ormer soccer coach and serial paedophile Barry Bennell has died in jail aged 69, the Ministry of Justice stated.
The previous Crewe Alexandra coach was serving a 34-year sentence after being convicted of a lot of little one intercourse offences.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice stated: “Prisoner Barry Bennell died at HMP Littlehey on September 16.
“As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will examine.”
Barry Bennell (Cheshire Police/PA)
/ PA MediaBennell had suffered from most cancers for a lot of years and had operations to take away tumours from his tongue in 2004 and 2016, though he was stated to be in remission in 2020.
His reason for loss of life has not been disclosed.
He was serving his sentence at HMP Littlehey, close to Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, a jail which is for males convicted of intercourse offences.
In an announcement, The Offside Belief, an organisation arrange by survivors of kid sexual abuse in sport, stated: “The Offside Belief is conscious of the information concerning the loss of life of Barry Bennell while in jail.
“We’re considering of all of the courageous survivors, those that felt they might communicate out, and those that nonetheless can’t.
“We at The Offside Belief perceive the problems this will set off for survivors and are right here for everybody ought to they want us, please don’t undergo in silence.”
David Lean, who was abused by Bennell after assembly him at Butlin’s vacation park in Pwllheli, North Wales, stated he was “glad” to listen to of his loss of life.
He instructed the PA information company: “It’s form of occurred in the best way I needed it to occur as a result of I needed him to go to jail for a time frame.
“I simply hope that final 10 years has been as tough as attainable.”
Mr Lean, 56, a counsellor, stated: “I recognize he’s bought kids – and in the end my ideas are along with his kids at this time – however my ideas are additionally with the various survivors due to the ache he has put everyone via.”
Bennell, often known as Richard Jones, was jailed for 30 years in 2018 after being convicted of fifty little one sexual offences in opposition to 12 boys.
He was ordered to serve a further 4 years in 2020 after pleading responsible to different offences in opposition to two boys.
When he was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court docket in 2018, Recorder of Liverpool Decide Clement Goldstone QC stated he “could nicely die in jail”.
His last jail sentence, in 2020, was the fifth time he had been jailed.
At that listening to, the courtroom was instructed he had a indifferent retina after being attacked in jail and was in remission from most cancers.
Bennell, a former Manchester Metropolis scout, abused boys he coached within the Nineteen Seventies, Nineteen Eighties and Nineties.
He was first jailed in Florida in 1994 for raping a British boy on a soccer tour in America, earlier than happening to face jail sentences in Britain in 1998, 2015, 2018 and 2020.
Following his convictions in 2018, greater than 80 different alleged victims got here ahead to report abuse by him.
At his sentencing listening to in 2020, Owen Edwards, prosecuting, stated the case can be the ultimate prosecution after a call to proceed solely with instances involving essentially the most severe offences.
He stated Bennell was accountable for “industrial sexual abuse of boys”, in addition to being instrumental in forging the careers of a number of worldwide footballers.
In courtroom throughout his 2018 trial, Bennell’s victims instructed how he had a “energy maintain” over them as they dreamed of changing into skilled footballers.
He was stated to have been handled like “God” at Manchester Metropolis’s Maine Highway floor.
He abused the boys at his properties, the place he had arcade video games and unique pets together with a puma and a monkey, but in addition on journeys away and in his automotive whereas on the best way to and from coaching.
