Barry Bennell denies 20 child sex abuse charges
The former football coach Barry Bennell has denied 20 child sex offences at Chester Crown Court. Bennell, 63, appeared via video link from prison yesterday to plead not guilty to 20 counts of sexually abusing children.
The charges relate to four complainants who were all boys under the age of 16 years old at the time of the alleged offences, which are claimed to have taken place between 1980 and 1987. Bennell had already denied eight of the offences, but entered not guilty pleas on 12 further charges added to the indictment. He was charged with 14 counts of indecent assault, five counts of buggery and one count of attempted buggery.
Bennell worked for Crewe, Leeds United, Manchester City and Stoke City football clubs from the 1970s onwards. In 1994, he was given a four-year sentence for raping a British boy on a football tour of Florida. In 1998, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for 23 charges of sexual abuse against six boys. He was jailed a third time in 2015 after pleading guilty to abusing a boy at a football camp in Macclesfield in 1980.
His present case has been adjourned until the next hearing on 3 July, with a view to a full trial at Liverpool Crown Court in early January 2018, with Bennell remanded in custody.