GRADI: I KNEW KIDS STAYED WITH BENNELL BUT THEY WERE HAPPY
DARIO GRADI (left), Crewe manager between 1983 and 2007, broke his silence last week with a 110-word statement of sympathy for the victims of serial paedophile Barry Bennell, but insisted he knew nothing of his crimes before his arrest in 1994.
Here’s what the former Crewe boss had to say on the subject when interviewed by Channel 4 for Dispatches in 1997, a programme which highlighted the child abuse allegations against Bennell.
COMMENTATOR When clubs began running their own youth squads in the mid-Eighties, Dario Gradi took him on at Crewe to coach their 12 to 18-year-olds. He accepted Bennell’s habit of having boys stay at his house.
DARIO GRADI He was running his team when he came to us. Most of those boys were Man City boys and I think most stayed with him at some time or another. He carried that on when he came here and we have never had any reports of any problems.
COMMENTATOR (asking Gradi) Did you know that they were staying virtually, some boys, every weekend, every school holiday? They were spending a huge amount of time at Barry Bennell’s house.
DARIO GRADI Yes, but they all Y seemed to be happy and quite contented kids. COMMENTATOR (asking Gradi) Did any of them ever tell you that they were sleeping in his bed?
DARIO GRADI No. No. Not at all. COMMENTATOR (asking Gradi)
That is surely not something the club would approve of? DARIO GRADI Definitely not. No.
COMMENTATOR Bearing in mind that there is testimony of him abusing before he was here, and he’s pleaded guilty to abusing after he was here, do you believe it was possible that he was abusing boys while he was here at Crewe?
DARIO GRADI Of course I think it is possible. But I don’t think at the time we had any cause for any concern.