Chelsea issue abuse apology to ex-player
FOOTBALL giants Chelsea have apologised “profusely” to former footballer Gary Johnson over sex abuse he suffered as a youth player in the 1970s.
The Premier League side paid Mr Johnson, 57, £50,000 to keep quiet about allegations of sexual abuse carried out by a former chief scout.
In a dramatic turn of events, Chelsea last night issued a statement saying Mr Johnson had “suffered unacceptably”.
The club also said it was to launch a review into the case, adding it had “no desire to hide any historic abuse”.
The review will examine whether the club carried out a proper investigation when the allegations first came to light.
It will also probe why it did not report them to the Football Association and Premier League.
“We are fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all children and young people who are in our care or attending our premises,” the club statement said.
It added: “Their welfare is of paramount importance.”
Gary Johnson was a member of Chelsea’s first team from 1978 to 1981.
He joined the club as an 11-yearold in 1970. When he was 13 he was groomed and then abused by scout Eddie Heath.
Heath, who was the club’s chief scout from 1968 to 1979, died before the allegations against him were made.
According to reports, Mr Johnson signed a confidentiality agreement in 2015 after he was given £50,000 by the club.
Chelsea said in its statement that when the settlement was reached the club’s board understood it was “usual practice” to include a mutual confidentiality agreement, adding that Mr Johnson’s solicitors had not objected to the clause.
“More recently, against the current backdrop of wider revelations and other victims coming forward bravely to tell their story, we no longer felt it appropriate to keep the confidentiality agreement in place. “It was therefore removed”. Chelsea said the decision to add the confidentiality clause had received “significant scrutiny” and it had now asked an external law firm to review this decision and make recommendations for settling claims in the future.
“In advance of that, however, the board would like to make clear that, in light of what we know now about the wide-scale abuse in football clubs in the 1970s and 1980s, it now believes that the use of such a clause, while understandable, was inappropriate in this instance.
“We certainly have no desire to hide any historic abuse we uncover from view. Quite the opposite.”
English football has been rocked by widespread sex abuse allegations.
More than 200 people have come forward claiming to have been abused.