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Paedophile coach at Crewe?


valeparklife

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I'm not excusing Crewe but we are looking back at this from the position of what would happen now..not what was required/expected/posible at the time. We can still judge their inaction but it has to be put into a context of how things were at the time..there wasn't the protection for whistleblowers at the time for example so individuals might have not felt able to come forward.

 

Anyways..it should be investigated now to get the guilty and hopefully enable more victims to come forward and get help

 

Are you saying, JA, that in those days it was acceptable not to hold an internal inquiry into how a man like Bennell had been allowed free rein at the club and be allowed to use the house of the club manager to carry out some of his offences? It is becoming increasingly clear that Bennell was the guy who was caught but not the only one involved so are we saying it was OK for Crewe to keep employing other likely guilty parties?

 

And for Morse to talk about dragging the club's good name through the gutter is scandalous. As far as I'm concerned, the gutter is where Crewe's name deserves to be.

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I'll never forget the day my old man sat me down and asked whether Barry had ever touched me in a way he shouldn't have. Luckily for me I mustn't have been his type, so it came as quite a shock, but there were rumours at the time that a lad a year older than me had been. I was 11 when I started training with Stoke's School of Excellence, which then led to me going to Stone Dominoes where Barry was their youth coach. He had a younger bloke as his assistant, I'm pretty sure it'll be him that Woodward is referring to as knowing what was going on. When it all came out and I heard about how he'd get his victims scared by telling them ghost stories it sent a shiver down my spine. I remember going to the peak district for an overnight stay at a youth hostel in the middle of nowhere, when it was pitch black he took us all out in a mini bus and told loads of ghost stories and showed us places where he said local witches lived. I remember being scared at the time. Nothing happened to me but it got me thinking about whether it had to someone else. He impressed everyone around him at the time, constantly flashing the cash and showing off his football skills. In the end I remember not being selected by Stone Dominoes so I got pissed off and left them and Stoke at the same time. This would have been around 1993. Makes you sick thinking that it went on for so long, people knew, and yet so many more young lads were put in harms way. When I get into arguments with Crewe fans on different forums they're so adamant that anyone who accuses their staff of being a paedophile is lower than low. They haven't got a clue, and a lot of people at Stoke would have a lot to answer also.

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Are you saying, JA, that in those days it was acceptable not to hold an internal inquiry into how a man like Bennell had been allowed free rein at the club and be allowed to use the house of the club manager to carry out some of his offences?

 

Acceptable to whom? I never said anything about it being acceptable to anyone. My point was that the mechanisms and protection we have in place now didn't exist then which will have deterred some people from speaking up. It's not acceptable but is a reason why some maybe did not speak up.

 

It is becoming increasingly clear that Bennell was the guy who was caught but not the only one involved so are we saying it was OK for Crewe to keep employing other likely guilty parties?

 

Without proof of guilt or an admission or a guilty verdict in a court of law on what grounds would Crewe have terminated their employment? Suspicion? Accusations? Of course it would be completely wrong for Crewe to keep employing any proven guilty parties and it would have been so much better if Crewe had carried out thorough investigations and helped expose these people at the time. You can't terminate someone's employment cos of accusations or suspicions (there would be innocent school teachers being dismissed/suspended every day) , but you should thoroughly investigate them and confirm their validity or otherwise and maybe suspend them during this process..that's what would probably happen now anyway. At the time I reckon the necessary procedures did not exist or were rather flimsy (to say the least)...not an excuse but a reason.

 

If anyone in authority at the club knew and didn't act or acted to hush it up they are as criminal as anyone involved in this.

 

And for Morse to talk about dragging the club's good name through the gutter is scandalous. As far as I'm concerned, the gutter is where Crewe's name deserves to be.

 

Very true the children affected by this are far more important than anyone's 'good name'

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There are surely grounds for the FA/FL shutting down Crewe's academy whilst all this is investigated. I know the events being reported happened a long time ago but if Crewe cannot demonstrate that they now have appropriate protection in place and/or haven't carried out any recent investigations into any recent suspicions/accusations then it's not a proven safe place for youngsters.

 

In other words has the club really moved on or is this one some way endemic/cultural there...they need to prove that they have got their house in order..as does any other club but Crewe have a chance to lead on this

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Without proof of guilt or an admission or a guilty verdict in a court of law on what grounds would Crewe have terminated their employment? Suspicion? Accusations? Of course it would be completely wrong for Crewe to keep employing any proven guilty parties and it would have been so much better if Crewe had carried out thorough investigations and helped expose these people at the time. You can't terminate someone's employment cos of accusations or suspicions (there would be innocent school teachers being dismissed/suspended every day) , but you should thoroughly investigate them and confirm their validity or otherwise and maybe suspend them during this process..that's what would probably happen now anyway. At the time I reckon the necessary procedures did not exist or were rather flimsy (to say the least)...not an excuse but a reason.

 

If anyone in authority at the club knew and didn't act or acted to hush it up they are as criminal as anyone involved in this.

 

This is my point. Several people have said there was a huge amount of rumour and chat in the club about this. Did anyone in authority at the club make any attempt to find out if Bennell was the only guilty party? It's pretty clear that either they didn't or else they did and covered up what they found. Either way, that is a disgrace.

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