Club statement regarding Barry Bennell's conviction

[DontLookBackInAnger]

Bennell wasn’t an employee but he
might have worked for the Club. That is one thing the investigation might clarify.

A worker is any individual who works for an employer, whether under a contract of employment, or any other contract where an individual undertakes to do personally any work or services. This includes freelancers

Ohhhh I'm not trying to claim City don't have any case to answer.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Ohhhh I'm not trying to claim City don't have any case to answer.

I realise that mate.

 

[The perfect fumble]

What could he have done? Sued? Given it was all completely true? It's exactly what City should have done and didn't do. It's exactly what lots of clubs could have done and didn't do. This won't be just about City, it'll be about lots of different clubs turning a blind eye to what went on. City are high profile, and with a high profile comes a fully deserved focus on what the club did so wrong back then.

The current club can't undo what happened then, any more than anyone else can. What they can do is everything they possibly can to be open and honest, and compensate people as best they can, irrespective of what it costs, and irrespective of what damage further revelations might do to them. No alternative, not morally, and not even from (hideous though it is) a PR perspective.

Total disclosure where legally possible, and total acknowledgement of their responsibility for it. No excuses.

"blind eye"...."club did wrong"....Compensate people"...."City should have done and didn't do"....."their responsibility"

Unless you know something the rest of us don't, this is exactly what the club should not do.

 

[asahartford1]

Seriously mate you need to form an angry mob with pitchforks and head down to the Eithad.

Horrible situation that has already been investigated by the club but clearly we will and should do more. You posts however are complete hysteria.

Absolutely correct.

 

[The perfect fumble]

This has gone on wildly off topic with loads of whataboutery

1/ City need to sort this mess out quick.

2/ The lads abused need showing we are doing everything possible to get to the bottom of this

3/ Any **** associated needs reporting to the police asap

4/ Our team is on the cusp of greatness and I would give it all up, the lot, so that lads can maybe get some justice.

5/ Our reputation is now sullied for eternity, anything we do will have this shadowing over us. If we cant earn the respect back and do whats best for those abused we may as well pack up and close down. We have to live with the consequences of what that **** did and those lives he ruined. However I look at it this has to be the lowest time In our clubs history.

You need to take a deep breath.

Unless I'm missing something City are not responsible in any shape or form. Hearsay, rumours, Chinese whispers from the 70s early 80s does not a compelling case make.

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

I haven't trawled through all the media regarding this, but were complaint's made to the club or the police at the time regarding the behaviour of this sicko?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Listening to the news on 5 Live they were saying than Bennell worked for City. As far as I can see, he wasn't a club employee as such but he did run a youth team or teams that were affiliated to the club and acted as a scout, for which he might have been paid under certain circumstances. Clubs weren't allowed to run U16 teams at that time as far as I understand it so there were feeder clubs, which weren't officially part of the structure as the youth teams are now but had some sort of association with us or other local clubs.

The legal question around responsibility might well be whether Bennell was acting as an agent for the club (in its legal sense) such that he was to all intents and purposes a representative of the club either in an express or implied capacity. Everyone seems to have had their suspicions that Bennell was a wrong 'un to some degree but no one seems to have known for sure.

Did City have any jurisdiction over these feeder clubs and what could or should they have done if they had been convinced or had reasonable grounds for suspicion that Bennell was up to no good? If they'd gone to the police and the police (had they taken the allegation seriously which is possibly open to doubt) had questioned some boys who said that there was nothing going on, what more could they have done? It's a very grey area really but if Bennell didn't actually work for us then the club should be clarifying this and not letting the media put a false picture out. But the other side of the coin is that they can't afford to be seen to be washing their hands of this or attempting to try to do so.

 

[hammocity]

Of course it's not just a phenomenon of the 70's. But life was very different back in those days. Teachers were allowed to hit and use straps and canes on their pupils. There was no concept of ‘child protection’. I vividly remember my old primary school head shouting at one lad while we were all lined up in the playground for something he’d done and saying “You can barely write your own name!” Most nowadays would describe him as a sadistic bully (although he was fine with me).

When I went to grammar school there was a teacher there who was regarded as a little strange and who allegedly used to invite boys round to his house. I don’t know whether that was true or not. He never taught me thank goodness but we all talked about it. Other staff must have known of the stories but he stayed at the school for a while and nothing has ever come to light since, as far as I know. A teacher there was more recently dismissed for a physical assault on a boy that wouldn't have raised an eyebrow back in the 70's.

In the late 70's I was a young scout leader in the local troop and there was one leader who seemed to have developed a relationship with a boy who would today probably be described as vulnerable, with a troubled home background. Scouts gave him some of the stability & support he didn't get at home. I wasn't involved in them but was aware of discussions among the other adult leaders about this and their concerns. One was a police officer so you'd assume that any serious concerned might have been investigated but as the lad was over 16 there was possibly little they could do. The leader was asked to leave iirc and I think the young lad went with him. There was no apparent policy or process around child protection but the other leaders did what they thought was right.

Years later (early 90's I think) I returned to scout leadership and the first training course I went on was centred on child protection and ensuring that you were never in a position where you were alone with a child. I also had to have a police check (and one against the Scout Association's own database). I seem to recall it was presented more as protecting yourself (against false allegations) rather than protecting the child, which maybe was the wrong approach but the effect was the same and it was clear things had moved on.

The difference between then and now is that it was easier to gain access to networks like boys' clubs, scout groups, football clubs, and carry out abuse whereas it should be much more difficult now, with the right protections and procedures in place.

Very similar at my Senior School in the early 70's, the music teacher was known as "bummer Turner", it's hard to comprehend that in those days we didn't appreciate that paedophilia was as damaging as we now know

.The other teachers knew about Turner's activities and did nothing. Turner used to prey on the under priveliged boys, often those that academically, were in the lowest streams and came from poor and broken homes .Turner used to take them to his house in the evenings and weekends, feed them and abuse them. It was not a secret and no one reported him because abuse was not recognised like it is now, it's hard for younger people to understand .

Even girls at our school who were not targets knew of the abuse but failed to report the situation. I couldn't speak to my parents about things like that, it would have been too embarrassing.

We all know the Club will handle this incident in a professional manner. We don't need our own fans exaggerating the situation regards culpability until the facts are know .

Next few games will bring chants of " you're just a club full of paedo's", guaranteed .

 

[Fame Monster]

As a kid, there was a rumour about 50% of the teachers in my schools being paedos (and to a lesser extent, my football coaches too). No-one has ever been convicted as far as I'm aware and the vast majority of the accusations were hilariously vindictive and patently false. He gives you detention, he's a paedo. He wears white socks, he's a paedo. He's got a surname beginning with P (eg Mr Parker), he's paedo Parker. So to say that City's conduct was 'abysmal' for not disassociating him from the club on the basis on the back of a rumour is jumping the gun for me. If the guys bringing you in players capable of bagging 20+ goals a season, you can understand the club's reluctance to act in the absense of a specific allegation (there wasn't one until 1993 afaik) . Obviously, when you realise that the rumours are not going away and are getting stronger, that's when you should act which it seems to me is when the club did finally cut all ties with him, on top of refusing his application for a job years previous. So in hindsight, as sad as it is that City didn't act earlier, as far as we know from the information available in the public domain, we were by no means acting abysmally. The horrible reality is, when there's no safeguarding procedures in place (e.g. stopping players staying over at coach's houses), it's almost impossible to stop an intelligent, determined paedophile. Nevertheless, a club in our position should offer the victims compensation even though it's difficult to say (as outsiders) how much more we could have done but I'm sure many of them will be happier seeing Bennell behind bars for the rest of his life.

 

[The blue phantom]

Very similar at my Senior School in the early 70's, the music teacher was known as "bummer Turner", it's hard to comprehend that in those days we didn't appreciate that paedophilia was as damaging as we now know

.The other teachers knew about Turner's activities and did nothing. Turner used to prey on the under priveliged boys, often those that academically, were in the lowest streams and came from poor and broken homes .Turner used to take them to his house in the evenings and weekends, feed them and abuse them. It was not a secret and no one reported him because abuse was not recognised like it is now, it's hard for younger people to understand .

Even girls at our school who were not targets knew of the abuse but failed to report the situation. I couldn't speak to my parents about things like that, it would have been too embarrassing.

We all know the Club will handle this incident in a professional manner. We don't need our own fans exaggerating the situation regards culpability until the facts are know .

Next few games will bring chants of " you're just a club full of paedo's", guaranteed .

Said the same yesterday on here abt what the away fans are going to sing. You just fuckin know it will happen.