Police re-open ‘bungled’ probe into footballer who abused blindfolded girls
SCOTLAND Yard is to launch a new probe into allegations a former England football star abused underage girls amid claims it mishandled the same case 15 years ago.
two women say they were indecently assaulted by Keith weller, who played for tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Leicester City during a glittering career.
the accusations were first made in 2002 when a number of women told the Metropolitan Police weller molested them as young children in the mid-1960s and early 1980s. But after an inquiry spanning several months the Crown Prosecution Service ruled no charges could be brought.
the mother of one complainant wrote in May 2003 to Sir John Stevens, the then head of the Metropolitan Police, to protest about his force’s handling of the allegations. the Daily Mail has seen a copy of the letter in which she describes the CPS decision not to press charges as ‘stupid, utter nonsense’, and said weller’s victims had been ‘very seriously let down by the judicial system in this country while their assailant has escaped without even a caution’.
In response to the letter a senior Met detective said a CPS lawyer had concluded ‘there was insufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction’.
Police did not reopen the case – which went unreported at the time – meaning the married father of two died aged 58, from cancer, in 2004 without facing justice. Sources said weller was aware child sex allegations had been made about him to the police, but was not interviewed.
But now, in the aftermath of the football child abuse scandal, two of weller’s original accusers have contacted a hotline set up by children’s charity the NSPCC to renew their accusations. A detective has contacted one of the women to confirm the Met will reinvestigate.
Critics said the force’s original handling of the weller case is an indictment of how child sexual abuse allegations were treated before the Jimmy Savile scandal.
weller’s two alleged victims blasted police and prosecutors for failures when they first reported their claims. they described how they were abused while blindfolded and spoke of their fears there could be other victims in the UK and America, where weller played and coached after leaving Leicester.
the first accuser, who says she was abused when aged about 11 in the mid 1960s, said: ‘I don’t think that we were taken seriously by police in 2002, I think it was maybe too much of an effort at that time.
‘I don’t know what more damage has been done by Keith weller. I can’t believe it was just us.’
the other accuser, who says she was abused by weller when she was aged eight in the early 1980s, said of the original Met investigation: ‘we were led to believe that it was such a strong case. For then to be told that because there were no witnesses, it was a poor case and we are not taking it any further... it was a massive, massive let down.’
A source close to the case said the Met was overwhelmed by operation ore, an inquiry into internet child porn, at the time the weller allegations were first made and prioritised this above historic cases.
After the child abuse allegations were made against weller in 2002 police liaised with the authorities in the US where the ex-football star was still based. the mother who wrote to the Met in May 2003 wrote again two months later saying she had expected that US law enforcement agencies would ‘at the very least’ have paid a visit to weller ‘to issue a warning if nothing else about his shameful behaviour’.
weller, an attacking midfielder, was a household name in the 1970s when he helped Chelsea win the European Cup winners’ Cup and was capped four times by England. He is regarded as one of the greatest ever players for Leicester City, the current Premier League champions, and an executive lounge is named after him at the club’s stadium where a painting of him has also been unveiled. He moved to the US in 1978.
weller’s US-based widow terry, 68, looked shocked when told allegations of sex abuse had been made against her husband. She said she knew ‘nothing at all’ about the claims.
the Met refused to comment. A CPS spokesman said: ‘the prosecution of child sexual abuse cases has changed significantly since 2003.’
Additional reporting by Annette Witheridge in the US.