‘You were the devil incarnate’: Bennell given 30 years’ jail

PAEDOPHILE football coach Barry Bennell was branded “the devil incarnate” by a judge yesterday as he was jailed for 30 years.

The 64-year-old was described as “sheer evil” after being confronted by some of his many victims and forced to listen to emotional accounts of how he had destroyed so many lives.

It was the fourth time he has been jailed for paedophile offences.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC, Recorder of Liverpool, said Bennell was “hell bent” on abusing boys and had left a “trail of psychological devastation” in his wake.

“To those boys you appeared as a God … in reality, you were the devil incarnate,” he said. “You stole their childhoods and their innocence to satisfy your own perversion.”

Bennell, who worked for a string of football clubs, including Stoke City, Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City, was convicted of 50 child sexual offences at Liverpool Crown Court, many of which reflect the numerous occasions he had targeted some of his 12 victims between 1979 and 1991.

At least 86 complainants have come forward since the start of the latest investigation, suggesting that his victims may exceed 100.

Bennell, who has twice had cancer, stood in the dock staring downwards as the victim statements were read out by victims now in their 40s and 50s.

He smirked as he was told he would serve half his sentence in custody with the rest on licence, with an additional licence period of one year.

The judge said the police and Crown Prosecution Service should “consider carefully” whether to bring further prosecutions, noting that Bennell “may well die in prison”.