Paedophilia within the game/City launch redress scheme

The FA has released the 709-page report resulting from the investigation conducted by Clive Sheldon QC into child sexual abuse in football. The below is an extract taken from Daniel Taylor's story in The Athletic on that report:

Which club comes out the worst?

Simon Pearce, one of Manchester City’s directors, told The Athletic last year that the club would be “rightly smashed” — and he was correct, to an extent.

The heaviest criticism is certainly reserved for City but it also quickly becomes apparent in Sheldon’s report that no club, or individual, is “smashed”.

Instead, Sheldon notes that City brought in an independent legal team to examine how Bennell, who worked for the club as a coach and talent-spotter, had used his reputation as “the king-maker” to abuse countless boys on their watch during the late 1970s and 1980s.

That investigation concluded that City must have been aware of rumours and concerns about Bennell, who subsequently left to become Crewe’s youth-team coach, and that the response was “inadequate even given the lack of knowledge around child safeguarding at the time”.

However, there were even stronger criticisms when it came to City’s response in 1970 — the year they won the European Cup Winners’ Cup — after finding out that another paedophile had connections with the club.

John Broome was listed in City’s programme as a talent scout but also managed one of their feeder teams and used that position to prey on boys, including incidents of rape and attempted rape.

Broome was arrested in 1970 for molesting a boy in the changing rooms and the investigation commissioned by the modern-day City, known as the Mulcahy report, noted that the club “should have stood Broome down… pending the conclusion of the criminal case. Instead, he was allowed to continue coaching during the four months between his arrest and conviction and it is understood that he continued to abuse boys during this period”.

It probably speaks volumes about the lack of action that Broome, who died in 2010, went on to become a referee on Manchester’s football circuit.

One of the victim’s fathers tried to inform City about Broome’s crimes but was said to have come away with the view the club “did not want to know” and that he had been “fobbed off”.

Sheldon also agrees with City’s investigators that senior figures such as chairman Peter Swales, chief scout Ken Barnes and director Chris Muir were “told of, or at least became aware of, inappropriate behaviour by Bennell, such as keeping boys up late on trips and boys staying overnight at his house, and were aware of rumours about Bennell with a sexual connotation, and of his relationships with boys being inappropriate”.

City have made a full apology and Sheldon noted that the club had put in place a thorough investigation to examine how Bennell and Broome had not been detected and how a third offender — a part-time scout called Bill Toner, who was jailed in 2018 for three years and two months for four counts of indecent assault against a teenage boy in the 1990s — also had connections with the club.
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Seems to me that City acted pretty reprehensibly in the past. Regrettably, what's done is done, however, and the most important thing to me now is that we own our past conduct rather than seeking to dodge responsibility, and that we behave properly, with sensitivity now with respect to those survivors whom we failed in the past. I'm hopeful that will happen.

I think the CPS has decided not to bring further historic charges against Bennell, and with the FA report now released I assume there should be no barrier now to MCFC addressing this issue publicly. The club is reported to have created a compensation scheme for victims to obtain redress, but could still end up in court because there are said to be people taking legal action who fall outside the scheme.
 
petrusha said:
The FA has released the 709-page report resulting from the investigation conducted by Clive Sheldon QC into child sexual abuse in football. The below is an extract taken from Daniel Taylor's story in The Athletic on that report:



Seems to me that City acted pretty reprehensibly in the past. Regrettably, what's done is done, however, and the most important thing to me now is that we own our past conduct rather than seeking to dodge responsibility, and that we behave properly, with sensitivity now with respect to those survivors whom we failed in the past. I'm hopeful that will happen.

I think the CPS has decided not to bring further historic charges against Bennell, and with the FA report now released I assume there should be no barrier now to MCFC addressing this issue publicly. The club is reported to have created a compensation scheme for victims to obtain redress, but could still end up in court because there are said to be people taking legal action who fall outside the scheme.
Click to expand...
"Broome was arrested in 1970 for molesting a boy in the changing rooms and the investigation commissioned by the modern-day City, known as the Mulcahy report, noted that the club “should have stood Broome down… pending the conclusion of the criminal case. Instead, he was allowed to continue coaching during the four months between his arrest and conviction and it is understood that he continued to abuse boys during this period".

That is bad. Why was he allowed to continue working?
 
Probably because it was 51 years ago and the safeguards in place today that we take for granted just weren't there. I suspect also that the clubs hierarchy didn't want to associate themselves with such tawdry matters and didnt want to raise awareness by any form of suspension although, perhaps he was interviewed and strenuously and plausibly denied it, its hard to know exactly what went on as so much time has passed. These dirty bastards only got away with what they did as other people were either negligently or apathetically enabling. It should now be time for those people, however old or even passed, to pay the piper.
I'm glad the club has taken what action it can although the wrongs can never be righted.
 
LangleyBlue1970 said:
"Broome was arrested in 1970 for molesting a boy in the changing rooms and the investigation commissioned by the modern-day City, known as the Mulcahy report, noted that the club “should have stood Broome down… pending the conclusion of the criminal case. Instead, he was allowed to continue coaching during the four months between his arrest and conviction and it is understood that he continued to abuse boys during this period".

That is bad. Why was he allowed to continue working?
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I was in that team. CITY did discontinue the relation when he was arrested. Unfortunately he was allowed to continue separately from the club until his conviction. The boys were not told and we continued until the day he didn't turn up. Sad memories.
The club, the Police, the Courts were all part of an establishment, kids of 11 and 12 were seen and not heard.
 
Blue Llama said:
A difficult and a great statement from the Board. Faced up to their responsibilities and look to have done everything that they could do without being able to turn the clock back.
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Yes, I was expecting some 3 or 4 liner as an acknowledgement only but they've not shirked their responsibility there at all.
 
asahartford1 said:
I was in that team. CITY did discontinue the relation when he was arrested. Unfortunately he was allowed to continue separately from the club until his conviction. The boys were not told and we continued until the day he didn't turn up. Sad memories.
The club, the Police, the Courts were all part of an establishment, kids of 11 and 12 were seen and not heard.
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True. Different times and a sad indictment of how parts of society worked. A lot more went on than has been exposed.

Not to forget Cyril Smith, Liberal Party MP for Rochdale 1972-1992. Lived with his mum. Must have ate a lot of pies.

Dozens and dozens of complaints of him physically abusing children with overwhelming evidence. Once he was arrested with charges mysteriously dropped. It was a cover up on a similar scale to Jimmy Savile.

Knighted for his services, anyone not aware should read up about him.
 
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