Taylor ‘involved in cover-up’ at Villa, abuse inquiry told
Brien claims he was told ‘sweep it under carpet’ Ex-player says feeder club coach abused him
The late Graham Taylor was dragged into football’s paedophile scandal last night after it emerged the inquiry into historic sexual abuse in the game had heard claims the former England manager was involved in a cover-up that led to boys being exposed to a serial offender.
Former Leicester City player Tony Brien told the independent inquiry Taylor had discouraged him from reporting the abuse he suffered at the hands of Ted Langford and urged him to “move on” after he had tried to warn Aston Villa about a man who was later convicted of a string of offences.
It also emerged yesterday that the barrister in charge of the inquiry, Clive Sheldon QC, was examining a claim Taylor, who died in January, visited the home of another victim of Langford who had come forward, discouraging him from pursuing the matter as well.
Taylor was in his first spell as manager of Villa at the time of both alleged incidents, with Brien claiming he raised the alarm – during the 1987-88 season – while Langford was working for the club as a scout and he was just beginning his firstteam career at Leicester.
Brien, who waived his right to anonymity days before Taylor’s funeral to allege Langford abused him while he was playing for feeder club Dunlop Terriers, claimed Taylor spoke to him over the telephone and said that, if the story reached the newspapers, he would be a target for terrace taunts.
The police were never informed and Langford continued to be employed by Villa until he was sacked in 1989, remaining at large until he was convicted in 2007 of offences relating to four boys over a 13-year period. He was sentenced to three years in prison and died in 2012.
Brien said his own two-year ordeal at the hands of Langford began when, aged 12, the paedophile said to make it as a footballer, he needed to prove that he had a special gene that could only be found in sperm.
In his evidence to the inquiry on Aug 10, Brien said he summoned the courage to report Langford when Langford left Leicester to join Villa four years later. Langford moved with Leicester youth-team boss Dave Richardson, and Dunlop Terriers also switched allegiance.
Saying he was desperate to cleanse himself of “a dirty feeling I couldn’t get rid of”, Brien told the inquiry: “Dave Richardson brought me to Leicester City. I felt he was the only one I could really tell because he had that man working for him as well. I wanted to do something to stop it happening again.”
Brien claims there had been a number of phone conversations, alleging Richardson rang to inform him the club had decided what to do, telling him: “You’re a good player – sweep it under the carpet, son, move on.” Taylor was then said to have taken the phone to repeat the same. Richardson denies the claims. Answering questions from Sheldon and a second barrister, David Bedenham, Brien said: “They discouraged me from going forward and never offered me a chance to go to police or anything like that.
“We used to look up to Dave Richardson as though he was a father figure. I’ve still got a lot of admiration for Dave Richardson, [for] what he did for me when I was a young man being coached. But when I thought I was doing the right thing by reporting it to somebody I trusted, I felt let down. I was an 18-year-old – you don’t know what to do next. You’ve actually told somebody, but they’ve just said, ‘Well, yeah … whatever’ – and you’re in shock.”
Brien first made his allegations about Richardson’s response to his
‘I was an 18-year-old – you don’t know what to do next. They’ve said ‘Well, yeah … whatever’
warning in January, declining to name Taylor out of respect for his impending funeral.
Richardson denied having advised Brien not to go public, initially telling the BBC: “I would have told him, ‘Leave it with me and we’ll deal with it’. I wouldn’t brush it under the carpet, otherwise I wouldn’t have sacked him [Langford].” He then said he could not recall any such conversations with the then teenager but had launched an internal investigation resulting in Langford’s dismissal after “alarming allegations” from another member of staff.
Taylor’s family and former representatives have been made aware about what the inquiry has heard.