Barry Bennell: Paedophile coach has 'zero remorse'

Paedophile former football coach Barry Bennell was a "devil incarnate" who has shown "zero remorse", a victim has told a High Court judge.

The middle-aged man told Mr Justice Johnson at London's High Court he first met Bennell when he was aged about 12.

The talented schoolboy footballer is one of eight men who claim Manchester City employed Bennell and so was vicariously liable for the abuse.

City disputes the claim for damages from the men.

Bennell, 67, was jailed in 2018 after being convicted of abusing the man, and a number of other victims.

The man said crown court judge Clement Goldstone had described Bennell at the time as "sheer evil" and the "devil incarnate".

"He was," the man told Mr Justice Johnson.

"He has shown absolutely zero remorse. To this day he has shown zero remorse."

The man recalled Bennell's demeanour at the Liverpool Crown Court sentencing hearing.

"Throughout the hearing he was laughing, smirking," he said.

"He had just no acceptance, no remorse."

The man said that he had first met Bennell in the early 1980s.

He said Bennell had been introduced as a Manchester City scout and the man told Mr Justice Johnson: "He was just renowned.

"Everybody knew him as the Manchester City scout."

The man told the court how Bennell would take schoolboy players to watch games at City's Maine Road stadium and to their training ground.

He added: "I believe he was shooed away from Manchester United."

The man said trips to City games were a "kind of reward" if youngsters played well.

"If you got on the wrong side of him you were dropped," he added.

"He didn't accept losing very well."

The man said Bennell had two dogs and added: "If you didn't play well, or anything like that, you had to clean up all the dog faeces in the cellar."

Bennell, who worked as a coach at Crewe Alexandra, is serving a 34-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexual offences against boys.

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

The men claim Bennell was operating as a Manchester City scout and they want damages from the club.

Lawyers representing the club have said Bennell was a "local scout" in the mid-1970s, but did not have a role in the 1980s, and that Bennell was not an employee or in a relationship "akin to employment" at "the material times".

The trial continues.

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