ended. However, his conviction was overturned on appeal.
Currently playing for his boyhood club Handsworth, Tuton is eager to reach the highest level possible in the remaining years of his career. Speaking to the BBC, he said, “It’s taken up so many years of my life already. Now I want to use these last years to try and play at the highest level I can and enjoy something I love.”
During the appeal process, mobile phone and training records were submitted, and his former manager and an ex-teammate testified in his defense. Tuton recalled, “When they said I was not guilty, I froze. It took me seeing my friends and family hugging for it to hit me that I finally had this massive weight lifted off my shoulders.”
Tuton has been open about the challenges he faced after his conviction. The story was covered in the national press, damaging his reputation. He said, “It was horrible. 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.”
Tuton has spent most of his career in the non-league pyramid but has also played in the EFL for Barnsley and Grimsby Town, making seven appearances for the Reds and 12 for the Mariners.
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