Villa "Settle"Sexual Abuse Claims

[Demitri_C]

Wow just wow if this allegations are true.

Aston Villa and Leicester City have agreed to pay damages to five victims of a football scout convicted of child sex abuse, the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme has learned.

Ted Langford was jailed in 2007 for the sexual abuse of four other young boys between 1976 and 1989. He died in 2012.

Both clubs settled a civil case for compensation weeks before it was due to be heard in the High Court.

They expressed their "deepest sympathies" to the survivors.

'No apology'
Ted Langford worked as a part-time football scout in the Midlands in the 1970s and 1980s, identifying promising players for both Aston Villa and Leicester City.

Former professional footballer Tony Brien - who says he was abused by Langford from age 12 and has waived his right to anonymity - said he felt let down neither club had accepted responsibility for the abuse or apologised to the young boys involved.

"Saying sorry won't make things right but it would help and it would help the other four lads as well," he said.

It was Mr Brien's interview on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme in 2017, in which he spoke of being abused while playing for a local youth team, that led four other former players to come forward alleging abuse while playing for youth teams linked to Leicester and Aston Villa.

None was involved in the criminal case against Langford.

Both clubs reached an out-of-court settlement for damages in January. The amounts involved have not been disclosed.

In 1985, four years after he says the abuse began, Mr Brien was signed for Leicester City, aged 16, by youth team manager Dave Richardson, having been recommended by Langford, a part-time scout for the club.

Two years later, Mr Richardson joined Aston Villa as assistant manager and Langford moved with him.

Later that season, Mr Brien says, he called Mr Richardson to warn him about Langford.

But he claims that, after a number of conversations with Mr Richardson and one with then-manager Graham Taylor, he was dissuaded from going public with his allegations.

Taylor, who went on to manage England, died of a heart attack in January 2017.

Mr Brien told Victoria Derbyshire that Taylor had said to him: "Look, you're a young lad starting out in the game. I know you've just made your debut. Could you really be dealing with all the obscenities from the terraces? So I just suggest you sweep it under the carpet."

The Football Association later set up an independent inquiry into historical sexual abuse across the sport, which is continuing.

Mr Brien has told the inquiry: "They discouraged me from going forward and never offered me a chance to go to the police or anything like that.

"I went into the kitchen at my mum's and my mum said, 'Well?' And I just said 'they just told me to sweep it underneath the carpet'. And I burst into tears."

The inquiry has also heard from a former Aston Villa player involved in the civil case who said Taylor and another unidentified member of staff had visited him and he had been discouraged from taking his abuse allegations further.

'Alarming allegations'
Mr Richardson has previously told BBC News he could not recall having a conversation with Mr Brien and strongly denied he would have advised the player he should not go public.

He said he had first been made aware of "alarming allegations" against Langford from other parents shortly after he had joined Aston Villa, in 1987, and an internal investigation had followed.

The parents involved had not wanted the matter reported to the police and, after consulting with Taylor and then chairman Doug Ellis, Langford had been "rapidly" sacked.

Then, as now, there was no legal requirement for Mr Richardson or Aston Villa to report concerns about Langford to the authorities.

But BBC News has seen a document showing Langford was still acting as Aston Villa's official representative until at least March 1989.

Mr Richardson said he did not consider it appropriate to comment further while the FA inquiry was continuing.

At least two of those who were paid damages as part of the settlement said Langford had abused them after Mr Brien, according to him, had raised concerns about the scout.

"It could have definitely been prevented if they had acted promptly," said Mr Brien.

"I know it's a different era we live in now. But if someone came to me and [said], 'This is what's happened,' then I'd march down to the police station and make a statement.

"That's what I would do."

Leicester City said in a statement it wished to express "its deepest sympathies with all victims of abuse and its admiration for those survivors who, in coming forward, have helped to reinforce the game's modern safeguarding standards".

It added: "All reports of abuse made to the club, non-recent or otherwise, are treated seriously, investigated thoroughly and pursued to an appropriate conclusion that is satisfactory to all associated parties".

Aston Villa said in a statement it "wishes to express its deepest sympathies with all those who have suffered abuse, and is appalled by any form of historic abuse.

"Safeguarding standards are of paramount importance to the club and any reports of abuse made to the club, both historic or current, will be investigated vigorously and reported to the appropriate authorities".

Both clubs said the claims, settled by their respective insurers, were on terms "acceptable to all parties" and without admissions of liability.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51665092

[Malandro]

What else is the club supposed to do?

That statement was pretty comprehensive.

[Demitri_C]

It was obviously udner a different erA. The point i was referring too is taylor is allegedly knowing and not doing anything about it

[Malandro]

It was obviously udner a different erA. The point i was referring too is taylor is allegedly knowing and not doing anything about it

As we can't ask him, I'll believe the best in a thoroughly decent man.

[ChicagoLion]

Is this the right place for this.

[dave.woodhall]

Is this the right place for this.

It's about our club and it happened. We can't deny it, or excuse it.

[Somniloquism]

Unfortunately, as with most other areas of society at the time, Child Abuse allegations were almost always dealt with internally or "swept under the carpet". I'm not condoning it and wished Langford had been dealt with correctly with the Law, or even better the abuse had never even happened, but we reacted like the Church, the Scouts and many other organisations did at the time and before. I expect some of the responses were down to an incorrect  desire to protect the children from having to relive these items in court or in public. (I don't think children were protected in court in those days) and some were also to protect the organisation obviously.

And as mentioned in the report, even families were in similar quandries. How many people grew up in the 60's and 70's where there was some "uncle" was  shunned but no one else in the family would tell you why?

[brontebilly]

It was obviously udner a different erA. The point i was referring too is taylor is allegedly knowing and not doing anything about it

As we can't ask him, I'll believe the best in a thoroughly decent man.

The specific allegation about Taylor suggests a lot different. Too many individuals in every walk of life protected the institutions rather than the abused child. It was vile then and vile now.

[dave.woodhall]

It was obviously udner a different erA. The point i was referring too is taylor is allegedly knowing and not doing anything about it

As we can't ask him, I'll believe the best in a thoroughly decent man.

The specific allegation about Taylor suggests a lot different. Too many individuals in every walk of life protected the institutions rather than the abused child. It was vile then and vile now.

I don't think he did anything ther than act in what he thought was the best interests of the children. It's very difficult to judge past actions by modern standards.

[cdbearsfan]

I agree he probably thought he was acting in the best interests of the player, and that people would almost certainly deal with it much better nowadays. However, allowing the scout to continue working, and potentially abuse more boys, is very unsettling.

[brontebilly]

It was obviously udner a different erA. The point i was referring too is taylor is allegedly knowing and not doing anything about it

As we can't ask him, I'll believe the best in a thoroughly decent man.

The specific allegation about Taylor suggests a lot different. Too many individuals in every walk of life protected the institutions rather than the abused child. It was vile then and vile now.

I don't think he did anything ther than act in what he thought was the best interests of the children. It's very difficult to judge past actions by modern standards.

It wasn't remotely acceptable then either nor remotely in the best interests of the child. 'Modern standards' in this specific example is nothing but whitewashing.

[hilts_coolerking]

Dave's right in that we can't shy away from this.  I don't think for a minute that SGT was deliberately trying to enable further abuse or to protect the club instead of the child but the advice he gave was just about the worst advice you could possibly give.  Words to the effect of 'best not tell anyone because it might end up bad for you' - if that's what he said - is dreadful.

[algy]

I agree he probably thought he was acting in the best interests of the player, and that people would almost certainly deal with it much better nowadays. However, allowing the scout to continue working, and potentially abuse more boys, is very unsettling.

This sums up my feelings more succinctly than my aborted attempt at a post earlier. I'd give SGT the benefit of the doubt in this case and put it down to him doing what he thought was best at the time for the player in question. But it does make you wonder why the scout wasn't discretely relieved of his position. That's harder to excuse.

Edit: actually, even given that going public would've been a less attractive idea then than it is now, it still doesn't excuse the club from dealing with it promptly and internally, and letting the boy know that was exactly what was happening. Villa's academy, particularly given K-Mac after it, raises some serious questions.

[RamboandBruno]

It’s a really difficult highly complex subject. Child abuse is child abuse and it’s a horror whatever era it happened and I’m saying this with a parents hat on. SGT is a hero to a lot of villa supporters including myself, but how he dealt with that situation was wrong and it deserves looking at along with the whole case in an in depth way by proper investigative journalists, not in a knee jerk way on social media.

However, despite the actions of SGT being wrong it is difficult when you put 2020 eyes on the decisions made by a man almost 40 years ago, when he himself would of been influenced by the society he was formed in.

This is definitely not an excuse for child abuse. And not an excuse for the people who either directly or indirectly as in the case of Taylor seemed to help cover it up. But without knowing him, he probably thought his advice about a career going badly if the player opened up, was truthful, which despite being the wrong action, it probably was in terms of his playing career. Obviously the advice did nothing to actually help the lads actual life.

[Simon Page]

The most depressing thing about my job is the ridiculously huge number of sex abuse stories I deal with every day across every section of society, not just the high profile ones. The same pattern emerges whether it's Ordinary 'Salt of the Earth' Bloke, football, media, politics, business, education...

There is a human attitude that runs through all of these cases and amounts to (almost invariably) men believing they can do what ever they want to (almost invariably) women and children. Regardless of age and sex, the cover-ups always come down to a spineless determination to protect power structures and make sure no-one questions societal norms, hierarchies and organisations. It was inexcusable then, is even more indefensible now, and it is happening every second of every day.

I actually despise the Villa's statement. It's the usual corporate shite about it being paramount importance, top priority, no doubt they've said lessons will be learned at some point. Yet it still tells victims they have to come forward and promises the bare minimum. There is nothing proactive in anything the club has said. Like every other organisation, ignore it, admit nothing, throw money at it, get the press office to fling out a mealy-mouthed statement, answer no questions, hope it doesn't happen again or, if it does, you don't get found out.