Football paedophile Barry Bennell was confronted in court today by his victims before he was jailed for 31 years
One of the victims of paedophile football coach Barry Bennell walked over to the courtroom dock and confronted him today as the paedophile football coach was jailed for 31 years.
The judge told Bennell: ‘To those boys you appeared as a god… in reality you were the devil incarnate. You stole their childhoods and their innocence.’
He will serve at least 15 years behind bars before being eligible for parole. It is likely that the former cancer sufferer will die in jail.
It came after eight of Bennell’s victims came face to face with their abuser at Liverpool Crown Court.
Police officer Gary Cliffe read out his victim personal statement from the witness box and then approached the glass dock and calmly said: ‘Barry. Barry. Why?’
Bennell, 64, did not respond and looked downwards before a court police officer escorted Mr Cliffe to his seat in the public gallery.
Mr Cliffe, a detective constable with Staffordshire Police who has waived his anonymity, was one of four complainants who went into the witness box at Liverpool Crown Court to read their statements, while those of three others were read out by prosecutor Nicholas Johnson QC.
Victims Gary Cliffe (left) and Andy Woodward (right) were in court for the sentencing today. After giving his victim impact statement, Mr Cliffe confronted Bennell, asking: ‘Why Barry?’
Bennell had been allowed to follow the trial via a videolink from prison due to ill health but was brought to Liverpool Crown Court today to be sentenced. He is pictured in a court sketch
Bennell, wearing a pale blue jumper and grey jogging bottoms, stared ahead with his arms folded after he was initially brought into courtroom 42 but then looked downwards as the victim personal statements were read out.
One victim who read a statement to the court said: ‘Not a day goes by without thinking about the abuse I received. I was just a child. I am determined to claim back control of my life and live it to its fullest.’
The court heard from another complainant, Chris Unsworth, who has also waived anonymity, that Bennell had ‘destroyed’ his dream of becoming a professional footballer.
Another victim said: ‘I feel I have never escaped my past and have never learned to cope … I feel Barry and Crewe Alexandra have completely stolen my life from me. The upset this man and Crewe Alexandra has caused me really is immeasurable.’
Another complainant to go in the witness box told the court: ‘This man took my one and only childhood without a second thought and with no regret or remorse.
‘My parents feel responsible for not seeing what was going on but I do not hold them responsible at all in any way.’
Victims Chris Unsworth (left), Steve Walters (centre) and Andy Woodward (behind Walters) arrive at Liverpool Crown Court today. Eight of Bennell’s victims sat in the public gallery
The fourth complainant to read out his statement in court said: ‘This monster decided it was fun to him use me as a sex toy. Someone he could get his kicks from.’
Eleanor Laws QC, mitigating, said Bennell had suffered from cancer in the past and had operations to remove tumours from his tongue in 2004 and 2016 but was presently cancer free. She said he was also on anti-anxiety medication.
She said: ‘All of this, we submit, means his time in custody will be less comfortable and more difficult than it would be for someone without all these concerns.’
Chris Unsworth told the court that Bennell had ‘destroyed’ his dream of becoming a professional footballer
Miss Laws said Bennell had served a total of 10-and-a-half years in custody over three prison terms but had been at large for a total of nine years since 1994.
There was no suggestion he had committed any offences since the mid-90s and had undergone a number of treatment programmes while in custody, she added.
Bennell, a former Crewe Alexandra coach and Manchester City scout, may have had well over 100 victims as 86 people have come forward since his case was reported to say they were also molested.
Bennell was found to have targeted 12 victims between 1979 and 1991 in the latest case to come to court.
Bennell has already served three jail terms – one in the United States – since 1995 for similar offences involving 16 separate victims.
After watching his trial via a video link, Bennell was produced from custody at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes today.
Bennell had previously been allowed to appear via videolink for health reasons because he needs to be regularly fed by tube after he developed oral cancer more than a decade ago.
Following the close of the prosecution case he chose not to give evidence in his defence and none was called on his behalf.
During the trial, prosecutor Nicholas Johnson QC described Bennell as a ‘devious paedophile’ who systematically abused vulnerable pre-pubescent boys.
Bennell used his power as a scout and youth coach to abuse boys at his lavish home
Complainants told how he had a ‘power hold’ over them as they dreamed of becoming professional footballers.
Bennell was compared to the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, luring boys to his homes in the Peak District where he had arcade games and exotic pets including a puma and a monkey.
He also abused them on trips away and in his car while on the way to and from football training.
Four players coached by Bennell – including Speed – went on to take their own lives, the jury were told. However, the court heard that there was no evidence to link their deaths to Bennell.
The jury returned guilty verdicts on 43 counts of abuse against 11 boys, involving offences of buggery, attempted buggery and indecent assault.
Serial sex offender Bennell arrives at court in a prison van before his sentencing today
Before the trial started last month, Bennell pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault involving three boys, two of whom were part of the trial.
The defendant, who has changed his name to Richard Jones, told police he admitted having a ‘grooming process’ and being attracted to teenage boys.
But he denied most of the allegations and said complainants were ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ following publicity sparked by one of his previous victims, Andy Woodward, waiving his anonymity to give media interviews in November 2016.
Many people were warned, so how could this vile paedophile have got away with his crimes for so long?
By Liz Hull for The Daily Mail
At the conclusion of his trial yesterday, several whistleblowers came forward to allege bosses at both and Crewe Alexandra – where Bennell coached – and at the Football Association were warned about his behaviour, but hushed it up or failed to act.
It was reported that Bennell swapped young victims with other paedophiles, including Frank Roper, a football scout who abused England star Paul Stewart. Roper died 11 years ago.
In the early 80s, cancer patient Bennell also allegedly teamed up with paedophile coach Bruce McLean, who was jailed in 1997.
There were rumours about Bennell as long a go as the 1970s but he carried on abusing boys
At Manchester City, where Bennell was as an unofficial scout from 1982 to 1985, rumours were apparently rife about his behaviour. But he was such a good coach that nobody wanted to listen.
Former FA youth coach Steve Fleet said it was ‘general knowledge’ that Bennell was ‘dodgy’.
He told Sportsmail: ‘I knew who he was. Everyone on the football scene did. You’d hear it on the coaching circuit. ‘Don’t touch him with a bargepole – there’s something not right about him.’ It was the gossip.
‘It was nauseating. The kids would all follow him. The way he spoke to them, it was like baby talk, he was too familiar with them.’
Fleet, 79, said he passed on his concerns to Ken Barnes, the club’s chief scout who died in 2010.
‘We were great friends and the only confrontation we ever had was over Barry Bennell,’ said Fleet. ‘I told him – I can’t work with him. I put my job on the line.’
‘I think Ken thought football was a man’s game where it couldn’t happen. Maybe he was naive.’
Gary Speed was one of four players who took their own lives after being coached by Bennell. Mr Speed’s parents say they do not believe he was abused
Police who later interviewed senior management at City for Florida investigators said the club was ‘evasive’ when quizzed about the reasons for Bennell’s 1985 departure.
Bennell moved to League Two outfit Crewe, where for the next seven years he groomed boys on an ‘industrial scale.’ Lord Carlile, QC, who prosecuted the 1998 case against Bennell accused Crewe of ‘institutionalised failings’ and ‘brushing abuse under the carpet’.
Both Crewe and Manchester City are conducting their own investigations into historic abuse and have co-operated with the Cheshire police inquiry. Sources say more prosecutions could follow.
In a statement last night Crewe insisted it had no idea Bennell was a child abuser until he was convicted of raping a boy of 13 on a soccer tour to America in 1994.
Manchester City extended its sympathy to victims as it revealed it had identified another abuser – John Broome – who was operating at the club in the late 1960s. The FA also urged anyone affected to contact their inquiry team.
Victim Gary Cliffe, who was molested while at Manchester City, said: ‘If those in positions of responsibility had challenged Bennell, hundreds of wrecked lives could have been saved. They buried their heads.’
Kim Harrison, a specialist abuse lawyer from Slater and Gordon, said: ‘Serious questions need to be asked about how this dangerous rapist was allowed to carry out years of abuse on so many young boys in plain sight, much as Savile did at the BBC.’
Decades of abuse before he was finally brought to justice: Timeline of the Barry Bennell case
Early 1970s: Starts his coaching career aged about 18 at renowned London-based junior club Senrab FC, Bennell told police.
Mid to late 1970s: Coaches at Butlin’s holiday camp in Pwllheli, North Wales, and also begins working with Manchester youth team Whitehill FC, he also tells detectives.
November 1979 to July 1981: Employed as a resident social worker at the now closed Taxal Edge children’s home in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire.
1982 to 1985: Coaches youth teams in Derbyshire which provided several youth recruits for Manchester City.
Bennell taught boys at holiday camps and summer courses as well as arranging tours
1985 to 1992: Bennell is employed by or on behalf of Crewe Alexandra apart from a spell coaching in Georgia, United States, in 1989 and 1990.
1990: Marries Linda Woodward, sister of one of his abuse victims, Andy Woodward. The couple go on to have two children.
1992 to 1994: Bennell is employed by or on behalf of Stoke City.
1994: He is arrested while on a 10-week tour of the United States when coaching a Staffordshire youth team.
1995: He is convicted in Florida of four counts of indecent assault on a young boy and sentenced to four years in jail. Spends time in custody prior to his conviction. His victim was also abused by Bennell in Britain, which leads to a domestic investigation.
Bennell appearing before a US court in Jacksonville, Florida in 1995
January 1997: Bennell is featured in the Channel 4 documentary series Dispatches. Former youth player Ian Ackley waives his anonymity and tells the Soccer’s Foul Play programme he was sexually abused by Bennell.
September 1997: US authorities deport Bennell to the UK at the conclusion of his sentence and on his arrival he is charged with sexual offences relating to a number of complainants.
June 1998: He pleads guilty at Chester Crown Court on the first day of his scheduled trial to 23 counts of sexual abuse relating to 15 complainants, aged from nine to 14, between 1978 and 1992. Victims include Mr Ackley and Mr Woodward. Twenty-two alleged offences are left to lie on file. He is sentenced to nine years in prison.
May 2015: Bennell pleads guilty at the same court on the first day of his scheduled trial to sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy in 1980. He is jailed for two years. His victim did not come forward in 1997 because of the effect he said it would have on his mother. When she died in 2013 he contacted police. The court hears he was abused at Bennell’s living quarters at Taxal Edge while staying with him as he took part in coaching sessions in Macclesfield.
November 2016: Mr Woodward waives his anonymity to give emotional, powerful interviews to the Guardian and BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme. It leads to a number of complainants against Bennell contacting police and a fresh investigation begins.
January 2018: Bennell goes on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of 48 historical child sex offences against 11 complainants between 1979 and 1990.
February 2018: Bennell is found guilty of 43 counts of child sexual abuse against 11 victims.