Football sex abuse scandal: Top clubs ‘made secret payments to keep victims quiet’

Robert Mendick, chief reporter Ben Rumsby

Top football clubs made secret payments to buy the silence of young players sexually abused by coaches, The Telegraph can disclose, as the growing scandal threatened to engulf the sport.

A well-placed source said a number of clubs, including at least one Premier League team, had paid compensation to footballers but only after victims had signed confidentiality agreements so strict that along with their families and lawyers they are banned from saying publicly if the cases even existed.

The revelation will fuel concern that the national game has covered up historic sexual abuse for years.

The crisis intensified on Friday night when the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s biggest force, announced it was investigating abuse at a number of London clubs after receiving a number of complaints.

That followed an announcement earlier in the day by Hampshire Police that it had opened a criminal inquiry into sexual abuse at football clubs in its area.

Cheshire Police, which had already launched an inquiry, said on Friday that “a growing number of disclosures” had been made to the force about more than one alleged offender while Northumbria Police said it was investigating an allegation by an unnamed former Newcastle United player that he was abused in the club’s youth system.

One victim claimed the problem had been ‘brushed under the carpet’ and insisted a paedophile ring had operated inside the sport.

On Friday the Professional Footballers’ Association said eight more players are in discussions with them about going public.

The NSPCC said the number of calls to its new footballers’ helpline suggested abuse on a ‘prolific’ scale, outstripping the number of offences committed by Jimmy Savile, the deceased BBC presenter.

Other police forces have been told by Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on child sex abuse issues, not to disclose whether or not they have received reports ‘until the national position is clear’.

A number of former footballers have come forward since Andy Woodward took the courageous step of speaking out publicly last week about abuse he suffered at the hands of Barry Bennell, a former Crewe Alexandra coach, who was jailed on three separate occasion for sex offences against boys.

One senior source familiar with the legal cases told The Telegraph that a number of clubs had settled abuse claims in recent years.

The source said: “These cases are subject to strict confidentiality agreements. They relate to allegations against football clubs. One of them is a Premier League club. It is not possible legally for the victims to say anything about the cases. That’s how the clubs have dealt with it.”

Mr Woodward said he was disgusted if clubs had been buying off victims in return for their silence. “I’d be absolutely mortified if that were the case. Absolutely mortified,” said Mr Woodward, who was sexually assaulted by Bennell over a four-year period.

Mr Woodward said he was unaware of Crewe paying compensation to victims. “I’m not even thinking about that at the moment,” he said, “All that my focus is on is getting some justice for these victims.”

Richard Scorer, head of the abuse team at Slater and Gordon lawyers, said ex-footballers could be in line for huge pay outs if they can show they missed out on lucrative contracts at big clubs because of careers blighted by abuse.

That will raise the spectre of smaller clubs being forced into bankruptcy if swamped with high value compensation claims in civil cases.

Mr Scorer said: “Football clubs as well as the Football Association have been very slow to realise the risks.

“This scandal has shown that the football world – especially during this period – had an environment where a paedophile could offend with relative impunity, with few safeguards in place to prevent that happening. Only time will tell how widespread the problem was.”

Jason Dunford, a former Manchester City player, alleged on Friday that a paedophile ring was operating in professional football and was covered up as part of a conspiracy.

As well as coaching at Crewe, Bennell had worked for Manchester City, Stoke and a number of junior teams in the north west.

Mr Dunford, who was abused by Bennell at a holiday camp after winning a football competition, told BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme: “I believe there was a conspiracy and paedophile ring.

“There were people at those clubs who had a duty to look after boys coming through their system. I think Savile looks like a choirboy compared to this fella.”

Chris Unsworth, 44, a former Crewe youngster who has also made allegations against Bennell, told the same BBC programme: “It could have been prevented but way back then there were no laws, you just went with it.

“Everything we have been through has been brushed under the carpet and that is why we are here today. Hopefully others will come out and join us.”

On Friday a former board director said there had been concerns about Bennell as long ago as the late 1980s but he was allowed to stay in for at least three more years before leaving the club in 1992.

Hamilton Smith, who was on the board at Crewe from 1986 to early 1990, revealed he called for a meeting to discuss an allegation Bennell had abused a youngster in the late 1980s.

He said the meeting was held at the then chairman, Norman Rowlinson’s, house and Rowlinson had recommended at one point that the club “get him out” because of growing suspicions about his behaviour.

But Bennell was kept on with the proviso he was not left alone with children.

The Government’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said it was monitoring the ongoing events with a view to launching its own investigation.

An IICSA spokesman said: “Our role is to look at institutional failure to protect children from child sexual abuse and our terms of reference are broad enough to include failures by sports clubs in due course.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to say more at this time, on what might be a live police investigation. We will, however, be watching events closely.”

The inquiry may want to look at two suicides by footballers who were coached by Bennell.

Gary Speed, the former Welsh football manager and Leeds United star who took his own life in 2012, had been coached by Bennell as a child and even stayed at his house.

Bennell had also reportedly coached Alan Davies, a former Manchester United football player, who committed suicide in 1992.
But Roger Speed told the Telegraph in an interview published today he was certain his son had never been a victim of Bennell’s. Bennell has denied abusing Speed but has said that even if he had done so he would be unlikely to admit it.

There is also no evidence that Bennell had abused Davies although one of Bennell’s victims said the coach had referred to Speed, Davies and himself as “favourites”.

Crewe Alexandra has praised Mr Woodward for his ‘immense courage’ in speaking out but has declined to comment on the specific allegations while Manchester City has said it “is currently undertaking a thorough investigation of any past links he [Bennell] might have had with the organisation.”

Newcastle United was put under the spotlight after an unidentified player went to the police claiming he had been sexually assaulted by George Ormond, a former coach at the club who has already been jailed for six-years for a string of convictions involving boys from the club’s youth system over a 24-year period.

Newcastle United said in a statement: “Clearly Newcastle United will co-operate fully with the police and relevant authorities and provide every assistance we can if or when the club receives further information.”

Source: Telegraph UK