Barry Bennell: Paedophile coach says he stole Man City kit for youth teams

Paedophile former football coach Barry Bennell has told a High Court trial he stole or borrowed Manchester City kit for his youth teams to wear.

Bennell, 67, has denied being linked to Manchester City during the 1980s, after eight men who say he abused them made damages claims against the club.

Some of the men have told a judge they wore City kit when playing for Bennell's schoolboy teams during the 1980s.

City denies the men's claims.

Bennell, who gave evidence via video-link from a prison near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, told the court he was a "local scout" for City between 1975 and 1979.

But he said he was not a City "coach" between 1979 and 1985, when the men say they were abused.

He told judge Mr Justice Johnson teams he coached sometimes wore City's light blue strip because he had stolen or borrowed it from the club's training ground after games.

Bennell said his teams had also worn Burnley and Tottenham Hotspur kit.

"I have to admit that, on more than one occasion, I even managed to steal a bag of MCFC [Manchester City] kit at the end of a trial that I attended," he told the judge, in a written witness statement.

"I would then use the kit for cup finals or end-of-season photographs when the team had won the league because it made the players feel good."

James Counsell QC, who is leading the eight men's legal team, asked Bennell about the danger of City officials seeing pictures of boys wearing the club's kit.

"I would probably blame someone else or said I had borrowed it," he replied.

Mr Counsell also told the court Bennell had talked of spending "seven years coaching" at City in a CV written in the early-1990s.

He added notes in a 1989 Crewe match programme talked of Bennell's coaching experience - including "seven years at Manchester City" - and how a "personality profile" in a 1985 Crewe programme talked of how he had "been with Manchester City for some time".

But Bennell said he had never been a City coach and was not a scout in the 1980s.

"Manchester City never employed me and they will say that - and it is true," he added.

Bennell has told the court he was convicted, at Chester Crown Court in 1998 and 2015 and at Liverpool Crown Court in 2018, of various sexual offences against "numerous boys".

He said several of those convictions related to six of the men making claims against City.

But when questioned by Mr Counsell on Tuesday, he denied abusing four of the men and admitted abusing two others.

Bennell is currently serving a 34-year sentence after being convicted of sexual offences against boys on five separate occasions - four in the UK and one in the US.

The eight men say he abused them when they were playing schoolboy football for teams he coached in the north-west of England between 1979 and 1985.

They claim that Bennell, who became a coach at Crewe in 1985, was a scout for City during that time and argue the relationship was "one of employment or one akin to employment".

But the club said he had been a local City scout in the mid-1970s but was not employed by them between 1979 and 1985.

The eight men are claiming damages after suffering psychiatric injuries, while six are also claiming damages for loss of potential football earnings.

The trial continues.

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