Scout claims probed in FA sexual abuse inquiry Sexual abuser jailed in 2007 had connections with Villa
ASTON Villa are the latest club to have been dragged into the sex abuse in football scandal. The Football Association is investigating two claims surrounding scout Ted Langford, who had connections with the club.
Langford was jailed in 2007 for the sexual abuse of four young players in the 70s and 80s.
The new investigation will want to determine how much was known about his behaviour at the time.
Leicester City are also part of the investigation that has been reported by The Times newspaper.
A Villa spokesman said: “The club co-operated fully with the authorities during the investigation at that time.”
The NSPCC has said that referrals from calls to a dedicated football abuse hotline was more than triple the amount made in the first three days of the Jimmy Savile case.
The scale of the scandal was revealed as former Newcastle United striker David Eatock became the latest footballer to tell police he was sexually abused in the sport.
NSPCC chief executive, Peter Wanless, said there had been a “staggering surge” in the amount of people getting in touch.
He said: “The number of high-profile footballers bravely speaking out about their ordeal has rightly caught the attention of the entire country.
“We have had a staggering surge in calls to our football hotline, which reveals the worrying extent of abuse that had been going on within the sport.”
The helpline was set up with the support and funding of the Football Association after former player Andy Woodward claimed he had been abused as a young player.
Within two hours of the opening of the helpline, the charity said it had been contacted 50 times by members of the public. Within the first three days, it had made 60 referrals to the police or children’s services. The charity made 17 such referrals in the same time frame following the opening of its Savile helpline in 2012. Mr Wanless said anyone who wishes to contact the helpline “can do so in confidence, with the knowledge they will be listened to and supported”. “In future, footballers – both young players and former athletes – must have the confidence to open up about sexual abuse and feel able to come forward,” he said. Mr Eatock, now 40, has said that after he joined Newcastle at 18, George Ormond, a former club youth coach, indecently assaulted him and performed a sex act in front of him in two separate incidents. Ormond was jailed for six years in 2002 for carrying out numerous assaults spanning 24 years.