Crewe Alexandra have been accused of a “desperate and dirty tactic” after new revelations about how far they are willing to go to fight claims they should be liable for Barry Bennell’s crimes against boys from the club’s junior set-up.

In the latest development in the Bennell scandal, Crewe’s lawyers have written to one of the victims to say there is “no reasonable explanation or justification” for him having waited until his mid-40s before reporting his former youth-team coach.

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The player in question is Steve Walters, who was sexually abused by Bennell during the mid-1980s and came forward in November 2016 on the back of Andy Woodward’s interview in the Guardian to highlight his own ordeal as another of the club’s former youth-team players. Walters, who became the youngest first-team player in Crewe’s history when he made his debut in 1988 at the age of 16, is one of the 12 victims whose complaints against Bennell led to the former Manchester City coach and scout being sentenced to 30 years in prison last year.

Now 47, Walters is one of the former players who is pursuing legal action against Crewe but says he has been notified the club is fighting his claims on the basis he did not report them earlier. Crewe, according to the lawyers representing Walters, are trying to get the case thrown out on a technicality, namely that he missed a three-year time limit for reporting what happened to him from the age of 13 to 14, and that too much time has elapsed for the allegations to be proved – even though a jury convicted Bennell of 50 specimen charges during a trial at Liverpool crown court last year.

“This response is a slap in the face,” Walters said. “All I have ever wanted was for Crewe to take responsibility for what they have done – the role they played in the abuse of so many children. They are blaming me for not coming forward soon enough. They say how much they regret the abuse that took place, yet in the same breath deny any responsibility for what happened to me. After everything we have been through in the criminal trial, all the evidence that emerged, I am absolutely disgusted.”

The Guardian’s information is that Crewe are fighting an unspecified number of other claims from Bennell’s victims and Walters now says he has asked his legal team to issue high court proceedings against the club where the man described as a “child molester on an industrial scale” preyed on him and countless others.

Crewe said in a statement: “This matter is being handled by the club’s insurer’s solicitors and remains the subject of ongoing legal proceedings. It is not therefore appropriate for the club to comment at this stage.”

Walters added: “We have been dignified and wanted to be amicable but Crewe is showing no humanity. How would the club’s chairman [John Bowler] like it if one of his loved ones was told they had waited too long to report abuse?

“It’s only recently I’ve been able to speak about what happened. There was a culture of secrecy and shame back then and that’s what Bennell used to enable him to abuse so many boys. I never expected to have that delay thrown back in my face; I’m horrified by Crewe’s tactics. This is not the behaviour of an organisation which says it wants to take responsibility and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barry Bennell was described by a judge as ‘the devil incarnate’. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Bennell, described by a judge as “the devil incarnate”, is serving his fourth prison sentence from the past 25 years and is facing the possibility of another criminal trial. As of January last year, at least 97 people had reported Bennell since Woodward’s decision to waive his anonymity.

Kim Harrison, an abuse lawyer from Slater and Gordon, which represents Walters, said: “Predatory paedophiles like Bennell operate by scaring and shaming their victims into silence. This fear and shame makes it incredibly difficult for victims to disclose abuse. It can take years and sometimes even decades for victims of child sexual abuse to find the courage to speak out.

“To use that against him [Walters] is a desperate and dirty tactic, but if Crewe think it will wear Steve down and make him give up they couldn’t be more wrong.

“This is only going to make us more determined to get justice and hold them to account. We have tried to engage with them and reach an amicable solution, so Steve can try to move on with his life, but Crewe Alexandra have put two fingers up to him. We have been left with no alternative but to issue legal proceedings against them in the high court.”