Victims of Barry Bennell, the former football coach who was labelled “sheer evil” after subjecting junior footballers from Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra to hundreds of sexual offences, have welcomed the rejection of his appeal against his 30-year prison sentence.

The sentence imposed in February at Liverpool crown court for 52 offences committed against a dozen boys between 1979 and 1991 was upheld on Wednesday by three judges at the high court in London, who echoed the original ruling’s damning description of Bennell as the “devil incarnate”.



Bennell, who has changed his name to Richard Jones, appeared by video link as he listened to Lady Justice Hallett announce that his sentence could not be described as being “manifestly excessive or wrong in principle”.

“This was a campaign, or several campaigns, of rape on a huge scale,” said the judge, who said the personal statements of Bennell’s victims made for extremely distressing reading.

“The appellant committed a vast number of sexual offences, some of them of the most serious kind. He preyed sexually on young boys in his care. His offending amounted to a gross abuse of the trust placed in him – by the victims themselves, by their families and by the clubs that employed him.

“The consequences for the victims and their families were appalling. The sentence was severe, particularly when he has already served three prison sentences for similar offending. But in our judgment the offences were so serious, the timescale so extended, the aggravating factors so numerous and the mitigation so limited that it would be wrong for this court to interfere with the sentence.”

Bennell’s appeal advanced arguments on a number of fronts, including that the overall sentence was excessive, that elements of it had been miscalculated and that some evidence had caused the trial judge to be “unduly influenced”. A written argument also referred to what was described as the “at times florid press and media attention”.



The court heard that in a prison report, staff had spoken positively of Bennell and described him as “helpful”. The offender, who has been in remission from cancer and has needed two operations to remove tumours, was being fed through a tube and his mental health had needed managing, the report added.

Bennell, appearing to be lean and with a slight white beard, shook his head at various times and appeared to make constant comments as he listened to the ruling.



Gary Cliffe, the former Manchester City youth player who earlier this year waived his right to anonymity to speak publicly about the abuse to which Bennell had subjected him, said after the ruling on Wednesday that many other victims would be hoping the way was now open for them to seek justice.



He described much of the argument around the appeal as “hairsplitting” over the number of offences that were officially recorded.

“The figure given was 52 but we know that the real one should be more like 250,” he told reporters outside the courtroom. “There are still 70 or 80 lads still waiting for justice and they will be hoping that they can get on with charging him.

“His offences were on an industrial scale. We have not even scratched the surface.”



Cliffe said it was disappointing that Bennell had launched the appeal in the first place, adding: “Sitting in court it does bring it back to you.”

Asked about prison staff’s description of Bennell, Cliffe said: “It’s been said so many times that he is charismatic. But he is a paedophile. That’s what they do.”