City call on Bennell as a witness

MANCHESTER CITY will this week call convicted sex offender Barry Bennell to give evidence on their behalf in court.

Bennell will appear by video from Category C prison Littlehey in Cambridgeshire, where he is serving a 34-year term for abusing young players at Crewe and, before that, as an unpaid coach and scout for City.

Bennell is a key witness for City’s lawyers, whose stance is he was not working for them at the time of alleged abuse. They argue while he was a local scout in the mid-1970s, he did not hold the role between 1979-85.

Eight players who have alleged to have been raped or molested by Bennell in the 1980s are suing City for damages.

They are asking for ‘special damages’ too because they say Bennell’s crimes stopped them progressing.