Glossop serial abuser dies in prison

Paedophile Barry Bennell has died in prison at the age of 69.

The former football coach had links with Glossop and the High Peak.

Bennell, also known as Richard Jones, was jailed for 30 years back in 2018 after being convicted of 50 child sexual offences against 12 boys.

The Prison Service confirmed he had died at HMP Littlehey, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on Saturday.

The one-time football coach was once employed as a residential child care worker at the long-closed Taxal Edge Children’s Home near Whaley Bridge from November 1979 to July 1981. None of his offences were thought to have been committed there.

However, in stories featured in the Chronicle more than 20 years ago, it was stated he could have abused as many as 70 boys while coaching junior football teams.

In his 40s Bennell served a four year sentence in Duval County Jail in Florida, after being convicted of a serious sex offence against a 14-year-old footballer in Jacksonville.

The late Frank Ackley, who lived in Old Glossop, successfully called for Bennell to be arrested as soon as he set foot back in the UK, stating his son had been abused by Bennell.

Mr Ackley said Bennell took boys to his flat above a video shop in Buxton Road, Furness Vale, where he assaulted them and appealed for anyone who had suffered abuse not to go to the police.

Mr Ackley said his son Ian ‘gave up wanting to be a professional footballer because of the abuse’ he suffered from Bennell, who had links with Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra.

In November 2016, Ian Ackley, then 48, told his story about his four years of sexual abuse at the hands of Bennell, from the age of 10.

Ian said Bennell - who was jailed in 1998 for sexually abusing him - destroyed his footballing dreams.

Others, including former professional footballers, made abuse claims against Bennell and further court cases followed. Ian co-founded the SAVE Association alongside others who were abused as children in a football setting, their aim was to prevent other youngsters suffering as they had done.