football sex abuse
© BBCAndy Woodward says he was abused by Barry Bennell
Britain's biggest police force has confirmed it has received information regarding historical sexual abuse at London football clubs.

The Metropolitan Police announcement came as the national inquiry into child sexual abuse opened the door to examining allegations within the sport. A spokesman said it "has received information relating to non-recent sexual abuse in football clubs in London".
The Met said it will "assess any information it receives and ensure that victims are given the advice and support they need".

Scotland Yard did not name any of the clubs involved. It means there are now four police forces which are known to be investigating the growing abuse scandal in the sport. Hampshire Police had earlier said its detectives are investigating non-recent child abuse "within the football community". Cheshire Police revealed that "a growing number of disclosures" had been made to the force and there have been "allegations made against more than one individual".


Northumbria Police said it was investigating an allegation by an unnamed former Newcastle player that he was abused in the club's youth system.

Some of the claims have come from the NSPCC, which this week set up a dedicated hotline for football-related cases.

The news came after two more victims agreed to break their silence, and a former Newcastle United player told police he had been molested by a paedophile coach.

Another two ex-Crewe Alexandra youngsters, Jason Dunford and Chris Unsworth, agreed to join Andy Woodward and Steve Walters on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme to publicly accuse the man branded "football's Jimmy Savile", Barry Bennell, of having abused them.
Unsworth, who was abused from nine years old, said that he had been raped "between 50 and 100 times".

In the scandal that has rocked the game, Northumbria Police also confirmed they had been contacted by an alleged victim of another serial paedophile, Manchester City launched an investigation into links between Bennell and the club, and Crewe Alexandra's ex-manager and director of football, Dario Gradi, denied any knowledge that his long-time colleague raped young players there and elsewhere during the 1980s and 1990s.

Unsworth, a former Manchester City and Crewe youth player, now 44, said how he'd told his partner about being abused by Bennell after Woodward's revelations earlier this week.

"I had never, ever told anyone until that moment," he explained.

"I sat the rest of my family down yesterday and told them too. Speaking out is liberating."

Dunford alleged Bennell attempted to touch him in bed while staying at a Butlins holiday camp after winning a football competition.

"I told him to get off me. After that, Bennell began to torment me - dropping me from the team, telling me I would play, but on the Sunday dropping me again," he said.

He added that another coach had attempted to abuse him: "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 in the night. I pushed his hand away. Later I woke up again, and the coach was touching one of the other boys."

The chairman of the Football Association, Greg Clarke, meanwhile, admitted it was "appalling" that the governing body had stayed silent when Bennell was convicted of child sex offences, and Wayne Rooney urged victims of abuse to "speak out" in his capacity as an ambassador for the NSPCC, whose new football hotline received more than 50 calls before 10am on its first day. The charity said information from 20 callers would be passed to police and that it was expecting "many more" people to come forward.

The number to have contacted Cheshire Police still stood at 11 but Greater Manchester Police became involved in the matter on Thursday when they confirmed they were liaising with other forces in the area

Following a report in The Guardian that another ex-player had accused convicted paedophile George Ormond of abusing him while he was at Newcastle, a spokesman for Northumbria Police said: "We have received a report in relation to an allegation of historic sexual offences in Newcastle. We are working closely with, and supporting, the victim, and inquiries are ongoing."

A Newcastle statement read: "At this time, the only information we have is that which appeared in the Guardian newspaper. Clearly Newcastle United will cooperate fully with the police and relevant authorities and provide every assistance we can if or when the club receives further information."

Meanwhile, a man still working in football has also been accused by two unnamed former players of sexually abusing children.

The total number of ex-footballers to have waived their right to anonymity and gone public is poised to rise to six, with Woodward, Walters, and former England internationals Paul Stewart and David White having already done so. All but Stewart allege abuse by the three-times convicted Bennell, who has been described as having "almost an insatiable appetite for young boys".

Bennell's links with City through local youth teams prompted the club to announce they were "undertaking a thorough investigation of any past links he might have had with the organisation".

barry bennell uk abuse
Barry Bennell
An inquiry was also ongoing at Crewe, from where Gradi issued a statement expressing "sympathy" for Bennell's victims.

He added: "The first I knew of Barry Bennell's crimes was when he was arrested in the United States in 1994. I knew nothing of his crimes before this time when he was employed by us. No one at the football club knew of Bennell's crimes until his arrest in 1994 and his subsequent prosecution in the United Kingdom."

Gradi's statement did not address Bennell's 1992 sacking by Crewe, the reasons for which have never been made public. Bennell also had links with Stoke City, whose chairman Peter Coates described the current scandal as "shocking and distressing".

"The authorities have clamped down on this and it's something that a young lad in an academy should never have to worry about in the modern game," he added.

"It was a huge problem in society back in the 1970s and 1980s that filtered into football, but now times have changed."


Comment: Is this an attempt from Gradi to do damage control and minimize the fears that parents across the nation may be having?


Clarke addressed the scandal for the first time after meeting lead whistleblower Woodward at Wembley, saying: "I find it very emotional, and I find it very upsetting, to see a human being having gone through what he had gone through. I told him that we had two fundamental objectives. One was to make sure all the victims felt safe to report all the terrible crimes against them. And, secondly, to make sure that none of this was going on any more."

The FA chairman, who stressed that current child safeguarding measures were "robust", also wrote to 30,000 clubs around the country to raise awareness of the issue and expressed his willingness to meet other victims who came forward.

Woodward told The Daily Telegraph the meeting went "really well", insisting he had not been seeking an apology from the FA.

"This is about looking after us ex-players now, making sure we get the treatment or the help that we need and about moving forward on how we can put things in place so this kind of thing never happens again," he added.

But one of those who also helped convict Bennell and went public 20 years ago, former youth player Ian Ackley, has demanded that the FA, Crewe and City be held "accountable" for failing in their "duty of care".

Rooney was one of a number of high-profile figures to hail Woodward for opening the floodgates, saying: "It's awful that some of my colleagues have suffered this way whilst playing the sport that I and they love.

"Andy has been really brave to come forward and I would encourage anyone who has or is suffering from abuse to call the NSPCC's new football helpline.

"It's important that people know that it's OK to speak out, there is help available and that they don't need to suffer in silence."

Sports minister Tracy Crouch applauded the "incredible bravery" of all those who had come forward, adding: "The safety and security of participants in sport at every level is absolutely paramount." Her shadow, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, called for the FA to help tighten security checks throughout the game.

Stewart, whose abuser has not been named, joined Woodward in warning that the current scandal could be as big as that involving Savile and that there could be "hundreds" of victims.

Bennell was sentenced to nine years in prison in 1998 after admitting 23 specimen charges of sexual offences against six boys aged nine to 15, with another 22 offences left on file. He previously served a four-year sentence in Florida for offences against a boy and was jailed for two years in May 2015 for molesting a 12 year-old in Macclesfield in 1980. Police searched his home in Milton Keynes on Thursday night.