PAEDOPHILE WILL ‘GIVE EVIDENCE’ FOR MAN CITY IN HIGH COURT TRIAL
Premier League club being sued by eight men
PAEDOPHILE former Crewe Alexandra coach Barry Bennell is set to give evidence to a High Court trial on behalf of Manchester City after the Premier League champions were sued by eight men who say they were abused as boys.
A barrister leading the men’s legal team told Mr Justice Johnson that Manchester City had made a ‘tactical’ decision to call Bennell, who is now aged 67 and serving a jail term, as a witness.
Lawyers representing Manchester City said they had been left with ‘no option’.
The eight men, now in their 40s and 50s, have made damages claims against Manchester City and say Bennell abused them when they were playing football in the northwest of England more than 30 years ago.
They say Bennell was operating as a Manchester City scout and want damages from the club.
Mr Justice Johnson has heard the eight men were sexually and emotionally abused by Bennell between 1979 and 1985, and are claiming damages after suffering psychiatric injuries.
Six are also claiming damages for loss of potential football earnings. Manchester City dispute the claims. Mr Justice Johnson was told that Bennell, who worked as a coach at Crewe Alexandra, was serving a 34-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexual offences against boys on five separate occasions – four in the UK and one in the U.S.
James Counsell QC, who is leading the men’s legal team, told the judge that Manchester City now based its defence ‘full square’ on information received from one of Britain’s ‘most notorious paedophiles’.
Michael Kent QC, who is leading Manchester City’s legal team, suggested calling Bennell as a witness was the only option.
Mr Kent told the judge in a written argument: “The defendant has been left with no option other than to adduce evidence from Bennell himself as the only other person still alive who can speak to these matters with actual
knowledge of the situation, as distinct from the claimants’ ‘understanding’ of the position, which on analysis is based on little more than rumour or assumption or, worse still, on what Bennell told them at the time when seeking to manipulate them.”
He said Manchester City disputed the case put by the eight men.
“The defendant’s case in summary is that Bennell was not even a ‘local scout’ for Manchester City FC from about 1978/79,” Mr Kent told the judge in a written argument.
“The defendant’s case therefore is straightforward: Bennell was neither an employee nor acting in a role akin to employment at any time.”
Mr Kent had told the judge, in a written argument, that Bennell’s crimes were ‘notorious’.
“Because of the suggestion that they were linked in some way to the defendant, Manchester
City established an independent investigation and set up a no-fault compensation scheme,” he said. “Without any legal obligation to do so, the club then launched the Manchester City FC Survivors’ Scheme on March 11 2019.
“This was expressly stated not to be taken as any admission of liability
for Bennell’s actions as a matter of law.
“They did this because of the very considerable sympathy they felt and feel for those who as children were appallingly abused.”