Footballers on ‘catastrophic’ abuse

Ex-England and Manchester City players David White and Paul Stewart and former Crewe Alexandra player Steve Walters have also spoken out about being sexually abused by football coaches as children. “I knew nothing of his crimes before this time when he was employed by us”.

He told the BBC: “I knew where I wanted to get and I thought this was obviously what I had to go through”.

Disgusted is how I can best sum up my reaction to the stories that have come out about the young footballers that were abused by former Crewe coach and convicted paedophile Barry Bennell.

They reported 50 calls on the first day, with two more ex-players – Chris Unsworth and Jason Dunford – coming forward on Friday to tell their stories of abuse.

The Guardian said the former Newcastle player had contacted police to make allegations against George Ormond, a coach in the North East who was jailed for six years in 2002 for carrying out numerous assaults across a 24-year period.

The former Manchester City and Crewe youth player, now 44, said: “I had never, ever told anyone until that moment”.

“We will continue to work with clubs, The FA, statutory authorities, and the NSPCC to ensure that clubs continue to be safe places for the young people who engage with them”. “At the heart of the scandal are disturbing claims of a sinister paedophile ring with convicted pervert Bennell at the centre”.

The paper adds there are “serious questions to answer for the long-serving management of Crewe Alexandra”.

Four former British footballers have now taken the fearless step of coming forward to speak out about the horrific sexual abuse they were subjected to as children. The law enforcement agency said 11 people had come forward seeking to speak to authorities about abuse after Woodward’s revelation.

Mr Unsworth said: “Both my parents have died and that hurts me, not telling them”.

On reading Woodward’s harrowing tale of how abuse had permanently scarred his life, better-known players came forward.

Dunford said he felt there was network of abusers within the sport, and that the scandal was bigger than the one involving former BBC presenter Jimmy Saville.

The hotline was launched with the support of England’s Football Association (FA), after former English footballers Andy Woodward, Steve Walters and Paul Stewart spoke to British media about being sexually abused as children.

After the conviction in the US, Bennell was found guilty at Chester Crown Court in 1998 of 23 offences against six boys, aged from nine to 15, and was sentenced to nine years in jail. He was then handed a two-year prison term for sexually abusing a boy at a training camp in Macclesfield, but is now out of prison, believed to be living in Buckinghamshire.

Crewe chairman John Bowler, who was in position at the time of Bennell’s offences, told the BBC the club were “distressed” by the accusations and would review the situation. Stewart, whose clubs included Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool, said he made a decision to go public after reading about the abuse suffered by Woodward.

“Whatever I have been through is nothing compared what those poor boys went through”, he said.

He said: “The failure of the Scottish Government to extend the remit of the public inquiry to include those agencies who had a duty of care towards children has been exposed, not just as a gross injustice, but as a failure in its moral duty towards the children of Scotland”.

“I was about 9 years old”. There is no evidence Bennell had abused Davies although one of Bennell’s victims said the coach had referred to Speed, Davies and himself as “favourites”. “I didn’t know what was going on to be fair. The level of abuse got worse and worse”.

His initial interview with The Guardian encouraged more than 10 others to tell the Professional Footballers’ Association that they too were abused. “Got to come forward and help everybody”, Unsworth said on the show.

A children’s charity has received a flood of calls since setting up a dedicated helpline for footballers in conjunction with the Football Association. There are fears of an avalanche of allegations.

Mr Unsworth said he had stayed at Bennell’s house several times and Bennell sometimes had two or three boys in the bed at once, where he would abuse them.