This is a balloon. - Tim Keeton / POOL / AFP

A former British football coach already convicted of pedophile acts targeting dozens of victims pleaded guilty to nine more sexual assaults on Friday. Barry Bennell, 66, had coached youth teams in several clubs including those of Crewe Alexandra (now in 4th division in England), Manchester City and Stoke City. The scandal caused by his attacks sparked a wave of denunciations in the football world.

He pleaded guilty to three rapes and six indecent assaults against two people between 1979 and 1988. The victims were between 11 and 14 years old at the material time. He was appearing in court by video conference from Littlehey prison in south-eastern England, where he is serving a 30-year sentence after being convicted in 2018 of sexually abusing 12 boys he had. trained between 1979 and 1991.

A national scandal in the UK

Two years ago, police estimated Mr. Bennell may have assaulted more than 100 victims. “You were the devil incarnate,” Judge Clément Goldstone had launched to him in condemning him in 2018. “You stole the childhood and innocence” of the victims, he added, “to satisfy your own perversion. You have ruined the lives of these boys and, over 30 years later, they continue to suffer ”.

Before that, Barry Bennell had already spent 15 years in prison, for three other convictions, for similar acts committed on 16 other victims. The scandal had been revealed in the columns of the newspaper The Guardian , to which Andy Woodward, a former player of the club of Crewe Alexandra, had told his ordeal. This had sparked a cascade of denunciations, especially from former internationals saying they had been sexually assaulted by a coach or a recruiter when they were children.

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  • England
  • Sport
  • Premier League
  • Justice
  • Sexual assault
  • Pedophilia