It was the softer weaker boys he targeted...

Three high profile ex players David White,Steve walters and Paul Stewart have come out this week saying how they were sexually abused by coaches when they were in academies. The last two walters and stewart both at crewe were abused by Barry Bennell.  There could potentially be hundreds of ex players who were affected while in academies, will be interesting to see if any more come out now.

Edited by Doyler1993 - 23 Nov 2016 at 11:15pm

That scumbag coached Gary Speed when he was a kid too, there were rumours about it at the time of Speed's death although there's no evidence he was one of the kids abused. Think it's known that he stayed over in the house though. Crewe really not covering themselves in glory here either, some of this abuse is supposed to have happened at Dario Gradi's house although he was unaware of it. Surprised it's taken this long to start coming out given that your man was jailed in 1999. Very good interview on Off the Ball last night, worth checking the podcast.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/9262754/Gary-Speed-was-coached-by-paedophile-as-a-child.html

Edited by Drumcondra 69er - 25 Nov 2016 at 11:52am

Been reading the Guardian pieces, truly horrific.  Brave lads for finally speaking out.

Cannot get over this paragraph in the UK Independent piece - 

Edited by seaniemac - 24 Nov 2016 at 6:01pm

seaniemac wrote: Cannot get over this paragraph in the UK Independent piece -  The criminal proclivities of Crewe's talent spotter were by no means a secret. One boy related details of an episode to his father who, joined by other parents, actually confronted Bennell at his home and told him they were going to involve the police. The paedophile promptly began to cry and held his head in his hands. What happened next was extraordinary. The parents were so concerned about damaging their sons' chances in football by involving police that they did not report them after all and convinced themselves they had nipped the problem in the bud. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/crewe-alexandra-sexual-abuse-scandal-dario-gradi-andy-woodward-a7434706.html Those parents, fooking hell.

Sure in this country, parents outright refused to believe that the local priest could possibly fiddle with their kids. Sadly not surprising at all. 

Holy sh*t, that's appalling.

It's amazing the power money has.

Denis Irwin wrote: rossieman wrote: Bennett was one sick f**k. He abused Woodward and then married Woodwards sister and was "happily" married and loved by the family. What the actual f**k

That relationship was all f**ked up too.He met her when she was 16 and he made Woodward keep the relationship a secret for a few years because of the age difference(maybe age of consent as well ?) Bennell would have been about 33/34 at the time.The f**ker who raped you becomes your brother in law,poor f**ker had an awful childhood.

Yep. Paul Stewart was saying he's hoping these were isolated cases but accepts that it's likely to be in the hundreds

pre Madonna wrote: randyrandolph wrote: Denis Irwin wrote: Fooking hell those so called parents should be ashamed of themselves if true, how is this not child neglect by the parents?! they should be locked up. Poor lads. sadly this is only the beginning folks. this story is going to get a lot worse... A former Newcastle player has come forward today, once one is brave enough to come forward a lot more will. I am still waiting for the political paedophile story to be properly broken open, I thought the Cyril Smith enquiry would have done that, there are more influential people at risk there though, they will have to die first.