A Scots survivor of the UK’s most infamous football paedophile has demanded an urgent face-to-face meeting with the billionaire owner of Manchester City FC.
The former City youth player, now in his late 40s and living in Glasgow, was just 12 when he suffered a sustained horrific ordeal at the hands of evil Barry Bennell. He told his story for the first time in last week’s Daily Record.
Now, he has written a searing personal letter to Sheikh Mansour – the super-rich Manchester City owner – who has helped transform the fortunes of this season’s Premier League champions since taking over in 2008.
The victim – who wished to remain anonymous – revealed harrowing details of his horrific ordeal and how it wrecked his life. He also urged the Sheikh to meet him to explain the club’s high-profile
He wrote: “I hate the word ‘victim’ or ‘survivor’ but that’s what I am. That evil man took so much from me – he condemned me to a living death, he robbed me of a football career in the top flight, he scarred me mentally for life, he even made me question my own sexuality.
“I want to meet you face-to-face to tell you about these awful things. I want to speak to you man-to-man so that this great club that you now own – Manchester City Football Club – can draw a line underneath this horrible period in its history.”
The victim revealed that Manchester City’s victims’ compensation scheme grades sex abuse on a sliding scale from £5000 to £65,000 for rape. But he said the sums talked about were “paltry”.
Ex-youth coach Bennell was convicted of 43 charges relating to 12 young players between 1979 and 1990 while at City and Crewe Alexandra. He was jailed for 31 years in February last year. It was his fourth sex abuse conviction.
Last night, the club said: “Manchester City’s review into historic child sex abuse and the resulting Survivor Compensation Scheme is the result of more than two years of exhaustive research and engagement with a large number of experts in the field.
“The scheme, which is the first of its kind in football, is designed to offer survivors an alternative – with absolutely no obligation – to civil litigation, a process which can often be lengthy, costly and combative for survivors.
“The scheme was created voluntarily by the club and has been well received by stakeholders, not least by law firms with particular strength and experience in this field.”
