74
(^) Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 7, 2019
74 CHELSEA SEX ABUSE SCANDAL
A
s of now, Dario
Gradi is still
being financially
rewarded for his
contribution to
youth football.
He is suspended, on full pay, as
the technical director at Crewe
Alexandra. His role relates directly
to his reputation as an identifier,
nurturer and producer of talented
young men.
Presenting these simple facts in
black and white, it beggars belief
this should be the case.
At 1pm yesterday, when the first
of several inquiries into football’s
sexual abuse scandal was pub-
lished, Gradi’s position was no
longer tenable.
It does not matter that this
report concerned abhorrent events
at another club, Chelsea, and did
not relate to Gradi’s employers,
Crewe. It is no longer mitigation to
record that the monster at the
heart of this investigation was a
youth coach called Eddie Heath,
and there is no evidence to sug-
gest Gradi was involved in abuse.
He did nothing. He could have
done something and he did noth-
ing. He knew and he did not act.
He heard but he did not care.
And as a result of Gradi’s com-
placency, or inertia, or whatever
motivation he may have had as
yet unknown, many more boys
suffered Heath’s abuse.
Hearing their stories reduced
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck to
tears. Yesterday’s report comes
with a graphic warning about the
nature of the contents. Not just
looking or touching, not just being
a bit weird, or funny around the
boys. Masturbation. Digital pene-
tration. sexual assault.
‘I don’t remember being horrified
by it, thinking it was awful,’ said
Gradi of the one allegation he did
hear. Yet Heath was not ‘a bit of a
perv’ as he is described to one
witness. He was an evil, menacing,
fiend of a man, whose behaviour
Gradi’s absence of care helped
facilitate.
And while Gradi might not be
painted as a bad guy himself, he
certainly seems to hang out with a
few. He was similarly implicated
in protecting his friend Barry
Bennell, a football coach and child
molester on an ‘industrial scale’,
as he was described in court.
Charles Geekie QC makes Gra-
di’s accountability at Chelsea
equally plain. He refers to Gradi as
‘the single example... of an adult
in a position of responsibility at
the club being informed about an
allegation in relation to Mr Heath’.
He blames Gradi personally for
the consequence.
‘The complaint about Mr Heath
was not referred to more senior
members of the club and an
opportunity to prevent Mr Heath
from going on to abuse others was
lost.’ Gradi’s reputation, from
this point, is irretrievable. His
continued employment is uncon-
scionable. Whatever development
Crewe were waiting for before
acting, here it is.
on the issue of culpability,
we are used to addressing an
industry, or groups of executives.
Headlines speak of ‘football’s
shame’ and reports castigate
entire clubs for historic compla-
cency and incompetence.
The independent report commis-
sioned by Chelsea, therefore, shifts
this narrative. It does not pull its
punches on the culture that
allowed evil men like Heath to lurk
within but, for the first time,
Geekie is bold enough to state
what many have suspected for so
long. That someone had to know.
That abuse on such a scale, in
such a close community, could not
have remained a secret. There
would have been whispers,
rumours, maybe more. ‘I do believe
other staff and players knew what
was going on but turned a blind
eye to it,’ reports one victim.
It now transpires Gradi, a coach
in his 30s and on Chelsea’s staff as
assistant manager in charge of the
reserve team, most certainly heard
allegations against Heath directly,
from a boy and his father.
Geekie dismisses Gradi’s version
of what happened next — that he
relayed them to a senior club offi-
cial — and suggests instead he
spoke only to Heath, whose bully-
ing of the boy then intensified.
This deduction is gleaned, power-
fully, from interviews with Gradi,
the victim and his father. Geekie’s
assessment of Gradi, in particular,
is damning. Geekie is sceptical
about his evidence, his reasoning,
his recollections. He describes
one rationalisation of events as
‘self-serving’; another is ‘lacking in
any basis or justification’.
‘Prior to hearing directly from Mr
Gradi I reached some provisional
conclusions that were adverse to
him,’ Geekie admits, before devas-
tatingly concluding several pages
later, ‘my provisional conclusions
were correct’.
The language of lawyers is, by
nature, cautious; yet here the
contempt is plain. Not just for
Gradi but, later, for World Cup
hero and former Chelsea manager
Geoff Hurst. Geekie meticulously
details the many attempts made
to interview Hurst, who dismissed
Heath shortly into his tenure at
stamford Bridge.
A first letter in 2017; a second
letter, sent under the cover of
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck; a
third letter explaining precisely
why the interview was important.
Each time Hurst replied he
was unaware of inappropriate
behaviour and had heard no gos-
sip about Heath. He was sacked
for no other reason than his
scouting performances and
selections were poor. Hurst later
told Buck he ‘did not wish to
respond in any way, shape or form’.
sent a draft copy of sections of the
report, there was only silence.
Viewed dispassionately, Hurst’s
reaction appears understandable.
If he has nothing to add, nothing
of insight to reveal, why waste
MARTIN
SAMUEL
Chief Sports Writer
EDDIE HEATH
n AGE: Died in 1983, aged 54
n WHAT IS HE ACCUSED OF? Chelsea’s
ex-chief scout is accused of several
counts of grooming and sexual abuse in
the 1970s, involving boys aged between
10 and 17. The external review gathered
evidence from 23 witnesses, with 15
reporting ‘serious and unambiguous
sexual assaults’. Heath was first accused
by ex-player Gary Johnson, who was
paid £50,000 by Chelsea in 2015. In light
of the review, Chelsea described Heath
as a ‘dangerous and prolific child abuser
... his conduct was beyond reprehensible’.
DARIO GRADI
n AGE: 78
n WHAT IS HE ACCUSED OF? Chelsea’s
former assistant manager is strongly
criticised for failing to act on an allegation
about the sexual conduct of Heath,
brought to him by the father of a young
player. Gradi, suspended by the FA since
2016, says he passed the complaint to a
member of staff at the club and denies
that he tried to ‘smooth over’ the matter,
but the review doubts his credibility. His
alleged failure to alert those higher up is
described as a ‘lost opportunity to expose
Heath and prevent further abuse’.
CHELSEA
n WHAT THE REPORT SAYS
A crucial finding by Charles Geekie
QC was that the abuse by Heath
was ‘not known to the
management of the club’.
Chelsea are also praised for their
‘full co-operation’ in the process,
and yesterday they released a
statement saying that the review
was intended to ‘shine a bright
light on the dark corners of the
club’s history so we can learn
lessons to help protect players of
the future.’
REPORT’S KEY POINTS
Heath was an evil, menacing
fiend and Gradi’s absence of
care facilitated his behaviour
Gradi betrayed these
done something but
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