Club statement regarding Barry Bennell's conviction

OB1 said:
This is an absolutely sickening case. However, whether City have any liability in regards of the actions of Bennell or other such odious creatures very much remains to be seen and will be a matter fact (or legal opinion based on fact).

City have apparently spent a lot of money on investigating this matter and it may well be that they will decide to compensate some victims even if they do not believe they have any liability because they can afford to and want to show compassion.
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I think you are probably correct, that's what they'll do.

But i imagine this is going to spread a lot further than City, unless someone has already activated a mother of all cover ups. I recon the Sepp Blatter of football paedophilia is still out there so far unindicted.
 
Neville Kneville said:
I think you are probably correct, that's what they'll do.

But i imagine this is going to spread a lot further than City, unless someone has already activated a mother of all cover ups. I recon the Sepp Blatter of football paedophilia is still out there so far unindicted.
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Without a doubt, let us hope it comes out whilst they are still alive.
 
paulchapo said:
Watching the documentary last night something was mentioned that may cast a bit of light on why he got away with it for so long. When he was accused of rape in the States numerous boys wrote letters in his defence, including some now involved in the latest case. A lot gave glowing endorsements about his behaviour and character. There may have been rumours but if boys were asked and said he was great and no problem people in that day and age wouldn't have pursued it further.

I would guess that eventually someone did decide things were fishy and got rid of him. The enquiry should clear a lot up although given that Bennell is now 64 a lot of people involved are now probably dead.
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By that time, City no longer had any links with him. As is well attested, he was involved in the 1970s in an amateur feeder club (Whitehill) i.e. we had an arrangement to take on their most promising kids, and he clearly played that link strongly to dazzle and entice his victims.
He applied for a scouting job at City, and was turned down so went to Crewe instead. It seems that the reason he was turned down was as a result of Steve Fleet (our youth team manager?) expressing his strong intuitive feelings that he was "dodgy". There was no evidence , so it seems somewhat unfair to blame anyone else at the club - but thank you very much STEVE FLEET for being so insistent and forthright in expressing your instinctive doubts, you clearly saved City from employing this monster.
 
Neville Kneville said:
Personally I believe there are some high profile people involved in this kind of behaviour, in football, just as seems to be the case in so many other walks of life & it may be that some very big names actually knew about certain people, but like in all the other cases, it has been allowed to continue because it's easier to try not to believe it's real, than to accept the horrors of it & confront it.
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It's actually some scary shit. The amount of abuse that people have got away with in a whole load of walks of life.

Someone I know well had heard about Saville possibly being dodgy 20 years ago.

I recall someone else telling me some "rock n roll" stories he'd heard from someone in the business - this is back in late 70's - and one was that Gary Glitter liked them young; I had no idea at that point how young.
 
The perfect fumble said:
Bennell used his association with other clubs, but they're not Manchester City.
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I used the phrase association(rather than worked for the club)deliberately there was an acknowledged link, or is Steve Fleet talking bollocks? In terms of other clubs, personally I don't give a f@@k I support City, its upto other clubs(and the FA)to keep their houses in order.
 
Neville Kneville said:
I think you are probably correct, that's what they'll do.

But i imagine this is going to spread a lot further than City, unless someone has already activated a mother of all cover ups. I recon the Sepp Blatter of football paedophilia is still out there so far unindicted.
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Unfortunately, you may be right.

I can't think of anything that sickens me more than people hurting / abusing children.
 
OB1 said:
It's actually some scary shit. The amount of abuse that people have got away with in a whole load of walks of life.

Someone I know well had heard about Saville possibly being dodgy 20 years ago.

I recall someone else telling me some "rock n roll" stories he'd heard from someone in the business - this is back in late 70's - and one was that Gary Glitter liked them young; I had no idea at that point how young.
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I knew a few people from the world of 60s 70s gangsterland & they knew all about Saville, who was himself not short of aquaintences, from that particular fraternity, & when they told me about him, guess what ? I thought they were winding me up. I believed some of the equally horrendous but non paedophile stories they told me about him, but not the bit about the kids, I thought they were making that up. So I've actually had the same reaction of disbelief at the time.

Obviously that changed when I thought about it, but stil, I can see how these fuckers can sneak under the radar. Now of course you realise how many there are, clergy, royalty, politicians, & of course the arts & sport.
 
Neville Kneville said:
Personally I believe there are some high profile people involved in this kind of behaviour, in football, just as seems to be the case in so many other walks of life & it may be that some very big names actually knew about certain people, but like in all the other cases, it has been allowed to continue because it's easier to try not to believe it's real, than to accept the horrors of it & confront it.
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On that same Wansford street, a friend of the family came forward in later years to say he had been abused for many years by Don Mac, the guy some had been discussed on here yesterday who ran the boys brigade at Platt Lane

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...hile-ex-police-officer-don-mackintosh-7982524


You start to join up some of the dots and locations and it does make you wonder?
 
It’s so bloody difficult to out these bastards when they have everyone singing from their hymn sheet. If you sack them or make their life difficult with no actual proof the bastards wouldn’t hesitate to play the victim. It’s only later in life when the kids become men and have the understanding and the courage to go after them that these perverse bottom feeders see justice.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
On that same Wansford street, a friend of the family came forward in later years to say he had been abused for many years by Don Mac, the guy some had been discussed on here yesterday who ran the boys brigade at Platt Lane

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...hile-ex-police-officer-don-mackintosh-7982524


You start to join up some of the dots and locations and it does make you wonder?
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It's horrible & unfortunately, we can pretty much guarantee these revelations, in all walks of life, are not going to stop.

But the good thing is that once it does come out, it makes it more difficult for so many to continue. I hope this investigation goes as far as it can & that some of the top pros of recent decades get involved & support it. Because some, undoubtably, will know about stuff that has happened.
 
Not sure if I'm being oversensitive about this but I did get the impression that the programme was pushing the City link at least as much as the Crewe side of things when Crewe actually employed the vile twat. One of the certificates shown in the programnme in the pile of of documents had Bennell's signature on as youth team coach and Pat Crerand and Alex Stepney's as directors. It seems he was involved with more than just City at the time and it looks like United are getting a free pass on this. Don't take this as an anti-United post because the story is bigger than any petty differences that we have with our neighbours but I'm not totally convinced that some people are not using this as an opportunity to make City look worse than we actually were. As I said, that's not making excuses for anyone employed by the club who brushed it under the carpet but it seems it was wider than just us.
 
Neville Kneville said:
I knew a few people from the world of 60s 70s gangsterland & they knew all about Saville, who was himself not short of aquaintences, from that particular fraternity, & when they told me about him, guess what ? I thought they were winding me up. I believed some of the equally horrendous but non paedophile stories they told me about him, but not the bit about the kids, I thought they were making that up. So I've actually had the same reaction of disbelief at the time.

Obviously that changed when I thought about it, but stil, I can see how these fuckers can sneak under the radar. Now of course you realise how many there are, clergy, royalty, politicians, & of course the arts & sport.
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My dad told me he used to go to some 'club' in Hulme in the late 60s and Saville would be in there after a recording of Top of the Pops.

Saville had a mate who ran it called 'Ugly' Ray Terrett. My dad recalled even then as a young man how young girls were treated and how many were wary.

I know Terrett later got done and it was pretty chilling to watch a documentary a couple years back about a record shop he later ran in Sale on Marsland Road (now opposite Emilios) .

All the girls who came forward remembered they used to write their names and messages on the walls, so the police stripped the wallpaper and there they all were, which helped convict him all those years later.

I live close to that location and it just goes to show that you may never be too far away from these evil monsters.
 
This is a wider point, but relatively on topic. What gets me is how many seem to think that it's era related - like there was just loads in the 70s with the beeb etc and it was a thing then and it's obviously not now. Like it was just a culture. Is it fuck. Paedophiles are absolutely everywhere in every form of life sadly. And they always will be whether we like it or not. I think there's more people with these urges than we realise, but most, thank god, have the decency not to act on them. The only difference is that the 70s etc was such a long time ago that those around to cover it up aren't really there anymore so it all comes out, hence why people just think that that was an era when there was loads of them.

I guarantee that in 20 years down the line there will be stuff out about people around today sadly and people will just think 'god the 70s and the 2000s were bad, but now is probably fine'. I don't think we know how to deal with it. It's just pushed underground and left unregulated as it's horrific and terrifying, but it isn't gonna go away. People don't *choose* to be this way. Their heads are messed up. So many awful things could be prevented in a society where these people could speak to a counsellor in confidence and get help before anything happened, but of course that could never happen as they'd be lynched as our culture would leak their identities and they'd be killed for admitting something that they cant help but think. I am not in anyway defending them, at all. It's horrific and one of the scariest things we can think of. And some are just fucked up monsters, Bennell for example, but all the revelations point towards a pretty shocking underground culture that we've barely scratched the surface of I reckon. A huge societal change needs to happen. Preventive and not reactive. It won't though, cos we've not got the fucking balls as a species to confront things like this.
 
CRB and DBS checks didnt exist nor did laws stopping hitting kids etc.

The 70's were definitely not the same as today.....yeah pedos are all over and we all need to grass them up or disclose any information.

In the 70's this just didnt happen
 
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