Barry Bennell threatened boy who saw abuse, court told

A football coach accused of sexually abusing junior players threatened to destroy the career of one boy after the boy walked in on him “fondling” another in a changing room, a court has heard.

Giving evidence at Liverpool crown court, the witness, who was 15 at the time in the early 80s, said he had returned to the changing rooms of Crewe Alexandra’s Gresty Road ground after a match to find Barry Bennell with a young player on his knee “fondling [him] down his football shorts”.

“Obviously Barry was startled to see me come back. He got up and shouted at me and said: ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ and I said: ‘I have come for my boots and what the hell are you fucking doing?’” the man told the court on Tuesday.

“At that point he jumped up, stormed at me and pinned me to the wall. If you can imagine Star Wars and Darth Vader, it was like a Darth Vader grip.”

The jury heard that the coach’s alleged victim – who was around 12 years old at the time – ran out of the changing room in tears and that Bennell told the witness: “You have not seen anything. If you say anything to anyone I will make sure I will finish your football career here and now.”

Bennell stands accused of 48 sexual abuse charges relating to 11 boys from the junior setups at Crewe and Manchester City. The abuse is alleged to have taken place between 1979 and 1990 against boys between the ages of eight and 14.

Bennell has denied the charges but pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexually abusing three boys aged 11 to 14.

The witness said Bennell had a “psychological hold” over him after the incident. He did not tell anybody about what he had seen until he read reports of allegations against Bennell in the press at the end of 2016. “It was part of my life that I locked away,” he said.

In a police interview read to the court, Bennell said he would not have “allowed himself” to abuse the boy in question because he was not attracted to him and he was a very good player, so he could not afford to lose him for Crewe Alexandra. “He was an outstanding player,” he said.

The court heard that the boy – whom Bennell is alleged to have abused between the ages of 11 and 14 – “was going off the rails” by his late teens and had developed “erratic behaviour”.

Another alleged victim, whom Bennell is charged with abusing between the ages of about 10 and 12, told the court that he, like many other boys, would stay over at the coach’s house before training and matches.

“I remember sleeping in his bed and he just used to draw circles on your stomach and ask you to do the same [to him] and it just got worse from there,” the man told the jury on Tuesday.

He described one occasion when Bennell made reference to what he was doing: “He said I did OK and ‘just pretend it’s your girlfriend’.” He recalled being abused by the coach in the changing room after the Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall had come to Crewe Alexandra to give a talk.

The man contacted the police in November 2016 after seeing reports about Bennell in the press. Eleanor Laws QC, defending, asked him whether he had made the complaint in order to get compensation from Crewe Alexandra. “That is ridiculous,” the man replied. Laws asked whether the man blamed Bennell for his failed football career. “I blame Barry for my failed life, not my football career,” he said.

In an interview with police, Bennell denied the allegations, saying the boy was not “his sort of lad” and that he liked boys who had nice faces and smiled a lot, which the child in question did not. “He wasn’t targeted like that,” said Bennell. “He seemed like the kind of person who would tell his mum and dad.”

The trial continues.