Chelsea FC apologises ‘profusely’ to sex abuse victim Gary Johnson, and becomes first club to admit attacks
CHELSEA Football Club has issued a grovelling apology to a former player who was sexually abused while at the club.
A statement from the club said Gary Johnson had “suffered unacceptably” and “apologised profusely” to the former youth star.
Chelsea added that it had "no desire to hide any historic abuse we uncover from view".
The apology comes after Johnson claimed he was paid £50,000 to keep quiet after years of sexual abuse.
Johnson, who played for the senior team from 1978 to 1981, said he was sexually assaulted hundreds of times by scout Eddie Heath while in the youth side.
The ex-forward said the chief scout – who died from a heart attack in the 1980s – first groomed him at the age of 13 and continued to do so two or three times a week until he was 16 or 17.
, Johnson, 57, said he was waiving his right to anonymity to encourage other victims to come forward.
After a bad day at school and an argument with his father, Johnson confided in Heath and asked to stay at the scout’s house in Leytonstone at night.
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Heath gave the youngster Coke and sweets, before putting on a pornographic film and telling the teenager: “This will make you feel better.”
Shortly afterwards, he performed a sex act on Johnson.
The abuse eventually moved to them bed, where the scout professed his love for the youngster.
He claims to know at least three other boys who were abused by Heath, who made them engage in threesomes.
Johnson finally approached the police after the fallout of Operation Yewtree in 2014.
He said officers advised him to “go back to Chelsea”, where the club asked him to “prove it.”
Settlement agreements dated July 16, 2015, show the club paid Johnson £50,000.
Yesterday, current Chelsea manager Antonio Conte praised Johnson's courage in coming forward.
He told The Sun: “The players who have spoken showed bravery and I have admiration for them.”
Johnson joins a growing list of players who have now contacted the Professional Footballers' Association union to report historical sex abuse.
Some 18 police forces across the UK are now examining claims from more than 350 people, implicating 55 clubs in the sex abuse scandal engulfing football.
Chelsea's apology today makes it the first club to officially admit sexual abuse took place.
The full statement from the club read: "Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has been profoundly shocked by news of historical child sex abuse across British football and our heart goes out to all the victims.
"We pay tribute to the enormous courage of the people who have spoken out about the horrific abuse which they endured, including former Chelsea player Gary Johnson.
"We recognise that to do so, after carrying the burden of those events for so long, must have been an extremely difficult thing to do.
"It is clear that Gary Johnson suffered unacceptably while in our employment in the 1970s for which the club apologises profusely."
The club added that it had brought in a law firm to launch an independent probe into historical sexual abuse claims.
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