Barry Bennell: Victim who sued Man City 'baffled' by abuse ruling

A man who sued Manchester City for being abused by paedophile Barry Bennell while he was a scout at the football club has said losing the case has left him "baffled".

He was one of eight claimants abused by Bennell when they played for schoolboy teams he coached in north-west England between 1979 and 1985.

The judge ruled City could not be held "legally responsible" for the abuse.

The claimant described the court case as "horrendous from start to finish".

He said it was "a sad day for the justice system" and felt the victims had "not had a voice, we have not been heard".

The eight men, now in their 40s and 50s, claimed Bennell was a scout for City when they were abused, which the club denied.

Bennell, who is serving a 34-year sentence for sexual offences against children, denied being linked to City in the 1980s in his evidence at the High Court trial.

The claimant, who did not want to be identified, said Bennell being called to give evidence was like a "stab in the back and a twist of the knife" in a process he described as "death by a thousand cuts".

He said he felt in a "very vulnerable state" and had been trying to support other claimants who had "turned up on my doorstep distressed" after watching him on the stand.

"I'm having to try and support them at the same time as trying to look after my own wellbeing, it is very, very difficult," he continued.

Mr Justice Johnson said the connection between the abuse and Bennell's relationship with City was "insufficient to give rise to vicarious liability".

"The relationship gave Bennell the opportunity to commit the abuse, but Manchester City had not entrusted the welfare of the claimants to Bennell," he said.

Bennell had denied abusing some of the claimants but the judge said in his ruling that Bennell was a "manipulative liar" and not a credible witness, and that each of the claimants had proved they were abused.

The claimant said he felt "complete and utter bewilderment" with the ruling.

"Bennell was there, he had the run of the place. He took us to the changing room. On matchdays we got free tickets, we walked through the tunnel," he said.

"For them to turn around and say he wasn't involved at that time is more than a smack in the face."

Solicitor David McClenaghan, who represented the eight men, said there would be an appeal.

"Despite the judge accepting that there was a connection between Bennell and Man City and that he was scouting for them, coaching their feeder teams and helping to organise trial games for them, the club has escaped liability on a technicality," he said.

A Manchester City spokeswoman said it was "accepted by all parties that the abuse had taken place".

In a statement, the club said it had "both personally and publicly apologised without reservation for the unimaginable suffering that each survivor experienced".

The club said it had launched a compensation scheme in 2019 "designed as an alternative route to civil action, which can often be lengthy, traumatic and costly" offering payments to victims of "non-recent child abuse".

The spokeswoman confirmed that "scores of survivors... have successfully utilised the scheme" but eight that took their cases to the High Court had not used the scheme.

The man said his civil case had been running two years before the compensation scheme was launched and the amount offered would not have been enough to cover his legal costs.

"It is not about the money, it is about some acceptance, some acknowledgement of what happened to us," he said.

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