Hut of horror
Handing out sweets and picking off the vulnerable, ex-player reveals how Chelsea scout groomed then abused boys in his...
THE abuse scandal at Chelsea football club deepened last night as more former youth team players revealed how chief scout Eddie Heath preyed on teenagers dreaming of stardom.
A Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered how Heath, who was at the club between 1968 and 1979, groomed schoolboys after inviting them to an informal youth club he ran at Chelsea FC.
One youngster revealed how Heath would target him and other teenagers when they were as young as 14 by flicking their private parts and grabbing their buttocks when they came out of the showers.
Another former Chelsea player, Richard Wilson, who later joined Kent Police, working as a detective in child protection, said Heath roamed freely around Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground in West London like ‘a kid in a sweet shop’.
He laid on sandwiches and drinks for youngsters after training and encouraged them to play pool and table tennis in a prefab pavilion. ‘Looking back, it was part of the grooming process. Eddie enjoyed the perfect conditions to prey on boys,’ said Mr Wilson, now 56.
‘Eddie’s hut’, as it was known, was ‘tucked behind the terraces’ at Stamford Bridge. ‘There was always a number of lads who hung around there. They were known as Eddie’s boys,’ he said.
‘He loved having his boys around him and was always handing out sweets. He was God as far as we were concerned and could make or break us.’
Several former youth players have come forward to tell how they suffered at Heath’s hands. One, Gary Johnson, said he was sexually assaulted hundreds of times, having been groomed from the age of 13.
He was given £50,000 compensation by Chelsea but at the time was legally prevented from going public. Police say they are now investigating 83 suspects involving 98 clubs.
This newspaper has learned that the career of another Chelsea youth player, described as ‘hugely talented’ by his contemporaries and destined for the first team, was destroyed after Heath subjected him to serious abuse.
Speaking at his London home last week, the former youth player, who asked to remain anonymous, said tearfully that he still hadn’t discussed what happened with his family because of the ‘shame’ he felt.
Another Chelsea youth player, Steve Perkins, now 62, revealed that Heath groped him on ‘numerous occasions’.
Our investigation found that Heath, who died in 1983 aged 54, targeted boys from unsettled homes. Players at Chelsea during his decade as chief scout paint a portrait of an all-powerful ‘starmaker’ who acted with impunity, sexually harassing boys coming out of the showers and carrying out more serious assaults at his East London home.
Mr Wilson recalled an ‘oddball’ giant with ‘enormous hands’ and said: ‘He was always there, in the background at training, pacing up and down the touchline in his rain coat. If you were picked up by your mum or dad afterwards, Eddie would leave you alone.
‘He never touched me. He was clever, manipulative, and would go for the more vulnerable boys and was like a father figure to them.
‘I was best friends with Gary Johnson but I didn’t know anything about the abuse. We would play golf together and socialise but 15 years ago he became a kind of recluse. No one heard a thing from him. But it all fits into place now.
‘After training, Eddie would wander into the showers, using the excuse of picking up towels and kit. Then he’d start joking around, flicking a towel at the boys. Some of the senior players would use words like “nonce” to describe him and tell us to steer clear of him.’
Mr Perkins joined Chelsea aged 13 in the late 1960s after being scouted by Heath and went on to captain the reserve team before playing for Queens Park Rangers and Wimbledon. He said Heath flicked his private parts and grabbed his buttocks, as well as those of other players, when they were as young as 14, but said his actions were ‘treated as a bit of a joke’.
‘He was getting away with something that people would never get away with now.
‘Most of the lads were aware that if they didn’t keep a wide berth they would be grabbed.Mr Perkins said he never told his parents or other Chelsea staff about Heath’s behaviour. ‘They [the club’s management] would have laughed at us. The position he held at the club would have come before any of us, any of the boys.’
John Sitton, 57, who was at Chelsea for six years from the age of 14, said: ‘It didn’t happen to me, but I witnessed inappropriate touching. Someone would walk out of the shower, or whatever, put a towel round, then they’d get pinched.’
A Chelsea FC spokesman said: ‘Chelsea FC has set up its own investigation and we are fully committed to working with all the relevant authorities including the FA, Premier League and police to fully understand what occurred and support all victims.’
‘He loved having his boys around him’ ‘After a shower he grabbed my buttocks’