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Ex-Liverpool FC footballer Paul Stewart has broken a 40-year silence to share the trauma of his horrific child sex abuse ordeal,

Stewart bottled it up from everyone, including his family, but took the tough decision to speak out about how he was targeted by a vile football coach between the ages of 11 and 15 – in the hope more victims will come forward.

Speaking to The Mirror, Paul claims he was assaulted every day for four years and that his tormentor got away with it because he threatened to kill his ­relatives if he ever told anyone.

The 52-year-old played 42 times for Liverpool after signing for £2.3m in 1992, scoring three goals.

He spoke out after he read about Andy Woodward, 43, who was abused as a young footballer by perverted Crewe Alexander youth coach Barry Bennell, 61, in the 70s and 80s.

And he fears there may be hundreds of other victims as concerns grow that a paedophile ring was operating in North West football at the time.

Paul alleges his own abuse started after the coach befriended his parents and promised to “help make him a star”. He claims: “One day, ­travelling in the car, he started to touch me. It frightened me to death, I did not know what to do, I tried to tell my parents not to let him in but I was only 11. From then, it progressed to sexually abusing me, he said he would kill my mother, my father, my two brothers if I breathed a word about it. And at 11 years old, you believe that.

“He would say, ‘Does anyone want to drive the car?’ I sat with a leg on one side by the steering wheel. That is when he first touched me.” The coach would tell Paul’s parents their son needed to work on a certain aspect of the game – such as control or passing – as an excuse to take him out and abuse him, in his car and at his home.

Paul, who waived his right to anonymity despite his ordeal, claims: “One lad in the team, he made him and me perform sexual acts on him. Another lad who was four years older than me told me he was abused. He told me that later when we met as adults.

“The mental scars led me into other ­problems with drink and drugs. I know now it was a grooming process. The level of abuse got worse and worse.”

Paul noticed some youngsters would refuse to travel in the car with the coach to games. When others did get a lift, he was always last to be dropped off, leaving him alone with his alleged abuser.

As he grew more ­confident, the predatory coach would take Paul bowling, or to the pictures as a means of ­allegedly gaining access, “charming” the boy’s parents into believing he was safe in his care.

The trainer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would also take him to ­football ­tournaments, giving him another chance to prey on him.

Paul’s brothers were on the trips away. Breaking down in tears, the former striker and midfielder claims: “He abused me there and told me he would kill them if I told anybody.

“We went away for another ­tournament. He abused me there too. I could never tell my team-mates. I was always under threat, if I was not playing well, he would threaten me with violence as well as sexual abuse. He was a monster.

“My brothers are older than me, but he would offer to take them as he wanted to abuse me while we were there. That is how he did what he did, it was all a front.

“I still went out and played. After a while, that became an escape from him, a total relief for 90 minutes.”

Paul claims the coach even told him about the abuse by Bennell, who was jailed in 1998 and again last year for sexual abuse, in a bid to persuade him it happened everywhere.

He adds: “He told me Barry was doing it to kids on a team we played. I think I was 12 or 13, he was trying to infer it was normal. I have never met Andy Woodward, but I read the Daily Mirror at work and when I saw it, it was like reading my own life story.

“It brought a lot of issues up for me, and I wanted people to know how ­difficult it was to come forward.

“It stirred up a lot of my past which I thought I had buried.” He reveals he once ­desperately tried escape his alleged abuser, by “running down a road” but got caught.

Paul says the sickening assaults robbed him of his childhood as he tried to wipe the past out of his mind in a bid to cope with the trauma in adult life.

It also meant he had difficulty showing affection to his family.

Paul broke down as he told how he could not hug his wife of 29 years, Bev, 52, or tell his daughters, 21 and 27, and son, 30, that he loved them because of the abuse suffered as a child.

He says: “I am going to be a ­grandad soon with the first ­grandchild on the way and I want to change.

“I want to be able to show ­affection, that has been the worst aspect of it, them not being able to get close to me. Certainly for my wife and children, anyone immediate to me, I feel that they have had to say, ‘That is how dad is.’

“They never had a go at me. They don’t ever wish they had another dad, but I know it is not easy for them.I have seen a counsellor, but I am resigned to the fact it will always be there and it is how I deal with it. I don’t sit around the house crying all the time, but tears are a release at times.

“I hope it will encourage others to find some kind of closure, to deal with it.

“I want you to help other victims bring these people to justice. Whatever walk of life they are in, I hope they are able to come forward. When I read Andy’s story, it was like reading my life story. Three other players have contacted him.

“I hope there are others who will come forward and support us.”

A helpline was set up for soccer abuse victims yesterday. There are fears a paedophile ring linked to Paul’s alleged abuser and Bennell could include at least one respected manager in the ­professional game. Six other people have contacted police with claims they were abused as young footballers.

Former Crewe ­Alexandra star Steve Walters, 44, followed Andy in coming forward to allege he was a victim of sexual assault at the Cheshire club all those years ago.

Given Paul’s coach worked with ­children over a number of years, he fears there could be dozens of others, even hundreds.

He finally escaped the clutches of his alleged abuser at the age of 15, signing for Blackpool, where he made his professional debut at 17.

He went on to star alongside greats such as Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker, Chris Waddle, John Barnes and Ian Rush. And he was in the 1991 Tottenham side that won the FA Cup.

The game helped Paul, who has not received any payment for this interview, to hide away his childhood horrors.

He says: said: “My family, career, success was a way of forgetting. I cannot say that I never had the thought of revenge. But this is not about revenge, it is about getting the message out there. It is not just in football, there are ­paedophiles out there who are getting to kids in sport, maybe with the pretence of making them into big stars like he did with me.

“It would not surprise me if there are people suffering even now. We know there was my abuser, and Bennell, and they were linked because my coach told me about Bennell. I don’t believe it was just the two of them.

“I watched Spotlight, the film about sex abuse in the Catholic Church, and that started at a school but then people started coming forward and the ­enormity of it became clear. I think that could happen in ­football. I have not done this lightly, I have spoken to my wife, kids and parents.

“It has been very difficult. I have not got much sleep, even less than usual. But I knew this is the right thing to do.

“It will be hard for those closest to me. People may point fingers, it is part of being a public figure.

“But I owe them. My girls and my son have seen the issues I have had and brought to the house.

“Now perhaps they will understand why I have not been able to say the things a parent can say to his children.”