A former Southampton Football Club youth coach is a “predatory paedophile” who used his “supreme power” over the boys he worked with to carry out a widespread campaign of sexual abuse, a jury has been told.
Bob Higgins, who coached many players who went on to achieve national and international success, was a serial abuser of young teenage boys over a period of 25 years, Salisbury crown court heard on Wednesday.
Higgins, 65, who also worked at Peterborough United and ran his own football academy, denies 50 counts of indecent assault against 24 boys between 1971 and 1996.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Adam Feest QC told the jury Higgins won the trust of the boys, who idolised him, and their parents as part of “a systematic and all-pervasive pattern of grooming behaviour” that allowed him to act with “near impunity”.
Feest told the jury that in 2016 the former Crewe Alexandra professional footballer Andy Woodward came forward about abuse he had suffered at the hands of a coach when he was younger. The NSPCC set up a hotline to field calls from anyone who had encountered childhood sexual abuse within football.
“The telephone started to ring and one name was mentioned over and over again – that of Bob Higgins,” said Feest.
Higgins was involved with youth team training at Southampton from the mid-1970s until the later 1980s, the jury was told. He spent time with the Maltese football association, then worked with Peterborough until 1996.
Feest said Higgins was a talented coach, spotting and nurturing many young players who went on to achieve significant success. Teenagers turned down more prestigious clubs so they could work with him, the court heard.
“However, it is the crown’s case that during this time there was a much darker aspect to this defendant’s character and behaviour, an aspect which his footballing roles, and the very significant power that came with them, gave him the opportunity to pursue and indulge,” the prosecutor said.
“Throughout this period, this defendant was carrying out a widespread campaign of sexual abuse against many of those in his charge. This activity ranged from sticking his hand down their shorts to masturbating in front of them, from touching their legs and genitals while driving his car to sneaking into their bedroom to fondle them when they stayed overnight at his house.
“For some boys, he appears to have developed a real, if somewhat perverse, affectionate attachment, telling them he loved them and getting them to display signs of affection towards him. For others, his sexual acts were more opportunistic, testing out how far he could go before his victim would rebuff him.”
Feest continued: “Behind all this abuse lay a systematic and all-pervasive pattern of grooming behaviour. He gained the trust of the boys and their parents. The young footballers idolised the defendant. He held supreme power over their footballing futures.
“The defendant manipulated these feelings and desires, making sure that in order not to feel left out, the young teenagers would join in with sexualised behaviour, their infatuation making them blind to the real nature of it.
“Once their trust had been gained and their devotion to him made absolute, this predatory paedophile with a sexual interest in young teenage boys was able to act with near impunity.”
As the calls came in to the helpline, Feest said, a picture emerged. Particular types of behaviour were repeatedly mentioned, such as being sexually assaulted under the pretext of being shown a training drill or being examined for injury.
For many of the complainants – all adults now – it was the first time they had spoken of the alleged abuse, the court was told. Many wished they had come forward years ago, especially in the early 1990s when the defendant was investigated for similar offences and cleared at trial.
Feest said: “It is the crown’s case that for the best part of 25 years this defendant had been a serial abuser of young teenage boys.”
One alleged victim, who can be identified only as B, was spotted by Higgins when he was 13 and asked to a Southampton schoolboys’ training camp, the prosecutor said.
“Being football-mad and thinking this might be his key to a bright future, [B] was very eager to go,” said Feest. “His mother put him on a train to London and the defendant picked him up at the station.”
During the journey to the camp, the coach played love songs on the car cassette player and frequently touched the boy’s leg. Higgins allegedly massaged his thigh and genitals. B later refused to continue any contact with Southampton because of the alleged abuse and did not tell anyone what had happened for many years.
Another alleged victim, C, had a professional career and won international caps, the court was told. He would wait to be picked up after training at Higgins’ house.
When he was 14, he was sitting next to Higgins watching television. The defendant allegedly touched his penis. As with many complainants, C remained in contact with Higgins during his career, Feest said: “The defendant was such a central part of these boys’ lives … that many were unable to completely break the ties they had with him.”
Another alleged victim, D, who signed schoolboy forms with Southampton, said Higgins was a father figure to him and players regarded him as “like a god”.
He claimed Higgins touched him intimately during a massage, hiding what he was doing from another coach and a boy who were present. D looks back on the incident with “crushing disappointment”, wondering if he was on Southampton’s books only because Higgins had an ulterior motive.
The court was told that Higgins had his favourites. He used to tell complainant H that he loved him. H would stay at Higgins’ home and he came to regard cuddles, goodnight kisses and alleged assaults as something he had to accept to progress his career, the court heard. But he was “fearful” and has a memory of being curled up in a ball, hoping nothing would happen.
Complainant J, who became a successful professional player, said Higgins would play the Lionel Richie song Stuck On You on the car cassette player, and if he was in the middle seat in the back the defendant would wink at him in the mirror. He told police he did not come forward earlier because he felt he would be ridiculed in the football world.
Higgins allegedly told another boy, L, that if he made accusations about him he would make sure he never played football again. Nevertheless, L fled and went on to play football. Later when he feared that Higgins might move to his new club, he packed his bags and left immediately.
The court was told that there were alleged assaults by Higgins, who was married, during tours to the Gothia Cup in Sweden. Higgins has not been charged over those allegations because they they concerned events said to have happened abroad, the court was told.
One alleged assault was said to have taken place on a ferry from Sweden, the court was told. Higgins shared a twin cabin with the complainant, allegedly getting into bed with the boy and touching his penis. The court was told Higgins could not be prosecuted for this as it was outside British jurisdiction.
The trial continues.
