Campaigners hail new law for coaches as ‘huge’ progress

Acclaims decision to make it illegal for mentors to have sexual relationships with teenagers

‘We should never forget the bravery of those who spoke out about the abuse they suffered’

It took almost five years, but the three women who have campaigned tirelessly for sports coaches to be prosecuted for having sex with 16 and 17-year-olds in their care finally got the result they had been fighting for.

The Ministry of Justice yesterday announced the Police, Crime, Sentencing

and Courts Bill, which will close a loophole that meant coaches could legally have sexual relationships with 16 and 17-year-olds in their care. The bill will extend Positions of Trust law to sports coaches and religious leaders, in line with occupations such as teachers and doctors, to make such activity illegal. Conservative MP Tracey Crouch, Labour’s Sarah Champion and Paralympic champion and cross-bench peer Baroness Greythompson worked together to make it happen.

“It’s huge, it’s about resetting and reframing sport and the responsibility of sport to participants,” Greythompson

told The Daily Telegraph. “The coach is in a position of power, of trust, and [young people] are being coerced into relationships. I’ve had parents tell me a coach turned up on their doorstep on their daughter’s 16th birthday and said, ‘Can I date your daughter?’ Someone who is much older and coached their child for a number of years, and I don’t think it’s right.

“That’s one of the reasons why my Duty of Care report in 2017 recommended a sport ombudsman, because I don’t think governing bodies are set up to deal with some of these issues.”

Crouch was sports minister when

survivors of football coach and serial paedophile Barry Bennell’s abuse began speaking out in 2016. It prompted her work on safeguarding, and she saw the loophole which omitted sports coaches from positions of trust in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 as a priority.

“We should never forget that it is ultimately thanks to the bravery of those sportsmen and women who spoke out about the abuse they suffered that athletes of the future will be protected from coercive behaviour of their coaches,” Crouch said.

The NSPCC supported Crouch’s efforts in 2017, with its “Close the Loophole” campaign, and called the decision a “landmark” moment. Champion joined forces with Crouch after her own work on child protection in her constituency of Rotherham, where a child abuse scandal rocked the community in the last decade.

“If I hadn’t got involved in that I probably wouldn’t have seen or recognised this loophole,” Champion said. “Because 16 and 17-yearolds are allowed to give sexual consent, if they had told me they were in love with their sports coach I would have thought it’s a bit dodgy, but wouldn’t get involved.

“Now, understanding about grooming, coercive control and the ways that exploitation work, for me, you cannot have an equal relationship if one of you is in a position of trust over the other.”

Last year a BBC investigation found that there were more than 160 reported cases of sports coaches engaging in sexual activity with a 16 or 17-year-old in their care since 2016. “Those are the only ones we know about though,” Champion said. “Think how many are actually going on, and that’s when it starts to get chilling.”

Champion and Grey-thompson have called for a “public awareness campaign” to ensure people feel confident to report alleged abuse.