Serial paedophile Barry Bennell has been convicted of 36 further child sex offences after grooming young footballers with claims he could fulfil their dreams of a career in the sport.
The 64-year-old, who has previously received three jail sentences for similar offences, was found guilty of charges including indecent assault and rape of boys at Liverpool Crown Court.
The jury will resume deliberations on seven outstanding charges tomorrow.
Crewe Alexandra youth team coach Barry Bennell (right), with first team manager Dario Gradi (left) in November 1988. Bennell, 64, exploited his position to manipulate, groom and abuse boys and was a ‘child molester on an industrial scale’, Liverpool Crown Court heard
During the course of his trial, he was described as a ‘child molester on an industrial scale’ who would not just groom his victims, but also their families.
Victims who had been coached by Bennell as boys told how he had a ‘power hold’ over them as they dreamed of becoming professional footballers.
He was said to have been treated like ‘God’ at Manchester City’s Maine Road ground.
He abused the boys at his homes, where he had arcade games and exotic pets including a puma and a monkey, but also on trips away and in his car while on the way to and from training.
One victim, who he had admitted abusing in 1998, said he knew of four men who had been coached by Bennell, including former Wales manager Gary Speed, who had gone on to take their own lives.
The jury was told there was no evidence to link the deaths to Bennell.
Bennell, who had part of his tongue removed due to cancer, appeared in court via videolink for health reasons and declined to give evidence in his own defence.
Bennell pictured in 2012. As a renowned football coach he was trusted by parents to train their ambitious young sons to become professional players – but he used his position to abuse them
But the court heard transcripts of police interviews in which he admitted having a ‘grooming process’ and being attracted to teenage boys, although he denied the new allegations and said his accusers were ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ following publicity.
His barrister, Eleanor Laws QC, described him as being a ‘sitting target’ after being convicted of child sexual abuse in the 1990s and in 2015.
She said: ‘The defendant is a known target and he coached these boys.
‘They know when making allegations, whether truthful or not, that they are making allegations against a convicted paedophile.’
Crewe Alexandra youth team coach Barry Bennell (left), with first team manager Dario Gradi
The jury found Bennell guilty of four counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted serious sexual assault against a fourth complainant and four counts of indecent assault against a fifth complainant.
He was found guilty of three counts of serious sexual assault against a sixth complainant and four counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted serious sexual assault against a seventh complainant.
He was convicted of two counts of indecent assault against a eighth complainant, one count of indecent assault and two counts of serious sexual assault against a ninth complainant and three counts of indecent assault against an 10th complainant.
The jury is still deliberating on four counts involving an 11th complainant and three other counts involving other complainants.
The jurors were sent home to resume deliberations on those outstanding counts at 10:15am tomorrow.
Some of the complainants were in tears as the verdicts were delivered.
Bennell could be seen speaking on the videolink but his words could not be heard.
Bennell has been convicted of 36 further child sex offences after grooming young footballers with claims he could fulfil their dreams of a career in the sport (pictured on holiday, left, and in a police mug shot, right)
The verdicts mean Bennell has been convicted of a total 27 counts of indecent assault, seven counts of buggery and two counts of attempted buggery, involving ten victims, who were all children, between 1979 and 1990.
There were originally 48 counts on the indictment. The jury was ordered to return not guilty verdicts on three of those. Two other counts were alternative charges so they will not now be dealt with.
Before the trial started Bennell pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault involving three boys, two of whom were part of the trial.
The jury retired on Thursday and had been deliberating for 19 hours when they were sent home on Tuesday.
The jury has already been told that Bennell has served three previous prison terms for abuse.
VICTIM SUFFERED POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS AFTER BENNELL ‘USED HORROR FILMS AND HIS PET PUMA TO GROOM BOYS BEFORE ABUSING THEM
An alleged victim of former football coach Barry Bennell told a court he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder since reporting his abuse.
The complainant told Liverpool Crown Court he had stayed at Bennell’s house in school holidays when he played as a schoolboy for Crewe Alexandra.
He described being abused by the 64-year-old on the sofa of his home and in a bunk bed.
Barry Bennell’s home in Milton Keynes. The former coach, who appeared via videolink from prison for the hearings, chose not to appear in the witness box and no evidence was called by the defence
The court heard since reporting the allegations to police he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had experienced flashbacks and ‘violent nightmares’ about Bennell.
He said: ‘I had a number of these (flashbacks) over a number of weeks. I was told by the GP that was normal.’
The court heard the complainant had alleged three incidents of abuse, but had later been told by fellow youth footballers he may also have been abused by Bennell when he was asleep.
He said: ‘I know there were occasions they have said they witnessed him touching me on the sofa when I was asleep. That is a bit hard to take, that’s led to (thinking) ‘how many more times did it happen? What else happened?’
He said he was first touched by Bennell when he was sitting on the sofa watching Nightmare On Elm Street.
He said: ‘He had a pet puma, like a wild cat, that was always in the room and it was kind of an intimidating atmosphere.
‘I remember him saying that I should sit next to him on the sofa. That wasn’t uncommon but it was uncommon for him to hug me.’
The complainant said when he flinched Bennell stopped touching him and continued watching the film. Bennell then started to touch him again but he moved away, he said.
He described the coach abusing him again on two occasions when he was in the top bunk of a bunk bed, but said Bennell left the room after he kicked out and moved to get away from him.
Describing the second incident in the bunk, he said: ‘That time he put his hand over my mouth a bit. Again I just kind of kicked away and then he disappeared out of the room.’
The complainant told police he decided to come forward after seeing media coverage of other former youth footballers alleging abuse by Bennell in 2016.
He said: ‘I feel guilty because I never said anything. I now know the level of abuse that some of the others would have gone through for sustained periods and if I said something, and I know everyone else probably feels the same, but if I had said something maybe that could have stopped.’
He said he was approached by police in the 1990s but denied having been abused by Bennell. He said: ‘I didn’t want to open the box in my head, I just wanted to forget about it.’
Eleanor Laws QC, defending, said: ‘I suggest to you, you rather got swept up in these allegations and that what you have said Barry Bennell did to you is not the truth.’
He replied: ‘I totally disagree.’
BENNELL PLAYED ‘TICKLING GAME’ WITH BOYS THAT WOULD END WITH HIS HANDS IN THEIR UNDERPANTS
One of Bennell’s victims, who he had pleaded guilty to abusing in 1998, said he knew of four men who had been coached by Bennell, including former Wales manager Gary Speed, who had gone on to take their own lives.
But the jury was later told there was no evidence to link their deaths to Bennell.
In transcripts of police interviews which were read in court, Bennell, who has changed his name to Richard Jones, told the police about his grooming process and abuse of boys, but claimed the complainants in the case were ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ following publicity.
In January one his accusers, Chris Unsworth, told the court that Bennell preyed on him after he was scouted for Manchester City as a junior and the abuse began ‘straight away’ after the defendant started giving him lifts to the club’s then Platt Lane training ground.
Unsworth previously waived his anonymity when he appeared on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Show in November 2016 to discuss his alleged abuse.
He was the second of 11 complainants who entered the witness box at Liverpool Crown Court to say they were victims of ‘devious paedophile’ Bennell.
Mr Unsworth said the abuse started in the car with a game devised by Bennell called Follow Me – which the defendant is said to have engineered with other complainants.
He said: ‘He would move his hands around your body on the outside of your clothes, tickle you, and you would have to do the same to him.’
But, he said, the game would keep going until his hands were ‘inside your shirt or inside your underpants’ and it happened regularly, if not every time Bennell gave him a lift.
Abuse also took place at Bennell’s then home in the Peak District, he said. Once again he alleged Follow Me would initiate sexual activity and Bennell would allegedly often end up in bed in the middle of two boys.
He said: ‘You would always do what he said. You was hoping he would not ask you.’
He alleged that sexual activity escalated and eventually led to Bennell raping him ‘about half a dozen times’.
‘The first time I will never forget it,’ he said. ‘I was just crying, the pain. It felt like it went on for hours but it was probably two or three minutes.’
He said sexual contact with Bennell diminished as he hit puberty and it ended when he walked away from football after thinking he had ‘had enough’.
The court heard he was also allegedly abused on trips to Wales with Bennell.
He described staying in a ‘haunted house’ with other boys where he said the coach would put on horror films for them to watch.
He said: ‘That was his scene, he would try and scare the lads.’
He added: ‘I can recall one time being in a dormitory which was full of bunk beds and somebody waking up with a sheep’s or ram’s head on their bunk bed or actually in their sleeping bag. Everybody was petrified.’
But he said none of the boys spoke to each other about the alleged abuse.
Asked why he had not told anyone else, he said: ‘One, they wouldn’t believe you and two, I’m going to jeopardise where I want to go as a professional footballer.’
Cross-examined by Eleanor Laws QC, defending, Mr Unsworth denied discussing possible financial compensation with a solicitor or other alleged victims.
He said: ‘This is not about compensation, this is about justice.’
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