Manchester City will this week call convicted sex offender Barry Bennell to give evidence on their behalf as their High Court case against eight of his victims comes to a close.
Bennell will appear by video link from Category C HMP Littlehey, in Cambridgeshire, where he is serving a 34-year term for abusing young footballers while Crewe Alexandra’s youth-team coach and, before that, as an unpaid coach and scout for City.
The 67-year-old is a key witness for City, whose stance in court is that he was not working for them at the time of the abuse. City’s lawyers have argued that while he was a local scout in the mid-1970s, he did not hold the role between 1979 and 1985.
But Manchester City’s own investigation into the abuse, headed by Jane Mulcahy, QC, of Blackstone Chambers in London found that Bennell ‘had a form of association’ with the club from the summer of 1975 to later 1979 and late 1981 to the spring of 1984. That investigation team, whose report was published in March, also sought to interview Bennell, though he refused on that occasion.
City’s own compensation scheme for victims of abuse who settled told possible claimants it was open to victims of Bennell from August 1976 to November 1979 and August 1981 to December 1984.
Eight players who have previously alleged to have been raped or molested in the 1980s, sometimes on hundreds of occasions, are suing City for damages. They are also asking for ‘special damages’ relating to for potential loss of earnings. They argue that Bennell’s crimes stopped them from progressing as far as they should as footballers.
Mr Justice Johnson, presiding in the case, was seeking to establish with lawyers last week that Bennell would be equipped with the right paperwork and that the prison video link would be adequate for the purpose of his appearance.
It is not thought that any of his victims will personally be there to watch the man who abuse them give evidence. They have been given the option of watching via video feed from their homes.