Chilling threat to first victim's life in bid to make him withdraw claims
BARRY BENNELL engaged in a calculated psychological assault on his 13-year-old first victim — including threats on the boy’s life — in an attempt to make him withdraw allegations of sexual assault, Sportsmail can reveal.
The football coach, who will be sentenced tomorrow, tried to ring the boy at least twice but the child’s father answered each time at the family home in Staffordshire. Bennell hung up.
The coach’s determination to destroy claims that he had assaulted the boy during a Florida tour with Stoke City feeder club Stone Dominoes in 1994 also led him to tell another former player about promises from contacts in Manchester, who ‘would kill for him’ if it were necessary. Detectives viewed this as a threat on the teenager’s life.
In a letter Bennell sent to a former member of one of his youth teams, he provided an exaggerated depiction of life on remand in a US prison, which he wanted the 13-yearold’s family to be told about.
Bennell wrote: ‘I’ve seen people killed here, I’ve seen suicide’s (sic) people beat up to pieces, rapes… I’m in with murderers who kill for fun.’ If the teenager and his father ‘could see what I’m going through sure they would think again about what they’ve said’, Bennell wrote.
He signs off: ‘This has been the hardest letter I’ve ever wrote. Can’t say no more.’
But the recipient had himself been abused by Bennell and gave the letter to police. The recipient had been persuaded by Bennell to join his New Mills Juniors Under-12 team in 1981. When he began resisting Bennell’s attempted assaults, punishments included ‘not being invited to games at Manchester City’. Bennell had the run of the club at the time.
Sportsmail’s investigations have established that when Bennell was released on bail in Florida, he phoned many parents of potential witnesses, warning them not to speak to the lead American investigator, Special Agent Terry Thomas, who was gathering evidence in Britain.
Thomas found that children were ‘intimidated by the defendant and now appear
hesitant to discuss this case with the investigator’.
Bennell’s concerted efforts to avoid jail also involved persuading 58 parents, victims and former players to write glowing character references. This created an arrogance — even after he had been sentenced to four years in jail in Florida and was being flown home, under police escort, to face more charges in Britain.
Sportsmail can also reveal that Crewe Alexandra — where Bennell sexually assaulted boys for seven years — sacked the coach in circumstances which hint at him attempting to cover his tracks. Crewe have never disclosed the reasons for the coach’s dismissal in 1992. But it followed a row over his demands that a minimal number of parents accompany him on a Crewe youth-team tour to Florida, two years before his arrest there.
A number of mothers indicated they wanted to accompany boys on the trip. Bennell wanted one mother for every five children, while other Crewe staff wanted more parents and greater supervision. Bennell was furious when manager Dario Gradi sided with staff.
Bennell’s pleas for help from America included a letter to Bob Bowers, the sponsor of the Stone Dominoes team, claiming: ‘I’ve been so close to ending it all. I pray and read the Bible every day.’ Bennell asked Bowers how the 13-yearold complainant could ‘put me through this if he knew what he was doing’.
Bowers’ sports merchandise company, Spring Bank Industries, was paying Bennell £18,000 a year to run the Dominoes youth set-up.
Bowers sacked him in August 1994.