Paedophile coach at Crewe?

[Jacko51]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/22/steve-walters-andy-woodward-crewe-alexandra

[ELDERBEZZA]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/22/steve-walters-andy-woodward-crewe-alexandra

 

This is sickening! To think the stick Vale took when in administration from the Crewe fans! This is a million times worse. Our thoughts are with the lads who are traumatised by the "Crewe Way"

[robf]

This isn't directed at any specific poster, but perhaps we should remember that this has ruined people's lives and isn't really an appropriate opportunity for gleeful point-scoring over our 'rivals'.

 

I completely agree.

[robf]

This really is an awful, snowballing story. Here's an article on Paul Stewart:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/22/paul-stewart-sexual-abuse-coach

 

However, I guess that if these stories a) give the victims some sort of closure b) inspire others to step up and report abuse and prevent abuse and c) bring justice to the perpetrators then all this harrowing news will be worth it.

 

I also think it's immensely brave of Andy Woodward, Steve Walters and Paul Stewart to break their anonymity and tell their stories.

[Howjy04]

Looks like Paul Stewart has had a bad time.

[TheSage]

All this is truly dreadful. It appears as well as if it might only be the tip of the iceberg. Let's hope not. It makes your skin crawl when you read the story. Urgh. This needs clearing up asap. It is indeed a very brave thing to do to come forward like these three lads have done. All power to them. They have my great respect and I hope it goes a long way to clearing up this abomination that seems to be more rife in football than we imagined, but I suppose we shouldn't be surprised as football reflects life. Depressing stories.

[Essex Vale]

This is a deeply distressing story. There will be more victims of that we can be sure. I saw the John Bowler interview on Sky last night and was left distinctly underwhelmed. It is quite clear that young boys in the care of his football club suffered abuse and that information has been public knowledge for some considerable time.

 

For him to now say he wants "time" to investigate is wholly unacceptable, how much time is needed? The mumbled expression of what he thought was an apology was wholly unacceptable.

 

The sordid episode happened on his watch and as the leader of the organisation he has to show real leadership here and he has clearly failed to do so. Of course he cannot be everywhere, and cannot know everything. I know from my professional background in criminal justice how devious, cunning and manipulative sex offenders are and how difficult it is for anyone to track their activities at the time these events occurred.

 

However, the quality of communication, apology, leadership and attempts to make amendments shown to date by Mr Bowler fall significantly short of what we are entitled to expect. He needs some good advice in order to protect the reputation of Crewe Alexandra and he then needs to put into action the output of that advice.

[Trampilot]

I think this story will get a wider scope as more players come forward. It won't just be a few clubs either.

[Family Stand Terrier]

John Bowler's statement is disgusting. The use of the term "out of the blue"??? Absolute nonsense. Bennell was convicted in 98, he knew full well even then that Bennell was previously a Crewe Alex coach. Why be so reactive? Why not investigate at that precise moment. They'd still have the details of the kids they'd had in their academy during Bennell's reign, why not be proactive and investigate. There were hundreds of kids that Crewe owed a duty of care to, and yet they did nothing. Some were suffering in silence, clearly, and yet they were more bothered in 2013 of clarifying to the Chronicle that the offence in Macclesfield took place when Bennell wasn't employed by them, rather than offering support to potential victims. Stoke have got off lightly so far, as have Stone Dominoes in the local press especially. I know for a fact that some of the offences he committed took place whilst he was coaching at Stoke school of excellence, and at the same time running Stone's youth teams.

 

If as Woodward suggests, Bennell had an assailant, there are plenty of ways that Crewe, Stoke and Stone can all help any investigations. To say I'm fuming about all of this is an understatement. Given the scale of this, I'm also less than impressed with the Sentinel's role in reporting it. They've got 3 sporting institutions within their area that employed this scumbag, with local lads potentially (if rumours are true, I know one of them) among his victims. I've checked their website, so I may have missed something, but the two reports I've seen could only have been small articles on the inside pages. One paragraph is massively underplaying his attachment with Stoke, Bennell "was employed by Crewe between 1983 and 1988, had close links as a coach with Manchester City and also recommended players to Leeds United and Stoke City". Recommended players???? He was their main youth coach in the early 90's. Every time we used to play for Barry at Stone Dominoes we'd be wearing Stoke strips (I used to wear my Vale top underneath), they were that closely linked. Stoke are avoiding a huge amount of scrutiny from what I can see. It was on a trip with Stone Dominoes that he would take us out in the mini bus late at night to tell us ghost stories, so they will certainly have questions to answer also.

[robf]

There's certainly a lot more Crewe could have added to their statement.

 

There's a very generic reference to the issue being investigated ("you first want to make inquiries and reflect from within. That is the process we started last week") but no indication of the scope or timescale. I hope the media hold them to the promise and ask for details of what was investigated in due course.

 

I was also not impressed by BBC Radio Stoke last night. I thought that Graeme McGarry's joke after referring to the off-field events was in very poor taste.

 

Here's what was said... "We have had hectic 48 hours of course with what's going on at the Alexandra stadium and I got hit with a bombshell which frightened me to death..." (he then goes on to tell a joke pretending that Pete Morse is quitting due to Crewe's form).

 

But referring to incidents of child sexual abuse and then cracking a joke in almost the same breath was at best in poor taste or worse treating a serious news story with contempt.

 

I know that it's a sports programme and that football can be fun and funny but really... to make a reference to something like that then go straight into a joke just suggests that Radio Stoke, like the rest of the local media are not treating this story with much respect.

 

Mainly because I'm an anorak I've found the clip. It's about 41 mins and 45 seconds in here

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04fxyv4

[Trampilot]

I don't think sports reporters should be handling this type of story. In the same way Oscar Pistorius shooting his fiancee wasn't sport either. This was a crime and should be treated as such. The local media should get a little bit harder and start asking the right questions. If they manage to annoy some local sports club, Premiership or otherwise, then the bad press is only going to go one way.

 

You can imagine what the headlines might say if they refuse to investigate.

[robf]

Trampilot, I agree with you. I used to work on a Sports section of an Internet portal (in the days when portals were big things). There was often a debate over whether a story fell into "sport" or "news" or indeed both.

 

I agree this is more of a news story but what I think tends to happen is it can fall between the two areas and then end up not being covered properly.

 

I remember in the early days of the protests against V2001 and MOLD the Sentinel didn't know how to handle the stories. They were seen as "Sport" stories and they would often gloss over the protests or just ignore them. Eventually, they decided that the issue was big enough to be treated seriously and Vale were front page news for a period. It took them a while but that coverage (and the revelations it contained) undoubtedly tipped the balance against the board.

 

For me, this is even more serious. The potential loss of Port Vale was serious, but this is criminal behaviour that has damaged some people for life. The local press need to treat it seriously, cover it properly and investigate it thoroughly.

 

After all, the national media journalists have discovered lots of new things that could lead to justice hopefully being done, what may the local media (with their local sources and contacts) be able to discover if they treat this seriously?

[Family Stand Terrier]

Trampilot, I agree with you. I used to work on a Sports section of an Internet portal (in the days when portals were big things). There was often a debate over whether a story fell into "sport" or "news" or indeed both.

 

I agree this is more of a news story but what I think tends to happen is it can fall between the two areas and then end up not being covered properly.

 

I remember in the early days of the protests against V2001 and MOLD the Sentinel didn't know how to handle the stories. They were seen as "Sport" stories and they would often gloss over the protests or just ignore them. Eventually, they decided that the issue was big enough to be treated seriously and Vale were front page news for a period. It took them a while but that coverage (and the revelations it contained) undoubtedly tipped the balance against the board.

 

For me, this is even more serious. The potential loss of Port Vale was serious, but this is criminal behaviour that has damaged some people for life. The local press need to treat it seriously, cover it properly and investigate it thoroughly.

 

After all, the national media journalists have discovered lots of new things that could lead to justice hopefully being done, what may the local media (with their local sources and contacts) be able to discover if they treat this seriously?

 

For starters, they can direct the attention of the media on not only Crewe, but Stoke too. I think the national media aren't fully aware of how involved he was there in the early 90's. I was at Stoke from late 91 to summer 93 and Barry was our coach the whole time I was there.

[geosname]

 

After all, the national media journalists have discovered lots of new things that could lead to justice hopefully being done, what may the local media (with their local sources and contacts) be able to discover if they treat this seriously?

 

Sorry Rob.... I doubt they could find their ass in a bath

[Santa]

David White, ex of Man City, is the latest ex-player to come forward now.