Reporter spoke to (L-R) Jason Dunford, Steve Walters, Chris Unsworth and Andy Woodward
4 Ex-footballers have appeared together in an emotional interview to tell of their torment after being abused as children by a coach.
Andy Woodward, who was the first
to go public last week, wept as Chris
Unsworth and Jason Dunford spoke
for the first time of being abused by ex-Crewe
Alexandra coach Barry Bennell.
Mr Unsworth said he "never
told a soul" that he was raped up to 100 times.
Barry
Bennell, 62, has served three jail sentences for child sex offences.
Since Mr Woodward's story emerged, several ex-players have made
allegations about being sexually abused by coaches as children - a number of
them by Bennell, who is currently living in Milton Keynes.
A dedicated NSPCC hotline was set up after the abuse claims came
to light and received more than 50 calls within its first two hours.
The
prime minister's spokesman commended the former footballers for their bravery
in speaking out and said the allegations deserved to be treated with "full
seriousness".
Mr Unsworth, 44, said he had decided to waive his right to
anonymity after his girlfriend showed him an interview on the BBC's Reporter
with ex-Crewe player Mr Woodward, 43.
Mr
Unsworth told Victoria Derbyshire on Friday: "I thought I've got to come
forward... and help everybody."
He
had been a youth player at Manchester City with Bennell before moving to Crewe
with him when he was about 12 in the mid-1980s.
He said he had
stayed at Bennell's house several times and Bennell sometimes had two or three
boys in the bed at once, where he would abuse them.
"We
never spoke to each other about it," Mr Unsworth said. "I was raped
between 50 and 100 times."
He
said he had been nine years old when the abuse started.
"I knew what I
wanted to get [out of football], and I thought this is what I had to go
through. I knew it was wrong but I just went with it," he said.
He
left football aged 16 and became a professional golfer. He has now spoken to
Cheshire Police and is waiting to be interviewed by them.
Mr
Unsworth said: "Both my parents have died and that hurts me, not telling
them. I don't know if it was a good thing… because they would have blamed
themselves".
'Deathly stare'
Mr
Dunford said he had been staying at a Butlins holiday camp after winning a
football competition, when Bennell attempted to touch him in bed.
He
said: "I told him to eff off, I remember physically hitting him."
Though
Bennell did not retaliate, Mr Dunford said he would never forget Bennell's
"deathly stare".
Mr
Dunford said that after that Bennell began to "torment" him -
"dropping me from the team, telling me I would play, but on the Sunday dropping
me again".
Mr Dunford left the
Manchester City nursery team, as it was known then, and moved to different
boys' teams. At one point, he said, another coach also attempted to abuse him.
He
said: "He had me and two others over to stay the night before a game, and
we all stayed in the same bed.
"He
started to touch me. I pushed his hand away.
"Later
I woke up and the coach was touching one of the other boys."
Mr
Dunford has now given a report to the police.
Neither
player turned professional, in part because they felt Bennell drove them away
from the game.
'Weight off
shoulders'
Bennell,
who also worked as a youth football scout, was jailed in 1998 for nine years
and also served a four-year sentence in the United States.
In
2015, he was given a two-year term for sexually abusing a boy at a training
camp in Macclesfield, but is now out of prison.
Cheshire
Police said 11 people had come forward since Mr Woodward spoke out, including
fellow ex-Crewe player Steve Walters, 44, who said he had been abused by Bennell,
when he was 13 or 14, during a trip to Anglesey.
He
told Victoria Derbyshire he had been inconsolable after reading Mr Woodward's
story.
"I
was so angry and upset, but it was like a hundred tons lifted off my
shoulders," he said.
He said he had first
known of Bennell's crimes when the coach was arrested in the US in 1994.
In
other developments:
§
England captain Wayne Rooney - a
NSPCC ambassador - urged other players to come forward
§
Manchester City said it had
opened an investigation amid allegations that Bennell had an association with
the club in the 1980s
§
According to the
Guardian, another
unnamed ex-footballer has contacted police to say he was a victim of a former
Newcastle United youth coach. George Ormond was jailed in 2002 for offences
against young footballers in the area
§
Newcastle said the club would
co-operate fully with Northumbria police who said they were investigating
§
Police said they had attended
Bennell's address in Milton Keynes on Thursday to recover a dog and other
property "in response to a safeguarding concern". "The force is
not investigating any offences in connection with the incident," Thames
Valley police said.
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