Barry Bennell: Coach warned parent of Frank Roper's abuse, court told

Eight men are suing Manchester City, asserting Barry Bennell was a scout for the club when he abused them

Paedophile football coach Barry Bennell warned a parent about a scout who "molested boys", a court has heard.

In a witness statement read to the High Court, an ex-schoolboy footballer abused by Bennell said his father was "warned off" Frank Roper.

The victim said it made him feel "he could trust" Bennell as Roper was convicted of sex abuse offences.

Eight men are suing Manchester City, asserting Bennell was a scout when he abused them, which City have denied.

Mr Justice Johnson has heard the men were sexually and emotionally abused by Bennell between 1979 and 1985 and were claiming damages after suffering psychiatric injuries.

Six are also claiming damages for loss of potential football earnings.

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In the statement read by a lawyer acting on behalf of the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, he said Bennell had warned his father off Roper, who died in 2005, because "he molested boys".

"I felt I could trust [Bennell] because he was right about Roper," he added.

'Magnetic personality'

The man, who had been a talented schoolboy footballer, said the name of the youth side he played for was "kind of irrelevant", but he had had the "opportunity to play for Manchester City".

"I had a professional club in the top league knocking on my door," he said.

"You have got a club like Manchester City, who Bennell is attached to.

"I wanted to become a professional footballer and Bennell would be the one to get me there."

He also said Bennell had had a "magnetic personality".

"Everyone gravitated towards him - parents and children alike," he said.

Manchester City has denied Bennell was working for the club at the time of the abuse and has said that while he was a local scout in the mid-1970s, he did not hold the role between 1979 and 1985.

Bennell is serving a 34-year jail term after being convicted of more than 50 sexual offences against boys in 2018 and 2020.

He had previously received jail sentences in relation to child abuse in the UK and in the US in 1995, 1998 and 2015.

The trial continues.

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