Thursday 23 May 2019 18:02, UK
A paedophile ex-football coach has been found guilty of 45 charges of indecent assault against 23 teenage boys.
A jury returned guilty verdicts against Bob Higgins following a retrial at Bournemouth Crown Court which heard that the 66-year-old sexually abused schoolboy players during 25 years.
The defendant ran the youth training programmes at Southampton and Peterborough Football Clubs and also spent a period as the Maltese national youth coach.
The trial heard that Higgins abused his "position of power" over the future careers of the young players in order to take advantage of them for his own sexual needs.
He was accused of groping them during post-exercise soapy massages as well as at his home and in his car.
Higgins, who showed no emotion as the verdicts were read, was also convicted of a further count of indecent assault at the original trial held last year.
The defendant, of Southampton, was remanded in custody to be sentenced on a date to be set at Winchester Crown Court.
He was cleared of five counts of indecent assault and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on a final charge.
Judge Peter Crabtree thanked the jury for their service during the nine-week trial and 41 hours of deliberations.
He said: "I am grateful for your service, criminal justice cannot work without people giving up their time."
The trial heard victim after victim speak of the abuse carried out by Higgins in similar situations - during post-exercise soapy massages, in his car while he played love songs on the stereo and at his home where he cuddled with the boys on his sofa.
Many of the victims described Higgins as God-like, their mentor and their father figure showing the influence he held over them.
Several spoke of their inability to make a complaint against him because they feared it would be the end of their burgeoning football career.
The court heard that Higgins was acquitted at a trial held in the early 1990s of a series of indecent assaults including against former-pro Dean Radford who waived his right to anonymity to give evidence as a witness in the current trial.
The public gallery was charged with emotion as the chairman of the jury announced that Higgins was guilty of six charges in relation to former Southampton trainee Billy Seymour who died in a car crash earlier this year.
The new case against Higgins was brought after the BBC Victoria Derbyshire show exposed claims of abuse in football in November 2016.
A NSPCC helpline subsequently set-up led to 87 referrals to Hampshire police all of them naming Higgins with another 32 people contacting the force directly.
Greg Llewellyn was the only victim to gain a conviction of indecent assault against Higgins during the first trial in 2018.
The 50-year-old said he had been left with life-long feelings of shame and guilt along with a sense of disbelief over the death of fellow complainant Seymour, who he believes might be still alive if the outcome of last year's trial had been different.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Mr Llewellyn was abused in the defendant's car around the time of his 14th birthday when he was a junior player at Southampton.
Waiving his right to anonymity to speak to the Press Association, Mr Llewellyn said he was now pursuing civil action against Higgins as a result of the abuse which had left him suffering flashbacks.
He said: "There are a number of common traits that people suffer from, a lot of anger, a lot of guilt, shame.
"Obviously having a very unpleasant experience at a difficult age as a pubescent boy conjures up all sorts of different questions in your own mind, whether it was initiated by you, something you contributed to and could have stopped, questions your own sexuality as you had an experience with another man.
"I know a lot of the older guys have a great sense of guilt that they were not able to stop the abuse that happened to them before it happened or after it happened to go to police and stop it from happening to other people they knew and had a career in football with."
He added: "I am convinced there are many more people who have suffered at the hands of Higgins and I hope that they find the strength to come forward."
