Paedophile football coach Barry Bennell today told a court he did not abuse four of the eight men suing Manchester City over historic sex assault claims.
The Premier League club today called the convicted sex offender to give evidence on their behalf in a High Court case defending damages claims made by former youth players.
The club say Bennell, who is currently serving a 34-year sentence for sexually abusing young boys, was an unpaid coach and scout for City.
But the club insists he did not hold the role between 1979 and 1985.
Eight men who claim they were abused by the former youth coach, but who are not eligible for Manchester City's compensation scheme relating to Bennell's convictions, are currently suing the club for damages.
Today Bennell, who has been called as a witness by Manchester City, gave evidence at the High Court.
He denied abusing four of the men, who claim they were abused by Bennell when they were boys, but admitted abusing others.
He also said that he had not been associated with City during the years the eight men say they were abused.
Barrister James Counsell QC, who is representing the eight men, asked Bennell about his wider abuse of boys between the 1970s and 1990s.
'How many boys do you say you have abused?' Mr Counsell asked.
Bennell replied: 'I am not answering that question.'
He added: 'I am not prepared to go into that.
'I've been found guilty. I've plead guilty. I've done time. I'm doing time. What do you want?'
Bennell told the judge, in a written witness statement, that he had not been City 'coach' scout during the years the men say they were abused.
He also said his 'junior teams' had no connection with City.
Bennell said he had used his 'previous connection' with City as 'a draw for players to join my junior teams'.
'None of the teams they played for that I ran were in any way connected with MCFC,' Bennell told the judge, in a written witness statement.
'However, I can entirely understand why some of the claimants may have genuinely believed they were playing for teams connected with MCFC because I was responsible for creating that belief.
'... from about 1975 until 1978 I was what was known as a local scout for MCFC.'
He added: 'I also accept that I wanted to go on and become a professional football coach, but unfortunately MCFC did not offer me a position.
'Thereafter, I used my previous connection with MCFC as a draw for players to join my junior teams.
'Throughout my involvement in junior football I always used and exploited my previous connections for my own benefit.
'I was particularly good at creating the impression with junior players, their parents, other coaches and for that matter anyone else I met that I was a MCFC coach and that playing for one of my junior teams meant that they were in some way connected with MCFC, which of course was what the players and their parents themselves always wanted to believe.
'However, the reality is that I was never a MCFC coach and after 1978/1979 my junior teams had no connection at all with MCFC.'
The eight men, who are now in their 40s and 50s, say Bennell, now 67, abused them when they were playing schoolboy football for teams he coached in the North West of England between 1979 and 1985.
They claim that Bennell, who became a coach at Crewe in 1985, was a scout for City during that time and argue that the relationship between Bennell and City was 'one of employment or one akin to employment'.
City bosses deny that claim. They say Bennell had been a local City scout in the mid-1970s but was not a City scout between 1979 and 1985.
Mr Justice Johnson began overseeing the trial, at the High Court in London, in late October.
Lawyers representing the men finished calling evidence on Wednesday, and lawyers representing City began calling evidence on Tuesday.
Bennell was the first witness called by lawyers representing City. He gave evidence via video link from a prison near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, where he is being held.
Mr Justice Johnson has heard that Bennell, who used to live near Buxton, Derbyshire, had abused schoolboy footballers after inviting them to stay at his home.
The eight men are claiming damages after suffering psychiatric injuries. Six are also claiming damages for loss of potential football earnings.
Mr Justice Johnson has been told that Bennell is serving a 34-year sentence after being convicted of sexual offences against boys on five separate occasions - four in the UK and one in the US - and is being held at HMP Littlehey.
Bennell, who wore a red sweatshirt and light blue face mask during his court appearance, today told the judge that he has changed his name to 'Richard Jones'.
Bennell said he wanted to wear a mask while answering questions. He said he had recently 'had five teeth out' - and referred to 'Covid'.
City’s lawyers argue that while he was a local scout in the mid-1970s, he did not hold the role between 1979 and 1985.
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.