Bob Higgins: Southampton 'should have been watching' abuse coach

Bob Higgins had denied molesting boys over a period of 25 years

Southampton FC should have monitored a football coach after concerns were raised he was a danger to young boys, a report has said.

Bob Higgins was jailed for 24 years in 2019 for sexually touching trainees in the 1970s and 1980s.

A report by Clive Sheldon QC into sex abuse in football said a headteacher warned the club in the 1970s but it was dismissed as "malicious gossip".

Southampton said it was "deeply sorry" and admitted "considerable failings".

A former trainee who was abused by Higgins described the report's findings as "very vague" and said it was "like a box-ticking exercise".

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The report also said Southampton could have reported an allegation of abuse to police "more quickly" and failed to carry out any of its own inquiries at the time to find out if other boys may have been victims.

Higgins was found guilty of 46 counts of indecent assault on 24 victims, predominantly Southampton and Peterborough United trainees, between 1971 and 1996.

Former Southampton trainees described being abused during massages, in Higgins' car, at training camps and while staying at his home.

The Sheldon Review said accounts given to the club's current inquiry into the abuse, being conducted independently by children's charity Barnardo's, suggested "rumours about Higgins abounded over decades".

"Many individuals who have contributed to the Barnardo's review have been adamant that club officials and managers must have known of the stories and rumours about him," the report said.

"Some views have also been expressed that board directors must have 'chosen' not to ask too many questions."

The report added that a headteacher first raised concerns about Higgins in the 1970s, and that club staff knew he gave schoolboys "soap water massages".

The teacher spoke to manager Ted Bates who was "enraged and threatened to take legal action if I persisted with what he called malicious gossip", the report stated.

Higgins left the club two weeks after Dave Merrington, who was the youth team manager at the time, overheard players making "troubling comments" about Higgins in April 1989.

Sheldon said police were not called until June of the same year and the allegations should have been reported "more quickly".

Former Southampton trainee Dean Radford, who has previously spoken about being abused by Higgins, said the headteacher's concerns had been raised "a long time ago".

"Why didn't [Southampton] do more?" he said.

Former Southampton trainee Greg Llewellyn said he was disappointed by the report

His fellow former trainee Greg Llewellyn added of the report: "It's very vague, very general and it seems the people who were interviewed made very generic comments and aren't really prepared to put their neck on the block."

In an open letter released in anticipation of the report's publication, the club said it was now "a very different place" but not preventing the abuse had been "inexcusable".

"To all of the victims and survivors of the child abuse carried out... we are deeply sorry," it said.

'Inexcusable'

It added that its former trainees who suffered abuse "displayed incredible dignity and bravery" by speaking out.

The statement continued: "It is very clear that, historically, there were some very considerable failings that allowed this abuse to start and continue for such a long period of time.

"For a professional football club not to prevent this abuse or be able to provide support for anyone speaking up to report it, is inexcusable."

The club, which said it would publish the findings of its independent review, invited any other victims to get in contact.