Section:GDN 1N PaGe:40 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 20:16 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Wednesday 7 August 2019
(^40) Sport
Football
it absolutely necessary ... to name
Mr Gradi.”
It can also be revealed that:
- Chelsea’s inquiries have revealed
complaints of non-recent sexual abuse
relating to three other employees – one
a driver and two scouts. - Heath had a close friendship with
another paedophile, John Butcher,
and they worked together as scouts
for Chelsea. - Geoff Hurst, one of England’s heroes
from the 1966 World Cup, refused to
cooperate with the inquiry, despite
having been manager of Chelsea when
Heath was sacked in 1979. - Chelsea have found “substantial
evidence” in a separate inquiry
that Gwyn Williams, formerly their
academy director , subjected young
black players to racist remarks “on a
routine basis”.
Gradi, awarded an OBE in 1998 for
his services to football, has always
denied any wrongdoing since the
Guardian’s investigation into sexual
abuse in football began what the F A
chairman, Greg Clarke, has described
as the biggest crisis in the history of
the sport.
However, it is diffi cult to see any
way that Gradi, 78, can return to the
sport now it has been established
Crewe’s director of football, still on full
pay after being suspended by the FA in
December 2016, had been told about a
colleague at Chelsea committing a sex
act on one boy and decided, according
to Geekie’s report, not to report it.
In his evidence, Gradi was asked to
clarify what the complaint was. “I don’t
remember the detail but ... he [Heath]
didn’t rape him or anything. He was
sexually, I don’t know, touching him,
I suppose. I don’t remember being
horrifi ed by it, thinking it was awful,
but sorry.” He could recall telling the
boy to keep away from Heath and
that his colleague had been accused
of “ touching him where he shouldn’t
have been touching him”.
He could also recall off ering to
“keep an eye” on the boy from that
point onwards, adding: “I probably
said something along the lines to
partly defend Eddie Heath ... well, he
was good with the kids, he’d got a way
with the kids and he liked being with
the kids and they seemed to like being
with him. I think I would have tried to
stand up for Eddie Heath a bit.”
Gradi, who went on to manage
Crewe in more than 1,000 games,
also stated in his evidence that, having
left the family home, he did decide
the complaint was serious enough
to mention it to Ron Suart , who had
taken over as manager. However, that
could not be corroborated because
Suart died in 2015 and Geekie makes
it clear in his report he does not accept
that version of events.
Instead, Geekie says he believes
the evidence put forward by the boy,
now in his 50s, and the boy’s father,
who had written a letter of complaint
to Chelsea and was left with the
impression that Gradi was “defending
what had happened”. Gradi’s account
states that the father repeatedly told
him he did not want to get Heath in
trouble and that “took the pressure
off me, as far as I was concerned ”.
Informed of that, the father responds:
“Why did I send the letter?”
Heath was responsible for
identi fying some of Chelsea’s leading
players – including Ray Wilkins, Gary
Locke , Steve Wicks , John Bumstead
and Tommy Langley – during more
than a decade at the club. However, he
was also using his position to prey on
young boys and was never prosecuted
or investigated before dying in 1983,
at the age of 54.
In his fi ndings, Geekie says there
were no safeguarding arrangements in
place at Chelsea at the time. “However,
Mr Gradi received a specifi c complaint
from a father and son as to conductThe final report, delivered
simultaneously with Geekie’s fi ndings,
states that “numerous examples were
given of GW [Williams] humiliating
and ridiculing black players by making
racially derogatory remarks about
them”.
Williams, who had a 27-year
association with the club, gave
evidence that he was not racist and
described the evidence against him
as “biased, untrue, unfair and artifi cial
and part of a concerted effort to
scapegoat”.
Graham Rix, Chelsea’s former
youth-team coach, was also
investigated, though some of the
players relevant to his case were not
interviewed. The Barnardo’s team
“takes the view that, while it appears
GR [Rix] could be aggressive and
bullying, on the evidence presented
to them, he was not racially abusive”.
Rix has always denied the
allegations that were made against
him and told the inquiry, via his
solicitor, that he would never have
contributed to “an atmosphere in
which would racial abuse would have
been tolerated”.Gradi could have
stopped serial sex
abuser at Chelsea
Continued from back pageMr Gradi. It was a lost opportunity
to expose Mr Heath and prevent
further abuse.”
Geekie goes on to state there was no
evidence to support Gradi’s assertion,
more than 40 years after the event,
that the boy was “blaming the sexual
stuff going against him as a footballer”.
Geekie led a 17-strong legal team
that dealt with eight police forces
and conducted 139 interviews before
reaching their findings. Chelsea’s
chairman, Bruce Buck, has met 17 of
the victims, hearing evidence that
brought him to tears on more than
one occasion.
A club statement read: “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 expe-
riences of some of our former players.”
Chelsea, who are now facing a
number of compensation claims,
commissioned Barnardo’s to over-
see the investigation into allegations
that there was a culture of racism
and bullying within the club’s youth
structure throughout large parts of the
1980s and 1990s.by Mr Heath that they considered to
be disturbing. There is no ambiguity
or lack of detail about the matter he
was dealing with. It must have been
as plain to Mr Gradi as it is to me that
he was being presented with a matter
of seriousness and a matter that would
not have been raised lightly. It needed
to be taken seriously.
“Mr Gradi should have reported
the matter to more senior staff. I
have rejected his claim that he did
so. Given the striking, and clearly
memorable, nature of the event, this
was a signifi cant personal failure byGeoff Hurst was the
manager at Chelsea
when they sacked Heath▲ Gradi was an assistant manager
at Chelsea between 1971 and 1976▲ Eddie Heath was Chelsea’s
chief scout from 1968-1979▼ Chelsea thanked all the
survivors and witnesses
who came forward
JOE TOTH/BPI/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK▲ Gwyn Williams was accused of
racist remarks, which he deniedРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS