This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The former Celtic manager Neil Lennon walked in on a 13-year-old boy soon after he had been sexually abused by Barry Bennell, a court has heard.



The alleged victim told the trial of the former Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra coach how he was molested at an address in Stoke where Lennon, then 19, was staying.

The man, who played for Crewe as a minor, said he was taken to a caravan outside the house and Bennell made an advance on him.

He told jurors on Wednesday: “The moment we got in there I put my bag down and straight away he tried to abuse me. I found it odd because an older lad was staying in the same caravan.

“Not long after he had abused me – masturbation – in that caravan, a red-haired lad, who was a good six years older than me, came into that caravan. That lad I now know to be Neil Lennon. He was staying in those digs.”

Lennon, now manager of the Scottish league side Hibernian, played for Crewe Alexandra between 1990 and 1996.

Bennell, 64, has admitted seven offences of sexual abuse but denies another 48 counts relating to 11 boys from 1979 to 1990.

He appeared via video link at Liverpool crown court on Wednesday as the latest former player gave evidence, alleging he was molested dozens of times.



The complainant, who cannot be named, said the alleged incident in the caravan was the last time he saw Bennell but that he later received postcards and letters from him, some of which he destroyed.

The man told jurors he was raped by Bennell at the age of 13 on a football trip to the United States.

He said he was staying with Bennell in a “seedy motel” in Orlando, Florida, when Bennell allegedly raped him and then took a photograph of him.

The complainant told jurors he remembered lying face down on a bed and felt “hurt, pain – I remembered crying in the pillows ” and he recalled a conversation with Bennell the following day.

“The next morning his words were” ‘You seem chirpy today’, and I said: ‘How do you want me to act?’ – I was a 13-year-old boy – and his words were: ‘You must have enjoyed it’.”

Later, jurors heard extracts of an interview in which Bennell told police that when he went to America to coach an under-19s team he had been worried the victim would tell someone. He said he felt he had “got away with murder” when the complainant did not talk.

“For the previous six months I’d been scared he was going to tell someone … I felt as though I’d escaped. I was elated. I was very scared he was going to tell so I invited him over to America,” he told the detective.

Bennell said he used the America trip to “test the waters” and asked the boy if he wanted to play a touching game, but the boy said no.



Jurors were told Bennell has not been charged over the rape claim because it allegedly took place in America and before 1996.

The complainant, whom Bennell admits sexually abusing, told the court he was made to perform oral sex on the defendant while the coach drove to Heathrow airport to pick up two club-mates who had just played for the England under-16s.

Eleanor Laws QC, for Bennell, said the defendant accepted that he sexually abused the boy when he was aged 12 and 13, but denied raping him or forcing him to perform oral sex.

Under cross-examination by Laws, the complainant said he never told anyone about the alleged abuse until Andy Woodward spoke to the Guardian in November 2016. Days after that interview, he contacted the police.

Becoming emotional, the complainant said he had also contacted a solicitor because he wanted answers about how Bennell had “got away with what he had done for so long”.

He told jurors: “He can’t have done what he’s done for so long without somebody knowing and I feel like we deserve to know. This could’ve been stopped. I believe I’m one of the last – this could’ve been stopped many years ago.

“I’ve never had closure from what he done to me. It’s about getting him off our streets because I, for one, don’t believe he will ever change.”

The trial continues.

