Youth football coach who abused players jailed for eight years

Sentencing 79-year-old Michael Coleman, Judge Tom Gilbart told him: “These were gross offences committed against a child in breach of trust.

“You took advantage of him for your own sexual pleasure and a few moments of sexual pleasure for you have meant a lifetime of difficulties for your victim.”

A jury at Bolton Crown Court heard how, in 2018, Coleman, was convicted of abusing boys in the 1980s.

And after learning about the convictions another victim, who was aged 14 or 15 when he was allegedly abused by Coleman, came forward who told how he had been indecently assaulted and raped in the 1970s.

“He knew what was happening was not right but he went along with it because he thought he owed you something,” Judge Gilbart told Coleman.

“He thought, at one stage perhaps this was what happened, this was what was required if you wanted to become a professional footballer.”

It took the jury just three hours to unanimously find the former Westhoughton Leisure Centre manager guilty of four counts of indecently assaulting the boy and one count of buggery.

Michael Coleman in 1994

In a victim statement read out in court the former young footballer told how the abuse he suffered at Coleman’s hands later led to him drinking, caused the break-up of his marriage and loss of his job and he was emotionally distant from his sons.

But he added that the stress he has gone through has been worth it now that Coleman has been convicted.

“From what I read in the paper, Michael Coleman was saying that in all these years of football training this sort of abuse never happened,” he said.

“I thought that I had to do something because he had done a lot worse to me when I was 15.”

The victim expressed the hope that, after reading about his case, members of other football teams who were abused, will now come forward.

Michael Coleman at his 1998 trial

Coleman managed a team called Park Villa in the 1970s which played on pitches at New House Farm, near Leverhulme Park, Bolton.

The court heard how the abuse of the boy began in the showers after Friday night training.

Timothy Ashmole, prosecuting during the new trial, said that around a dozen boys would shower in two groups and at one point they began to be joined by Coleman, who always chose the group the complainant was in.

Coleman asked if the schoolboy would clean his back.

"Being young and naive, he didn't think anything of it and said 'yes'," said Mr Ashmole.

Giving evidence, the victim, said: "At the time I didn't realise what was happening."

In the weeks that followed Coleman began to touch the boy's private parts.

"He tried to laugh it off at the time, telling the defendant to 'f*** off'," said Mr Ashmole.

After two or three months Coleman began to ask if anyone wanted to go for drinks.

The schoolboy and two older players agreed and Coleman took them in his car to pubs in Bolton.

"Michael Coleman would always buy the drinks to the extent that he got the boys drunk," said Mr Ashmole, who added that after they had finished drinking and playing snooker, Coleman would take the boys home in his car.

The boy said that, when questioned by his parents about being out late, he told them he was at a friend's house.

"After taking him home a few times the defendant started to take the boy to a flat in Bolton where the abuse took a different and more serious turn," said Mr Ashmole.

"I was only 15 and not used to drinking. I don't think I was in a right state of mind," said the witness.

The jury heard how Coleman would buy the schoolboy supper and then take him back to his flat in Grafton Street where he told the teenager, "I've bought your drinks all night and your supper. What's in it for me?"

Coleman then pulled the boy's pants down and indecently assaulted him.

Coleman in 2018

"The defendant mentioned about the money he had spent on [the boy] and said that he should be thankful," said Mr Ashmole.

Coleman indecently abused the boy at his flat on a number of other occasions and, one time, after getting the boy particularly drunk and not giving him food, committed buggery.

"The boy shouted in order to stop Mr Coleman, but the defendant continued," said Mr Ashmole.

Mark Friend, defending, stressed that Coleman’s age and health difficulties mean he finds the prison environment difficult.

The judge told Coleman, formerly of Glaister Lane, Breightmet, that when sentencing him for the latest offences, he had to take into account what the total jail term would have been had he been sentenced for all the child abuse matters in 2018.

Coleman, who appeared at the sentence hearing via a video links from Forest Bank Prison, will serve two thirds of his sentence in prison before being released on licence.

He was banned from ever working with children or vulnerable adults and was placed on the sex offender register for life.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Patel, of Bolton CID, said: "This was a harrowing investigation and I would like to very much thank the victim for his bravery in coming forward after all these years.

"I cannot imagine the psychological effect that this abuse has had on him not only as a young man but throughout his life but I hope that the verdict today brings some form of closure and a sense of justice being served after all these years.

"The victim should have been able to trust Coleman as a local football coach but was instead let down by him in the most horrendous way.

"I’d like to take this opportunity to appeal to anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse to please get in touch with police, no matter how long ago it was, we will listen to you and we can help."