A former Celtic women's player has been cleared of posting a sectarian message on Facebook after she claimed it was just a "bit of banter".

Megan McFadden, 20, admitted to police officers that she had posted a comment on her page on the day of the Old Firm game on February 1, 2015.

Included in the post were the words "dirty orange inbred monkey b*stards". She deleted the comment after it was posted and said it was intended as a "bit of banter" between her and one of her friends and not intended to be offensive.

Rangers fan and former player Alison Clark-Dick reported the message after seeing a screenshot of it on a Facebook group and claimed she had "never seen anything as offensive" before.

On Wednesday, a sheriff ruled the Crown had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt and returned a verdict of not proven.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, McFadden, from Drumchapel, Glasgow went on trial for allegedly behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm by acting in an abusive manner and posting offensive and sectarian remarks.

Sheriff David Young QC said: "The Crown has not proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, I find that the charge is not proven."

In evidence Ms Clark-Dick, 22, recalled being at the Rangers and Celtic game on that day with her parents at Hampden Park and checking her Facebook account when she returned to the car.

She told the court she saw a screenshot, a photograph taken of the screen of a mobile phone, showing a comment made on the social networking site.

Ms Clark-Dick said she did not know who had taken the picture of the phone with the comment but that it was on a Rangers group on Facebook.

The witness said: "It took me by a lot of shock and it was really offensive, it’s just I have never seen anything as offensive as that in my life before."

Ms McFadden volunteered herself at Drumchapel police office on February 5, 2015 after a story in the media about the comment.

She told police she had deleted the post and had not meant to post it publicly. During her interview she told officers it was "a bit of banter between me and one of my friends".

Returning his verdict, the sheriff said the Crown was required to prove that Ms McFadden intended to cause fear or alarm or was reckless about doing so.

He noted that believed it was a "bit of banter" and did not believe the comment would be seen publicly.

Sheriff Young also said there was no evidence about who made the original screen grab or posted it online.