ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE football club Manchester City has announced the launch of a redress scheme for survivors of historic child sex abuse at the club.

It comes on the back of an ongoing review commissioned by Man City into whether the club was used by convicted child sex abuser Barry Bennell or any other individual to facilitate the alleged sexual abuse of children from 1964.

In launching the redress scheme, the club extended its “heartfelt sympathy to all victims for the unimaginably traumatic experiences that they endured”. 

Bennell was sentenced to 30 years in prison for abusing 12 boys he coached between 1979 and 1991, with the judge branding him “sheer evil”. 

“You were the devil incarnate. You stole their childhoods and their innocence to satisfy your own perversion,” Judge Clement Goldstone said as he read out the sentence in a court in Liverpool, northwest England in February 2018.

Bennell had been a youth team coach at Man City and Crewe Alexandra, and faced accusations he had abused boys at both teams.

The review commissioned by City also uncovered serious allegations of child sex abuse relating to another individual, John Broome.

The redress scheme will mean survivors of abuse can apply for compensation for general damages, potential loss of earnings if their careers were affected, therapy fees and legal costs, the BBC reported.

“All victims were entitled to expect full protection from the kind of harm they suffered as a result of their sexual abuse as children,” Man City said.

The club remains keen, it said, to speak to any survivor or witness to sexual abuse that may be connected to Man City in any way.

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