Barry Bennell receives 31-year jail sentence for child sexual offences
Written by News on 19/02/2018
Serial paedophile and former football coach Barry Bennell has been jailed for 31 years for abusing 12 youngsters he was coaching.
The 64-year-old was branded “the devil incarnate” by Judge Clement Goldstone QC, who sentenced him at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday.
The former Crewe Alexandra coach and Manchester City scout was convicted of 50 child sexual offences, committed between 1979 and 1991.
Bennell may have more than 100 victims in total, as an additional 86 complainants have come forward to say they were also abused by him.
Sentencing Bennell on Monday, the Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, said: “Your behaviour towards these boys in grooming and seducing them before subjecting them to, in some cases, the most most serious, degrading and humiliating abuse was sheer evil.”
He said Bennell had appeared to his victims as a God but added: “In reality, you were the devil incarnate. You stole their childhoods and their innocence to satisfy your own perversion.”
Bennell looked at the floor and nodded as the judge sentenced him. Some members of the public began to applaud as he was sent down, but were stopped by the judge.
The judge says the total sentence for the 50 offences is 31 years – comprising a custodial sentence of 30 years and one year on licence.
Judge Goldstone added that Bennell’s abuse had destroyed the enthusiasm his victims had for playing football and had led to them suffering problems including suicidal thoughts, alcoholism and depression.
He said: “Each has suffered and now, more than 30 to 35 years after you ruined these boys’, now mens’, lives, continues to suffer.”
Bennell has already served three jail terms, totalling 15 years, for similar offences involving 16 other victims.
During his six-week trial, the defendant was said to have committed “industrial scale” levels of abuse against vulnerable pre-pubescent boys in his care.
Earlier in the hearing, one of Bennell’s victims Gary Cliffe read out his personal statement from the witness box, then approached the glass dock and said: “Barry. Barry. Why?”
(c) Sky News 2018: Barry Bennell receives 31-year jail sentence for child sexual offences
