A victim of Barry Bennell warned authorities the paedophile football coach had ‘hundreds’ of victims five years ago but prosecutors said it ‘wasn’t in the public interest’ to charge him.
David Lean was abused by Bennell aged 12 after attending one of his football courses at a holiday camp in Pwllheli, North Wales in 1979.
Bennell spent seven months grooming him before convincing his parents to let their son stay at his house for two nights, when he ‘wouldn’t leave him alone’.
David Lean (left) warned police in 2013 that Barry Bennell had ‘hundreds’ of victims, but says prosecutors said taking the paedophile coach (right) to court was ‘not in the public interest’
Bennell groomed and abused Mr Lean after he attended a football course in Wales in 1979
Mr Lean said he didn’t come forward until 2013, because he was scared of the impact speaking out would have on his mother.
He told Radio 4’s Today Programme: ‘I would have come forward sooner if my mum hadn’t passed comment after the case in 1997.
‘She basically told me that she’d not sure she could have coped if I had of been abused and I decided the keep my silence then until she passed. I walked into Macclesfield police station five days after her funeral.’
Mr Lean warned police in an email in 2013 that ‘Bennell has MANY more victims out there’. This morning he criticised the CPS for the trying to drop the case when he eventually did come forward.
He said: ‘The police were quite good to be honest in February 2013 and they started an investigation into my abuse. The difficulties I encountered were when the completed file was taken over to the CPS in June 2013.
‘It was the CPS then that dropped the case because they thought it was not in the public interest to pursue this man even though I was telling the police all the way along and the CPS that there would be hundreds and this man never left me alone for the two nights that I was there.
‘It was blatantly obvious to me as I matured in life and learned more about paedophiles that, from his actions towards me, that he was obsessed.’
Mr Lean is now calling for changes to the law to make organisations accountable for abuse
Mr Lean fought a long battle with the CPS, appealing their decision to drop the case and eventually forcing them to charge Bennell, who was given a two-year jail term in 2015 after admitting abuse. Bennell was released after one year.
He called for Bennell to receive a life sentence when he comes back before Liverpool Crown Court on Monday over the 50 charges in the current case.
Recalling his grooming, Mr Lean told Sportsmail that his mother unwittingly told him to take Bennell to his room to show him his trophies during one visit to their home.
He said: ‘That was really, really hard. ‘I tried to get out of the room as fast as I could but he stood in the doorway. He looked at me straight in the face and said: “Don’t worry, I won’t tell your mum what you did to me.”’
Mr Lean is now campaigning for a changes to the law to force any company or organisation that has information about child sexual abuse to report it to police rather than cover it up to protect their reputation.