Barry Bennell Found Guilty of Further Child Sexual Abuse Charges

[Dave]

Quote

Former football coach Barry Bennell has been found guilty of 36 charges of indecent assault and rape after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Bennell, 64, was found guilty on 27 counts of indecent assault, seven counts of rape and two counts of attempted rape involving 10 victims, who were all children, between 1979 and 1990.

The jury is still deliberating on seven counts against two complainants and will resume their deliberations on Wednesday morning.

There were 48 counts on the original indictment, but 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.

During the course of his trial, Bennell 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 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.

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.

 

[Danny]

Absolute scumbag, that should be him away for life.

It does make you think about the suicides and Gary Speeds especially, you can't say for certain he was a victim of it but it would make a lot of sense given how out of the blue his suicide seemed to his family. Still it's not a nice thing to speculate on.

[Dave]

He has been found guilty of seven further charges of child sexual assault, bringing it up to 43. 

Thankfully he's alive to receive some form of punishment. Manchester City are investigating allegations of child sex abuse against John Broome whose passed away now.

[The Artful Dodger]

Sounds like Manchester City shoud be invesitgated themselves, quite clearly knew of his reputation. Them and Crewe come out of this very badly.

[Smiley Culture]

Most, if not all, clubs will have had an individual like this at their club at one point and I bet there were a fair few clubs aware of these individuals.

[The Artful Dodger]

Perhaps, but that's speculation. There is growing evidence that Manchester City and Crewe knew of criminal activity and actively covered it up.

[Dan+]

On 15/02/2018 at 20:12, The Artful Dodger said:

Sounds like Manchester City shoud be invesitgated themselves, quite clearly knew of his reputation. Them and Crewe come out of this very badly.

I always saw Dario Gradi jokingly get referred to as a nonce on forums, social media etc... years ago. Makes you wonder if there was knowledge all along.

[UNORTHODOX]

Absolutely disgusting piece of trash this cunt, He has shown zero remorse for what he did and actually tried to justify what he did to a young boy in America saying the lad was only 14 but "bigger than me" that made me sick.

[Dave]

31 years. Effectively a life sentence given his age.

The sad thing about all of this is it's taken this long for the victims to see some form of justice, and we may never know the true magnitude of how many Children he sexually abused.

[Dave]

Cr

ewe have restated their position that nobody at the club was aware of Barry Bennell's abuse of young players until their former youth coach was convicted of sexual assault in Florida in 1994.

In their longest statement since the abuse scandal broke in November 2016, the League Two club have also addressed three specific issues related to Bennell, who received his fourth conviction for historic offences last month, for the first time.

The most serious of those is an allegation from ex-Crewe director Hamilton Smith that he made the other board members aware of a complaint he had received from a parent about Bennell abusing one of the boys.

Smith has told the BBC and Guardian it was decided that boys should not be allowed to stay overnight with Bennell, as had been happening for several years, and no further action was taken

[Dave]

Bennell's appealing his sentence. Given after 50 charges he's spending 15 years in custody and the rest on licence, his lawyers going to have to be a miracle worker to reduce it further.