November 25 – English football has been rocked by revelations of sexual abuse inflicted on a raft of ex-professionals who have come forward to provide details of their suffering when they were children at the hands of youth coaches.
Four former professionals have waived their right to lifelong anonymity to speak to the media, while two former youth players who left the game due to abuse have also spoken out.
The most high-profile victim so far is Paul Stewart, capped three times by England, who says he was repeatedly assaulted by a man who threatened to kill his family if he told anyone. Stewart, who believes the sport could face allegations on the scale of the scandal involving the late British DJ Jimmy Savile – one of the UK’s most prolific sexual predators – played for Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Manchester City and joins former Crewe Alexandra players Andy Woodward and Steve Walters in speaking out.
Two more former players, ex-Crewe Alexandra youngsters, Jason Dunford and Chris Unsworth who went on to play for Manchester City have also come forward. Unsworth, speaking on BBC television this morning, said he was raped over 100 times.
“The mental scars led me into other problems with drink and drugs,” Stewart told the Daily Mirror newspaper. “I know now it was a grooming process. The level of abuse got worse and worse. I wanted people to know how difficult it was to come forward. It stirred up a lot of my past which I thought I had buried.”
Stewart, a married father of three, was encouraged to speak out after Woodward revealed he had suffered years of abuse at the hands of convicted paedophile Barry Bennell, a former youth coach at Crewe who has been jailed three times for child sex abuse – including once in the United States – and remains permanently suspended from football.
Based in northwest England and currently in the lowest tier of English professional football, Crewe have long had a reputation for developing talented youngsters sold on for large transfer fees.
England’s Football Association has now set up a helpline for former players to report abuse. In a joint statement, the FA, the Premier league and the Football League described Woodward’s story as “heartbreaking” and praised his “immense courage”.
Gordon Taylor, chief executive of Britain’s Professional Footballers’ Association, said his organisation had also been contacted by victims of child abuse. “Because of Woodward’s bravery, many other ex-players and apprentices are now contacting us – it is double figures now,” Taylor told Britain’s Press Association. “And that is a timely warning for everybody in football about our duty of care to these youngsters. It is up to all of us now to grasp the nettle and we make sure we learn from this.”
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