Report reveals child sexual and racist abuse at Chelsea Football Club

BY YANN TEAR
yann@slpmedia.co.uk

Chelsea Football Club have apologised “unreservedly” for their failure to prevent the sexual abuse of its youth players by an ex-chief scout and for a culture of racist bullying in the early 1980s.

The club conducted its own external reviews into historical child sexual and racial abuse, which concluded it should have done more to prevent it.

But Paul Canoville, 57, one of the men who grew up at the club during that shameful period in their history, believes no club could have done more in recent years to combat the potential abuse of youngsters.

According to a damning report, young Chelsea players were targeted for years by Eddie Heath – described as a “prolific and manipulative sexual abuser,” whose activities went unchallenged.

Evidence from 23 witnesses detailed how Heath, who was at the club between 1968 and 1979 and died in 1983, groomed and abused young boys aged between 10 and 17 in the 1970s.

The investigation said some adults at Chelsea must have been aware of Heath’s abuse but “turned a blind eye”.

Among those was Dario Gradi, Chelsea’s assistant manager in the 1970s who is reported as having visited the parents of a child who had made a complaint and tried to play it down by saying Heath had just got “carried away”. Gradi has denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement, Chelsea’s board said: “The board wishes to thank all the survivors and witnesses who came forward to assist the reviews and the club apologises unreservedly for the terrible past experiences of some of our former players.

Although the club today is a very different place from the club then, with new ownership, operational structures and safeguarding procedures in place, we will not shy away from responsibility for what happened in the past.

“The intention of the review was to shine a bright light in the dark corners of the club’s history so that we can learn lessons to help protect the players of the future.”

Canoville, who was at Chelsea between 1981-86, never knew Heath and was unaware of the abuse which took place before he arrived there, but did play at a time when black players were, according to another report: “subjected to a daily tirade of racial abuse,” when Gwyn Williams and Graham Rix were running the academy.

But he told the London Weekly News: “Thankfully the club then and now are two entirely different beasts, and although I don’t know what has gone on at other clubs, I do know that no club could be doing more than Chelsea these days to eradicate all forms of abuse, and racism in particular.

“They have programmes and workshops to educate and promote a culture of tolerance. It’s something I do now in visiting schools and through my foundation.”

The report, led by barrister Charles Geekie QC, is heavily critical of Gradi, now 78, who is accused of failing to tell more senior club staff about an allegation regarding the sexual conduct of Heath.

Gradi’s alleged failure to report the claim “was a lost opportunity to expose Heath and prevent further abuse”.

In his evidence to the review, Gradi denied trying to smooth over the matter in a meeting with the boy’s father and said he did report the claim.

Heath was not investigated or charged with any offences before his death, even though the report details how most of the witnesses recalled Heath being “inappropriate” used sexual innuendo in the changing room, while taking care that his most serious sexual assaults took place in private.

Of the 23 witnesses, 15 reported “serious and unambiguous sexual assaults”, including rape by Heath when he was alone with a boy, while three witnesses detailed abuse in the presence of other young players.

One witness recalls Heath being dubbed “nightmare Eddie” by youth players and that the boys were intimidated by his physical presence and fearful of him because of the influence he had over their careers.

Geekie concludes that Heath targeted vulnerable children in particular, manipulated their families, used pornography to sexualise boys and abused his role at the club by creating a climate of fear to ensure his deeds were not exposed.

Meanwhile, a separate review into allegations of racial abuse from 1982 up until the late 1990s conducted for the club by charity Barnardo’s concluded that black players were subjected to a “daily tirade of racial abuse”.

The report concluded that Gwyn Williams was the instigator of the abuse.

Chelsea began its own investigation in January 2018 into allegations by three former youth players that former youth team coaches Williams and Rix made their lives a misery.

It added that while Rix “could be aggressive and bullying”, on the evidence presented to the report, he was not racially abusive, but that the same could not be said about Williams.

In response, Williams wrote to the review, saying he denied all allegations and that “he did not act in a racist way towards any youth or other player” at Chelsea.

Rix also gave a statement to the review through a solicitor, saying he denied he was bullying or aggressive or racist.