Complaints againstVilla scout ‘never reported’
Club should have flagged sexual abuse to police, says QC
AFORMER Aston Villa scout used the club’s Bodymoor Heath training ground and a youth team trip to Scandinavia to abuse young players, an independent review into child sexual abuse in football has said.
Ted Langford, who scouted for Villa and other Midlands clubs in the 1970s and 1980s, was jailed for sex offences against young footballers in 2007. He died in 2012.
The review, conducted by QC Clive Sheldon, said Villa should have reported disclosures about sexual abuse by Langford to the police in 1989.
That was the year Villa stopped using Langford as a scout following complaints, but the report says “records also show that, between July 1989 and December 1990, the club continued to pay Langford an allowance for providing accommodation to an apprentice player.
“The Review has been told that Langford did accommodate an Aston Villa apprentice at his home. The Review has been unable to speak with that apprentice player – although Dave Richardson (the club’s former youth development officer) told the Review he had spoken with this former youth player, who said that he had been ‘happy staying at (Langford’s) home in the converted garage’.
“The payments between July 1989 and December 1990 suggest that, despite removing him as a scout following allegations of sexual abuse, the club permitted Langford to continue to accommodate this apprentice player. It is not
known how this was permitted, or who was responsible for it and whether they were aware of allegations of abuse against Langford.
“There is no suggestion that Aston Villa deliberately provided Langford with authority to manipulate boys in order to commit abuse, but it is clear to me that, in practice, Aston Villa provided Langford with a cloak of credibility and authority that he would not otherwise have had and that Langford used that cloak of credibility and authority to manipulate young players and parents.”
Mr Sheldon adds: “From the accounts I have received, abuse took place at Langford’s house (where youth players were staying over on the basis that this would make it easier for them to attend training or matches); in Langford’s car or van (often, but not exclusively, on the way back from football training); at Bodymoor Heath (Aston Villa’s training ground); and
on overseas trips (including on the ferry).”
Mr Sheldon continued: “I have received no evidence to suggest that anyone from Aston Villa witnessed any act of abuse. Nor have I received any evidence to suggest that anyone from Aston Villa saw Ted Langford behaving in a way which should have raised concerns.
“However, it has been reported to me that at various times relevant information relating to Langford was passed to the club.
“There is some evidence that the club (through Dave Richardson) was made aware in 1988 of un-particularised allegations about Langford’s behaviour with boys that he took on a foreign tour that year. This is denied by Dave Richardson.
“It is clear (and the club accepts) that specific allegations of abuse by Langford were brought to its attention in mid-1989, and that this led to Langford’s sacking a few months later.”