Club ‘bought player’s silence on rape claim’
have taken place in the 1970s but Scotland Yard was informed only recently, after revelations about Jimmy Savile, the BBC presenter. A senior police officer told
that Scotland Yard would have been ill-equipped to deal with a complaint of this sort because at the time it was “obsessed” with pursuing allegations of a paedophile ring inside Westminster, which proved to be false.
Another source said: “The club made sure the deal contained a very, very strict confidentiality agreement. We are talking very serious offences. The club completely buried it.”
The source added that the victim “was convinced the same coach sexually assaulted other boys but the case was settled before the allegations were ever made public. The Met police took a look at it but they didn’t get very far because the coach was deceased.”
A senior officer at Scotland Yard said police had been overwhelmed with cases in the wake of revelations about Savile. But the officer complained that police had overlooked sexual abuse in sport because of a focus on offending by celebrities and politicians.
“Senior commanders were completely obsessed with allegations of a paedophile ring killing, torturing and raping children in Westminster,” said the source. “But those allegations were completely false. Detectives should have been looking at cases in sport.”
The paedophile scandal threatening to engulf football began with the public disclosure by Andy Woodward, a former player, that he was abused by Barry Bennell, who had been a coach with Crewe Alexandra. Bennell has been jailed on three separate occasions for sex offences against boys.
A number of other footballers have since spoken out, including Paul Stewart, a former England striker. As a result, four police forces – Cheshire, Northumbria, Hampshire and the Metropolitan Police – have announced investigations into allegations of sexual abuse at football clubs.
A investigation has disclosed that more than 20 football coaches have been jailed for abusing youngsters in their clubs in the past 10 years, including Jim Torbett, the founder of Celtic Boys Club, which has produced international players. Torbett, a millionaire businessman, used his position as coach to molest three boys, including Alan Brazil, who became a striker for Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Scotland.
Another youth coach, John Denham, from Wiltshire, originally called Ben Harrop, was part of a gang which raped and abused babies, toddlers and children in attacks that were then streamed on the internet for other sex abusers.
Yesterday Damian Collins, chairman of the parliamentary committee on sport, said the revelations that a former player had been paid off made a “compelling” case for the Football Association to hold an independent judge-led inquiry. Mr Collins said it “must look at how clubs have dealt with child sexual abuse in the past”.
It was claimed yesterday that Crewe had been warned about Bennell’s behaviour but that the coach was allowed to continue working at the club for several more years. Concerns were also raised with the FA about Bennell in 2001 but the governing body concluded there was “no case to answer”.
Last night, Crewe Alexandra announced it will hold an independent review into the way it dealt with historical child sex abuse allegations. The FA said its priority remained assisting the police and supporting the victims.
The allegations of historical child sex abuse in football could now spread to other sports, claimed Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection. He said he suspected other sporting governing bodies “will identify the fact that they have similar problems”.