Shamed football coach Barry Bennell is dead at the age of 69, it has been announced.
It’s understood that Bennell – who had cancer – died in prison on Saturday (September 16).
Who was Barry Bennell?
Football coach Bennell has died aged 69, it’s been announced.
Bennell used to be a football youth coach at Crewe Alexandra, Manchester City, and Stoke City in the 1980s and 90s.
He also had links to teams across Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire. He used his position to sexually abuse young boys.
Bennell was first jailed back in 1994. This was for sexually abusing a 13-year-old British boy at a football camp in Florida, US.
Many crimes of Barry Bennell
Bennell soon returned to the UK. However, in 1997, his record as a predator was exposed in the 1997 Channel 4 Dispatches film Soccer’s Foul Play.
Bennell admitted to 23 offences dating back to the 70s and was jailed for nine years at Chester Crown Court.
Andy Woodward, a former footballer came forward some years later and spoke of the abuse he suffered at the hands of Bennell when he was just 11.
“It’s a dirty secret, deep inside you. It’s like a stutter, but it’s like even if you want to say it, there’s something in your mind that stops you,” he said.
In the storm that followed, more than 800 victims came forward. More than 300 clubs were implicated.
Shamed football coach Bennell dead at 69
After more victims came forward, Bennell was convicted of more than 50 sexual offences against 22 boys in 2018.
Bennell was handed a 34-year jail sentence. The judge branded him “devil incarnate” during the sentencing.
Bennell attempted to appeal his sentencing, however, his appeal was rejected later the same year.
Now, according to The Sun, the shamed coach has died at age 69.
He was battling cancer at the time, something he described as “payback” for his heinous crimes.
He died at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire.
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