Football coach Barry Bennell had three boys in bed at once, trial told

A former junior footballer from Manchester City’s youth system cried as he told police he was sexually abused about 100 times by Barry Bennell, and often had to stay four-in-a bed with the man he believed would help him have a professional career.

Barry Bennell is appearing at Liverpool crown court via video link for reasons of poor health. Photograph: Julia Quenzler/SWNS.com

In police interviews shown to a jury at Liverpool crown court, the alleged victim said he used to stay with Bennell up to four times a week. He recalled how the coach sometimes had three boys sharing a bed with him, as well as having two bunk beds in the same room to accommodate others.

Now in his 40s, the man said there was an “untold rule” among the boys not to say anything because they were scared of losing their chance to play for City. He said it still sent “chills down my spine” when he heard the music that Bennell played on a ghetto-blaster to disguise the abuse: Billy Ocean, and the Steve Miller Band but, mostly, the Incantation song Cacharpaya.

“He was very clever – it was always lights off, music blaring out,” he told the police. “I learned how to shut down. When it happened I could literally shut down my emotions. All I know is every time I was abused, part of me closed down. When the tears came out my face, I shut my body down. He’d abuse me and I’d have tears rolling down my cheeks. He didn’t give a shit. That hurt. It didn’t stop him.”

Bennell has admitted seven charges of sexually abusing three boys, aged 11 to 14, but denies 48 other counts relating to 11 boys from 1979 to 1991, including one as young as nine. He has already served prison sentences in England and the United States for abusing children but claims he is the victim of a malicious campaign. The jury was told he had described this complainant as “one who got away with it”.

Bennell told the police he thought the boy “might be one” who would eventually give in to his grooming but that the boy had shown no interest. That process, Bennell added, usually involved “a bit of toy-fighting, a few treats here and there – just to see the reaction” but he said his priority at the time was another boy, whose name cannot be reported, who he regarded as “my favourite”.

The first of Bennell’s alleged victims to give evidence told police he came forward after seeing Andy Woodward on television talking about his abuse by Bennell.

The unnamed man was playing for a junior team when he heard that Bennell, working as a coach and scout for City, was looking for players good enough to play for the youth squad.

“He always used to flash his eyes at you, make you feel like you stood out, like you were different, like you were special,” the man said. “At 11 or 12, every boy wanted to be in football, everyone wanted to please him. Everyone wanted to be the first to carry the balls to his car, everything like that.”

The abuse, he said, mostly happened on overnight stays at Bennell’s house above a video shop. Bennell, described by the prosecution as a “devious paedophile”, also used the boys to help him copy pirate tapes of pornographic films, the jury was told. Bennell, he said, also abused him during a trip to Butlins in Pwllheli, north Wales, by City’s “Junior Blues” squad. He said Bennell used to perform bare-chested martial-arts demonstrations with nunchucks, as if to say “look what I can do”. The coach, then in his late 20s, was “quite a well-built guy – you wouldn’t mess with him”.

On other occasions the alleged victim said he could feel vibrations in bed as Bennell abused other boys next to him. “Nobody said anything. It was almost like an untold rule – ‘shut up, don’t spoil our chances, I want to make it, I want to be a footballer, I want to play for City’. You knew but you didn’t say anything. He had a big power-hold over us, which was quite horrific.”

At times, he added, other boys would give him “the look” to signal they knew what was going on but would not be saying anything. “It was almost like the mason’s funny handshake. You knew the look. They knew you had been abused. You knew they knew. It was a very distinct look but you learned to live with it.”

The abuse, it is alleged, continued until he hit puberty. The alleged victim said he still “cannot stand” the smell of Kouros aftershave because it reminds him of Bennell. Under cross-examination, he denied that his motives for coming forward were financial.

The trial, which continues, is expected to last around eight weeks.

(GUARDIAN)