Barry Bennell: Paedophile coach involved in schoolboy trials, court told

Paedophile former football coach Barry Bennell was regularly involved in Manchester City schoolboy trials, a former scout has told a court.

Ray Hinett, 80, told High Court judge Mr Justice Johnson that Bennell "sorted out" teams at City trial games "on a regular basis".

Eight men are taking legal action against the club, claiming Bennell abused them when they were playing youth football more than 30 years ago.

City dispute claims made by the men.

Mr Hinett said Bennell probably played a part in deciding which boys were chosen and told the court the coach was promised a "youth development officer" role at the club.

However, Mr Hinett claimed a City coach had threatened to leave if Bennell got the job.

He said "as a result" the job was given to someone else.

The judge has heard the eight men, now in their 40s and 50s, were sexually and emotionally abused by Bennell between 1979 and 1985 and are claiming damages after suffering psychiatric injuries.

Six are also claiming damages for loss of potential football earnings.

One has told the judge that Bennell carried a City calling card describing himself as the club's North West representative.

City say Bennell had been a local scout in the mid-1970s but was not a scout between 1979 and 1985.

On Tuesday, Mr Justice Johnson saw a video, which lawyers say was taken between 1982 and 1984, showing Bennell talking to boys playing in a game at City's training ground.

Bennell said in a witness statement that it "just so happened" he was there, a lawyer representing the eight men told the judge.

Mr Hinett, then a City scout, said the footage showed Bennell at a schoolboy trial game.

"He's sorting the teams out," Mr Hinett, from Cheshire, told the judge.

"He did it on a regular basis. Usually it was Barry Bennell who sorted them out."

Mr Hinett later told the court: "Bennell had been promised the youth development officer role but Steve Fleet, the youth coach at Manchester City, had complained about Bennell getting the job.

"I understood that Steve Fleet had threatened that if Bennell got the job, he would leave.

"Steve never told me why he felt this way but as a result of this, the job was given to Ted Davies instead."

Mr Hinett told the judge, in a written witness statement, that he and Bennell had been among five City scouts in the Manchester area.

He told the hearing that he had a "scout card" said he was aware that "Bennell had one as well".

Mr Hinett said in around 1979 Bennell had "left for about two years".

He said Ken Barnes, then City's chief scout, told him that Bennell was "coming back" and that he "would like him to train the feeder teams again".

"I remember having this conversation with Ken Barnes and am sure that Bennell returned to the club in around 1981," said Mr Hinett.

"I had the impression that Bennell's opinion was highly valued by Ken Barnes.

"If Bennell suggested a boy was a decent prospect then it was a near certainty that Manchester City would offer associated schoolboy forms to that boy."

Bennell, who worked as a coach at Crewe Alexandra, is serving a 34-year prison sentence at Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire after being convicted of sexual offences against boys on five separate occasions - four in the UK and one in the US.

Bennell is due to give evidence by video-link from prison later this month.

The trial continues.

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