United Kingdom football sexual abuse scandal
A child sexual abuse scandal involving the abuse of young players at association football clubs in the United Kingdom began in mid-November 2016. The revelations began when former professional footballers waived their rights to anonymity and talked publicly about being abused by former coaches and scouts in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This led to a surge of further allegations, as well as allegations that some clubs had covered them up.
Echoing similar revelations in the 1990s, the initial 2016 allegations centred on abuse of young players at Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City due to the clubs' associations with Barry Bennell who, on 29 November 2016, was charged with new offences. Allegations were also made against George Ormond, a former Newcastle United youth coach and scout, former Chelsea scout Eddie Heath, and former Southampton and Peterborough coach Bob Higgins. In early December 2016, allegations about former youth coaches and scouts in Northern Ireland and Scotland also started to emerge.
Within a month of the initial reporting, the Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, several football clubs and over 20 UK police forces had established various inquiries and investigations and over 350 alleged victims had come forward. By July 2018, 300 suspects were reported to have been identified by 849 alleged victims, with 2,807 incidents involving 340 different clubs. By the end of 2021, 16 men had been charged with historical sexual abuse offences, 15 of whom were tried. Fourteen – Bennell, Ormond, Higgins, William Toner, Michael Coleman, Jim McCafferty, Robert Smith, James Torbett, Gerald King, Frank Cairney, Norman Shaw, David Daniel Hayes, Dylan Lamb and Geoff Broome – were convicted; all, except King were jailed. Paul McCann was cleared. Michael Carson died by suicide before his trial opened. Other allegations involved individuals who had died prior to the revelations, who had died before charges could be brought or who were unfit to stand trial. In addition to criminal prosecutions, civil actions for damages were also instigated against clubs including Celtic, Crewe Alexandra, Manchester City and Newcastle United.
In July 2018, the FA's independent inquiry was said to have found no evidence of an institutional cover-up or of a paedophile ring operating within football, but intended publication of its report in September 2018 was delayed, potentially by up to a year, pending Higgins' retrial and further charges against Bennell. The SFA's enquiry report, making 97 recommendations for improvement, was published in February 2021, and the FA's Sheldon report was published on 17 March 2021. While awareness of child abuse had previously been low, Sheldon said the FA was culpable of "institutional failure" in delaying the introduction of safeguards after 1995. Sheldon also criticised failures at eight professional clubs: Aston Villa, Chelsea, Crewe Alexandra, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Peterborough, Southampton and Stoke City. The FA undertook to implement all 13 of the report's recommendations about improving safeguarding measures at clubs.
Implicated individuals
The sexual abuse allegations related to several publicly identified individuals, listed below in the order in which they were named as the scandal developed from late 2016 through to 2019.Barry Bennell
On 16 November 2016, former Crewe defender Andy Woodward alleged in an interview with Daniel Taylor of The Guardian newspaper that he had been the victim of child sexual abuse by former football coach Barry Bennell at the club in the 1980s. By 21 November, it was reported that six other people had contacted the police.On 22 November, The Guardian alleged that Crewe teammate Steve Walters had been another of Bennell's victims, while Woodward criticised Crewe for failing to apologise. On 24 November, Dario Gradi, manager at Crewe during the early 1980s, released a statement saying he knew nothing of Bennell's crimes until Bennell was arrested in the United States in 1994.
On 23 November, former Manchester City players David White and Paul Stewart made similar sex abuse allegations about Bennell, and about another coach at the Nova feeder club. Cheshire police said they had been contacted by 11 people regarding the Bennell case. On 25 November, two further youth players, Jason Dunford and Chris Unsworth, also alleged sexual abuse by Bennell, initially at a Manchester City nursery team; Dunford also later spoke of abuse by [|Frank Roper].
On 27 November, another former Crewe player, Anthony Hughes, said that he too had been abused by Bennell. Wales and Manchester United youth player Matthew Monaghan, former Preston North End reserve team player David Lean, and Wimbledon and ex Northern Ireland international Mark Williams also alleged abuse by Bennell.
Doubt regarding Crewe's claims of ignorance began to emerge on 25 November. First, Hamilton Smith, a director at Crewe Alexandra from 1986 to 1990, told The Guardian that the club heard an allegation that Bennell had sexually abused a junior footballer. However, Bennell was allowed to stay at the club – despite the then chairman, Norman Rowlinson, recommending that the club "get him out" and raising concerns with Manchester City – so long as Bennell was not left alone with boys and was stopped from arranging overnight stays. In February 2018, it was reported that Rowlinson had sought police advice about Bennell and had been advised to "move him on". Smith said fellow directors did not want to rely on hearsay evidence and local gossip. In 2001, Smith met Tony Pickerin, the Football Association's head of education and child protection, and requested an FA investigation into the care of children at Gresty Road. He said he later received a three-line letter from Pickerin saying the FA had "investigated the issues and is satisfied that there is no case to answer".
Secondly, on 7 December 2016, the BBC reported that the mother of a former Crewe youth team player wrote an anonymous letter to Dario Gradi in 1989–90, asking him to investigate "inappropriate" behaviour involving a member of staff, who "took lots of boys into his room overnight" during a weekend away in Blackpool.
Bennell history
Once a youth player at Chelsea, Bennell had worked for at least four English professional clubs: Manchester City, Crewe, Stoke City and Leeds United, and from 1992 to 1994 was head coach of the Staffordshire side Stone Dominoes. During a 1994 Dominoes tour to the United States, a 13-year-old club player claimed that Bennell had sexually abused him. Bennell was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida, and eventually charged on six counts of sexual battery and lewd and lascivious behavior. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment.In the meantime, in 1996, a Channel 4 Dispatches programme highlighted child abuse allegations involving Bennell. The documentary featured Ian Ackley, a former player at Derbyshire youth side White Knowl, who was one of four boys who had come forward to British police after Bennell's US arrest. As a result, although Bennell did not serve the full term of imprisonment in America, he was arrested again on his return to England.
In February 1998, Bennell appeared at Mold Crown Court in north Wales and pleaded not guilty to charges of indecent assault, buggery and attempted buggery dating back to the 1970s and 1980s through to 1992, against children aged between nine and 15, with offences alleged to have taken place in Derbyshire, in the Crewe area and at Butlin's in Pwllheli, north Wales. Bennell was remanded in custody to appear at Chester Crown Court in June 1998. At Chester, Bennell was found guilty of 23 offences against six boys, and received a nine-year jail sentence. In May 2015, Bennell received a further sentence of two years after pleading guilty to sexually abusing David Lean at a camp in Macclesfield in 1980.
At the inquest in 2012 into the death of Gary Speed, it was alleged that Speed and former Manchester United player Alan Davies had been "favourites" of Bennell, though there was no suggestion they had been abused by Bennell. Both players later died by suicide, as did Mark Hazeldine, coached by Bennell at Manchester City in the early 1980s.
2016 and 2017 charges
In November 2016, Thames Valley Police visited Bennell's Milton Keynes address, though they said this was "in response to a safeguarding concern" and it was not investigating any offences. Bennell was taken to hospital in Stevenage after being found unconscious in Knebworth Park on Friday 25 November; Thames Valley police said officers had been called to a "fear for welfare" incident. It was believed Bennell was staying at a hotel after leaving his Milton Keynes home as the scandal broke. On 29 November 2016, then 62-year-old Bennell was charged with eight counts of sexual assault against a boy aged under 14, alleged to have taken place between 1981 and 1985. Bennell appeared by videolink at South Cheshire magistrates' court in Crewe on 14 December, and was remanded in custody to appear at Chester Crown Court in January 2017. On 16 January 2017, speaking via videolink from HM Prison Woodhill, Bennell pleaded not guilty to the charges, and was remanded in custody until 20 March 2017.On 7 March 2017, Bennell was charged with eight further counts of child sexual abuse. He appeared at South Cheshire magistrates' court via video-link on 13 March, when an additional four charges were also made, and was remanded in custody to appear at Chester Crown Court on 22 March, when all 20 charges against him were dealt with together. At that hearing, Bennell pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault, five counts of buggery and one count of attempted buggery. The case was adjourned to 3 July 2017 at Liverpool Crown Court with a trial listed for January 2018 in Liverpool.
In May 2017, Bennell appeared in court having been charged with a further 21 offences: 18 counts of indecent assault, two of serious sexual assault and one of attempted sexual assault, relating to four boys aged between 14 and 16, and alleged to have taken place between 1983 and 1991.
In June 2017, Bennell appeared in court charged with a further 14 offences ; ten of these charges related to indecent assaults on four 11- to 14-year-olds, four for alleged buggery. He made court appearances on 28 June and 17 July, when he was remanded in custody ahead of a trial due to start on 8 January 2018.