The extent to which Bob Higgins, the paedophile former Southampton schoolboy coach, allegedly abused young footballers even after the authorities were alerted to concerns about his behaviour can be revealed.

A Freedom of Information request, which has been shared with The Telegraph, has found that 95 people have come forward to allege child sexual abuse by Higgins, of whom 13 were after 1989. Nine related to his employment at Peterborough United between 1994 and 1996.

The dates in the Freedom of Information request are significant because concerns were first formally reported about Higgins in February 1989 by Southampton’s then youth-team manager, Dave Merrington, and then backed up by six young players in a subsequent police investigation.

The Telegraph has also learnt that Hampshire Constabulary is reviewing new reports and information about Higgins even subsequent to the investigations that resulted in his conviction in May for indecently assaulting 23 boys between 1971 and 1996.

The numbers already indicate Higgins was one of the most prolific abusers of young footballers in the country, but there is anger and frustration at the missed chances to stop him reoffending and the injustice still felt by those who first came forward when they were teenagers – more than 25 years before the scale of sexual abuse in football emerged in 2016.

Only Dean Radford’s complaint was heard in court and, when Higgins was acquitted in 1992, the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence on the other counts of indecent assault and a formal not-guilty verdict was entered.

The complaint went to the police after it was referred to the Southampton FC board, but there was no detailed internal investigation or process of support from the club for Radford or Merrington, who also gave evidence against Higgins in 1992. The cases of Radford, and the five other teenage boys who came forward between 1989 and 1992, could not be brought in the most recent trials because they are subject to the “double jeopardy” principle that prevents a suspect being tried twice for the same crime.

Victims of ex-football coach Bob Higgins, their families and supporters gathered at Winchester Crown Court to hear his sentencing credit: Ben Mitchell/PA Wire

Exceptions for compelling new evidence are only made in what are considered “serious crimes”. Child sexual abuse or indecent assault are not among those 30 “serious crimes” and both Radford and Merrington are now backing a campaign to change that law. They are also advocating new “mandatory reporting” rules to introduce a requirement for people in positions of responsibility, such as sports coaches, to report known or suspected child abuse.

The Justice Committee meets on Wednesday and an online petition has been launched that details Radford’s story and, supported by Dino Nocivelli, a solicitor who specialises in child abuse cases, explains why a change to the law would protect the public and ensure more survivors get justice.

Merrington believes change is needed to help overcome how children are often coerced into silence and the fear felt across industries and institutions, including football, about reporting colleagues.

Higgins was appointed at Southampton when Lawrie McMenemy was the club’s manager in the 1970s and coached some of the best schoolboy players in England, including Alan Shearer and Matthew Le Tissier. Shearer and Le Tissier have said they were not among those abused, but Le Tissier did describe “very, very wrong ... pretty disgusting” naked massages.

McMenemy told The Telegraph that he had no inkling of Higgins’s behaviour when he was manager between 1973 and 1985. Higgins continued running his soccer academy and coaching children in Malta and Peterborough during the 1990s.

Even after a Dispatches programme made further abuse allegations in 1997, he coached at non-League clubs and was still assisting at Fleet Town in 2016 when he was named in numerous calls to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The Football League wrote to club managers in 1989 to say that it was opposed to Higgins’s football academy. Hampshire Constabulary also received a referral in 2013 relating to an allegation of non-recent child abuse but, after an investigation, no charges were brought.

The Football League sent a letter to clubs in 1989 stating its opposition to Bob Higgins' soccer academy who, nonetheless, was allowed to carry on coaching children

Higgins was eventually jailed earlier this year for 24 years after being found guilty of 45 charges of indecent assault between 1971 and 1996, but there is now a strong feeling among survivors that this was the tip of an iceberg.

Southampton have apologised to the victims and survivors and have commissioned Barnardos “to undertake a comprehensive and independent review relating to abuse by former employee Bob Higgins”.

Ben Snuggs, the assistant Chief Constable at Hampshire Constabulary, told The Telegraph that he was “genuinely sorry that some who did come forward did not get the justice they deserved” and said that the wider criminal justice processes meant that people were not now treated in the same way.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service also said it was “sorry some of Bob Higgins’ victims feel that they have been unable to get justice”. It highlighted how it used Radford’s testimony and another of the six original complainants in the most recent trial. “This helped to secure his recent conviction,” said the spokesperson.

A Government spokesperson said that it was reviewing which offences should be subject to double jeopardy, but that a 2016 review had concluded that mandatory reporting would not improve outcomes for children. This remains subject to constant review.