Crewe chief still won’t say what he knew
Crewe Alexandra chairman John Bowler has failed to explain if he knew that a group of schoolboy footballers were going to stay at Dario Gradi’s house just three years after it emerged a boy was abused there.
A former Crewe employee has said he was asked by a senior official at the club to help wipe pornography from Gradi’s computer, which had been viewed by a group of visiting Irish Under 13s.
There is no suggestion Bowler, 81, is the official concerned and it is unclear whether Gradi would have informed the chairman he would host the youngsters.
However, the ex-member of staff added he was ‘amazed’ that the arrangement was not regarded as inappropriate following the conviction of former Crewe coach Barry Bennell, who had attacked a child at Gradi’s home.
In a statement last night, the Football Association of Ireland said it ‘had been made aware of a situation involving an Irish schoolboy club and are investigating the matter. Should anyone require support or advice in connection to this incident, they can contact the FAI Child welfare Department’.
But Bowler, via Crewe, declined to comment on whether he knew the group were staying at Gradi’s house and whether he allowed the former manager to host them.
In 1998, notorious paedophile Bennell was jailed for a second time for the abuse of six boys, aged between nine and 15. One of those offences was carried out on Crewe’s training ground while another happened at Gradi’s residence. There is no suggestion the 76-year- old knew anything about it.
The former member of Crewe staff who says he was asked to delete the porn in 2001 told the NSPCC the situation seemed odd and that he raised his concerns with Bowler, who dismissed the behaviour as ‘quirky and nothing more’, according to the BBC. He also spoke to Cheshire Police, who told Sportsmail they found that ‘no criminal activity had taken place’.
Gradi, Crewe’s former manager and current director of football, has been suspended by the FA since November 2016.
No reason has been given for the suspension, or whether it was triggered by the FA’s then-pending independent investigation into child abuse in football from the 1970s to 2005, which was launched the following month.
Last week, a former Crewe player told Sportsmail that Gradi had shown him a sex tape at his house. The player was 14 at the time.
On Tuesday, another former Crewe player made a similar allegation — that he was shown an adult film in the mid-1980s when he was a teenager. Bowler, who is still chairman at the League Two club, remains in his post as the probe continues.
Under the investigation’s terms of reference, point 12 states that should it find any ‘potential regulatory breaches of any football rules and regulations they will be referred to the FA who will take whatever action it thinks fit’.
That would suggest that the investigation has uncovered no potential wrongdoing by Bowler.
A completion date of April was set for the review, which is being led by Clive Sheldon QC. However, it is unlikely, given the new cases and further information coming to light, that it will end on time.
Yesterday, Sportsmail listed questions that Crewe ought to answer. The club said that they were unaware of any wrongdoing by Bennell until he was arrested for the first time in the USA in 1994 and say he left Crewe in 1992 for football reasons.
They declined to respond to the questions.