BBC report club sacked a scout accused of sexual abuse 1988 but didn't report it

[Chico Hamilton III]

I am not an under carpet sweeper and my wife was a magistrate on our local juvenile bench.  I would have blown the whistle in an instant. 

exactly - to ignore is to condone

[robbo1874]

One thing I can say is that in 1987 I would've been around 14 years old and was very aware about child abuse and Esther Rantzen and the media highlighting of child abuse at the time. So from that perspective then certainly I would have encouraged reporting the offences and also in the context that if you report something to the authorities you assume they will take action.

I wasn't a 40/50 yo manager of a club the size of Villa, so who knows what his thought processes would be and the influence on his natural reactions by the club at the time.

[robbo1874]

As I said before, from the documentation provided by the Guardian, Stride was aware he's not dead or senile, so he should come clean about what happened.

[Lucky Eddie]

I'd like to think I would yes, certainly. The thing is though, we don't know whether he genuinely had concerns about the outcome of terrace chanting on the kids, or whether it was scare tactics to make it go away. How close were any of the kids involved to making it at the highest level anyway? We don't really know any of the background detail.

What would you have done?

I'd like to think I'd have put the best interests of the players first.

Graham wouldn't have been wrong about them suffering years of further abuse from the terraces would he?

I'm as confident as I can be that he'd have done the right thing at the time.

[robbo1874]

I'd like to think I would yes, certainly. The thing is though, we don't know whether he genuinely had concerns about the outcome of terrace chanting on the kids, or whether it was scare tactics to make it go away. How close were any of the kids involved to making it at the highest level anyway? We don't really know any of the background detail.

What would you have done?

I'd like to think I'd have put the best interests of the players first.

Graham wouldn't have been wrong about them suffering years of further abuse from the terraces would he?

I'm as confident as I can be that he'd have done the right thing at the time.

we're talking about young teenage boys at Dunlop fc. What are the chances they'd be running out for Villa at the Sty one day 5 years later?

[Lucky Eddie]

I'd like to think I would yes, certainly. The thing is though, we don't know whether he genuinely had concerns about the outcome of terrace chanting on the kids, or whether it was scare tactics to make it go away. How close were any of the kids involved to making it at the highest level anyway? We don't really know any of the background detail.

What would you have done?

I'd like to think I'd have put the best interests of the players first.

Graham wouldn't have been wrong about them suffering years of further abuse from the terraces would he?

I'm as confident as I can be that he'd have done the right thing at the time.

we're talking about young teenage boys at Dunlop fc. What are the chances they'd be running out for Villa at the Sty one day 5 years later?

Try telling that to them or their parents, they're all hanging on to a dream of making it big.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I'd like to think I would yes, certainly. The thing is though, we don't know whether he genuinely had concerns about the outcome of terrace chanting on the kids, or whether it was scare tactics to make it go away. How close were any of the kids involved to making it at the highest level anyway? We don't really know any of the background detail.

What would you have done?

I'd like to think I'd have put the best interests of the players first.

Graham wouldn't have been wrong about them suffering years of further abuse from the terraces would he?

I'm as confident as I can be that he'd have done the right thing at the time.

we're talking about young teenage boys at Dunlop fc. What are the chances they'd be running out for Villa at the Sty one day 5 years later?

Try telling that to them or their parents, they're all hanging on to a dream of making it big.

I'd imagine that the parents would have been more concerned about their sons being raped than them playing football?

[robbo1874]

I'd like to think I would yes, certainly. The thing is though, we don't know whether he genuinely had concerns about the outcome of terrace chanting on the kids, or whether it was scare tactics to make it go away. How close were any of the kids involved to making it at the highest level anyway? We don't really know any of the background detail.

What would you have done?

I'd like to think I'd have put the best interests of the players first.

Graham wouldn't have been wrong about them suffering years of further abuse from the terraces would he?

I'm as confident as I can be that he'd have done the right thing at the time.

we're talking about young teenage boys at Dunlop fc. What are the chances they'd be running out for Villa at the Sty one day 5 years later?

Try telling that to them or their parents, they're all hanging on to a dream of making it big.

it appears that is what happened Eddie. Only a few people could confirm or deny though, if they choose to.

[Lucky Eddie]

I'd like to think I would yes, certainly. The thing is though, we don't know whether he genuinely had concerns about the outcome of terrace chanting on the kids, or whether it was scare tactics to make it go away. How close were any of the kids involved to making it at the highest level anyway? We don't really know any of the background detail.

What would you have done?

I'd like to think I'd have put the best interests of the players first.

Graham wouldn't have been wrong about them suffering years of further abuse from the terraces would he?

I'm as confident as I can be that he'd have done the right thing at the time.

we're talking about young teenage boys at Dunlop fc. What are the chances they'd be running out for Villa at the Sty one day 5 years later?

Try telling that to them or their parents, they're all hanging on to a dream of making it big.

it appears that is what happened Eddie. Only a few people could confirm or deny though, if they choose to.

It's difficult to imagine what those poor lads have been through, I only hope that the club genuinely put them first, then and now.



 

[tomd2103]

I don't want to detract from the seriousness of the issue, but Tony Brien bears a striking resemblance to a certain someone.




 

 

[robbo1874]

Eddie- me too mate.

TomD- not the place or the time fella.

[curiousorange]

I would like to think on the part of the club's representatives that it was more a grave error of judgement than a concerted cover-up. This is not to denigrate the claims or absolve the club of a very shaming pattern of events, just to point out that what one would have done outside of the circumstances doesn't always match what was actually done.

[tomd2103]

Birmingham Mail predictably jumping straight in and practically accusing Graham Taylor or a cover up on the back of the 'move on' and crowd comments.  As others have said, those comments were allegedly made 30 years ago and could be taken in a number of ways. 

Speaks volumes that on the day after it became apparent that Birmingham would be holding the Commonwealth Games, they use the front page to try and portray Aston Villa and one of it's most popular figures in a negative light. 

[CT]

I read the post as SGT was naive at best rather than you CT.

Confirmed

Apologies chaps.

[saunders_heroes]

Nasty headline in the Mail today demeaning a man not here to defend himself. I look forward to that rag's demise.