A PROMISING rugby player has been ordered to pay £100 compensation to a schoolgirl who told how he smacked her bottom in a Galashiels takeaway shop queue.

Curtis Reynolds, 21, had originally been charged with sexually assaulting the16-year-old at Ozkan's Gill in Market Street.

But following a trial the burly prop forward was convicted of assaulting the girl by touching her buttocks.

Reynolds - who was playing for Gala at the time but has since moved to Welsh development side RGC - had been out drinking when he ended up in the takeaway.

The schoolgirl told a trial at Selkirk Sheriff Court how she was standing at the counter during the early hours of March 12 when she felt a hard slap on her bottom.

She assumed it had been her boyfriend who had done it and after finishing ordering her food she challenged him about it.

The boyfriend said it was not him and pointed to Reynolds as being the culprit.

There was then an angry exchange of words in the shop and later the girl took Reynolds' picture and circulated it on social media to find out who he was.

She also lodged a complaint with the police.

The boyfriend's brother also witnessed the slap but said it was a soft one. However, he said it was not accidental.

Giving evidence Reynolds could offer no explanation to why he touched the girl's bottom except to say he was sitting at a table and she had entered his space and he reached out to push her away.

Sheriff Peter Paterson said there had been an intentional slap of the young lady's bottom.

He said he preferred the evidence of the Crown witnesses but added it was a taking it a step too far to convict him of sexual assault and instead ruled it was a simple assault.

Reynolds, who is six feet two inches and 18 stone, is now living in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, and receives £125 a week for his new rugby club plus a £40 win bonus.

He was given 28 days to pay the £100 compensation.