Blackpool FC fights £19k damages order over sex abuse of boy

Blackpool FC is arguing Frank Roper was the equivalent to a "contractor"

Blackpool FC has launched an appeal after being ordered to pay £19,000 in damages to a man abused by a former "scout" as a youth footballer.

The High Court has heard the victim, now aged in his 40s, was abused at 13 by the late Frank Roper during a football tour to New Zealand in 1987.

The man sued Blackpool FC saying the club was "vicariously liable".

The club's lawyers asked the Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling, arguing Roper was not a "quasi employee".

They told judges Roper was a "completely free agent" equivalent to a "contractor" and asked them to overrule Mr Justice Griffiths.

Lady Justice Macur, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith and Sir Stephen Richards were considering arguments at the hearing, which is due to end on Thursday.

They have ruled the victim cannot be identified in media reports of the case.

Roper, a former businessman who died in 2005, had convictions for indecent assaults on boys dating back to the 1960s, judges heard.

'Feeder team'

He had run a youth team in Stockport, Greater Manchester, but was a Blackpool fan and owned a sports shop in the town.

Mr Justice Griffiths concluded Roper had been a "Blackpool scout" and decided that his Nova Juniors youth side was a "Blackpool feeder team".

He concluded the relationship between him and Blackpool was one "capable of giving rise to vicarious liability".

Michael Kent QC, leading Blackpool's legal team, argued the club had not controlled Mr Roper.

He told appeal judges that Mr Roper had been a "completely free agent" and the equivalent of an "independent contractor".

The man had told Mr Justice Griffiths how he had met Mr Roper when he was 11.

He said Mr Roper had been a well-known local football scout who had scouted him to play for the Blackpool School of Excellence.

Mr Justice Griffiths said he accepted the man's account of the abuse he suffered on the New Zealand trip.

The judges heard Mr Roper had also brought Paul Stewart and David Bardsley, who both played for England, to Blackpool when they were schoolboys.

The hearing continues.

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