EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
TOWARDS the end of this interview, a mobile phone beeps. A message has arrived for Jack Tuohy from the manager of a nonLeague club. The manager wants to wish Tuohy the very best of luck but explains that a trial will not be possible. The board at his club have ‘community values’ and cannot be persuaded to take him on.
Welcome to the life of 20-year-old Jack Tuohy. Eighteen months ago, Tuohy’s career appeared to be on an upward curve. By the age of 19, he had made three first-team appearances for boyhood club Oldham Athletic, where he had spent five years in the youth system. He was the Under 18 captain and although he is English born, there had been international interest, too, from the Republic of Ireland.
And then, one autumn evening in October 2015, his world came crashing down. Tuohy, 19 at the time, was arrested after it was alleged that he bullied a 14-year-old girl into having a sexual liaison in his car.
It was claimed he pressured the girl over a five-month period into meeting for sex and encouraged her to send him naked pictures after first meeting at a school sports day event hosted by his club. Tuohy did not dispute that he had met the girl but strenuously denied the bullying and the claim that he knew she was under-age.
On Tuesday, February 28 at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, the ordeal ended. Tuohy was cleared of two counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and one count of meeting with a child following sexual grooming.
The crucial detail lay in his defence. Barrister Paul Hodgkinson insisted that Tuohy was not aware of the girl’s age. During the trial, it emerged she had posted a false date of birth on Facebook, suggesting she was 17. A 12-person jury took less than an hour to return a unanimous verdict.
In the witness box, Tuohy (below) broke down in tears. When he left the court, some jury members even consoled him. It has, in dad Sean’s words, been a ‘horrific time’, placing a near intolerable strain on Tuohy and his family.
Now, speaking about the ordeal for the first time, Tuohy reveals his torment, detailing how a promising career has been ruined and, more worryingly, the anguish that drove him to self-harm and to the brink of ending his young life.
Before that, however, he is keen to take some responsibility.
‘The first thing I want to say is, looking back now, I wish I was more mature than to have ever got myself into that situation. I’m disappointed I put myself and my family in that position. I have no illfeeling towards the girl at all and wish her well. But a court of law has found me to be innocent on every count and I do want that to be respected.’ In October 2015, the police knocked on his door at dad Sean’s family home and arrested Tuohy. Both his father and mother’s homes were searched and Tuohy’s clothes and phone were taken as evidence. ‘I was stunned,’ says Tuohy. ‘When they told me her age, I was shocked. I was in a cell at the police station for 10 hours. I was panicking, throwing up, I had to move cell. I’m not good in confined spaces.’ Dad Sean adds: ‘The detectives made the allegations of grooming and I couldn’t believe it. I rang Tony Philliskirk, the youth coach at Oldham. I broke down on the phone. That night, Jack didn’t sleep. He was having shaking fits and crying.’ For the next few months, Tuohy continued to train with Oldham and made a first-team appearance in a defeat at Barnsley in April 2016. One month later, he was charged on five counts. Tuohy was immediately suspended by
I still have a dream of being a footballer in the Premier League. I hope other young players read my story and take care
Oldham, although the family did appreciate two senior club officials coming to their home to break the news. ‘It was awful. I was talking it all through with my mum and dad.
‘I didn’t feel I could enjoy anything in my life because it was always in my mind.
‘For a while, I just did nothing. Unless I was going to my new girlfriend, who I had met after the allegation came out, I didn’t go out. I just stayed in my room. I was like a zombie around the house, walking around in a daze. I didn’t go out. I just thought people would stare at me. I felt like everyone knew.’
The seclusion grew. He refused to take the tram to go to meetings with his lawyer, fearful and paranoid that onlookers would judge or insult him. As Tuohy struggled, his mind turned to darker thoughts.
He steadies himself. ‘I started cutting myself. It was all the pressure, all on top of me, I was going through hell.’
Tuohy takes a pause for breath, his eyes moistening. ‘In the end, my parents took all the knives in the house and hid them from me.’
Sean made attempts to revitalise his son’s focus. In the garage, he built a gym, buying equipment second hand and putting it together. A former coach from Oldham got in touch and suggested he play for local team Chadderton. ‘I had become out of shape and put on weight,’ says Tuohy. ‘I didn’t do any fitness. At my first training session at Chadderton, I threw up.’
He regained his fitness, working out in the garage and following YouTube training regimes. Oldham paid him until the end of his £250per-week contract in June 2016, when he was released.
He joined Shaw Lane, a South Yorkshire club in the ninth tier of English football, who were prepared to take him on while the case was ongoing. He is currently earning £100 a week, not including the expenses of driving across the Pennines to Barnsley to play.
On the long drives, the black clouds returned. ‘I did consider ending my life,’ he says. ‘I called my mum and dad when I was driving home in the rain. I said I’d kill myself and crash my car. They kept speaking to me.’
Sean (above) says: ‘As parents, that was horrendous. You feel helpless. We made him stay on the phone all the way home. Even at court, the day after the prosecution spoke, he had more thoughts like this. He read someone on social media who said he should be hanged. It was just so wrong.’
Fearful for their son’s state of mind last autumn, Sean called their lawyer David Seligman of CM Solicitors, who arranged an urgent meeting with the PFA’s assistant chief executive Richard Jobson for the following morning. It was a crucial intervention. The PFA funded counselling sessions and also covered fees when Tuohy had a hamstring injury. A doctor prescribed antidepressants but it is only since the verdict that Tuohy has felt at ease.
At Shaw Lane, Tuohy has scored nine goals in 11 games. It has not been straightforward. ‘We played one game where someone was really getting at me. He said I was a nonce, that he’d break my legs, that I should have my head smashed in.’
It is not only Tuohy who faces the taunts. His 14-year-old younger brother has been kept off school to protect him from abuse.
Talking in their living room, it is clear that the strain and upset has lifted slightly from the family. Tuohy has been settled with new girlfriend Kay for over a year and helps looks after her two-year old son. Yet the law does not erase memories or perceptions.
‘I’m still a young guy with a dream of being a footballer,’ says Tuohy. ‘I think I have the potential to play in the Premier League. I hope other young footballers read my story and take extra care.’