December 1 – British football’s historical child sex abuse scandal has taken a “staggering” turn for the worse, with 15 police different regional police forces now pulled in as part of nationwide inquiries after several former players made allegations of abuse against one-time coaches.
A dedicated hotline set up by the country’s National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) revealed it received no fewer than 860 calls in the first week, with chief executive Peter Wanless saying there been a “staggering surge” in the numbers of people getting in touch.
Within the first three days of the hotline being launched, the organisation added, it made more than 60 referrals to a range of agencies across the UK – more than three times as many as in the same period of the infamous Jimmy Savile scandal that rocked the country.
Savile was an English DJ, television and radio personality knighted for his charitable work but who, a year after his death in 2011, was claimed to have committed sexual abuse against a raft of individuals over four decades.
Wanless said the recent NSPCC findings demonstrated the “worrying extent of abuse that had been going on within the sport”.
In one of the latest revelations former Newcastle player Derek Bell revealed he wanted to kill the coach who sexually abused him during the 1970s while Chelsea confirmed it has begun an investigation into allegations of historical sexual abuse concerning a now-deceased individual it once employed.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1715121350labto1715121350ofdlr1715121350owedi1715121350sni@w1715121350ahsra1715121350w.wer1715121350dna1715121350