Former Manchester United man sues club over sexual abuse claim

Manchester United are one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the world, however, they are now being linked to a serious case of allegations around “sexual and physical abuse”.

The Telegraph has reported that a man with former ties to Manchester United has lodged a complaint against club’s ex-caretaker and kit man Billy Watts. Deemed a High Court personal injury claim, Watts is being accused of subjecting the complainant to “sexual and physical abuse as a child”.

The allegations are said to date from the 1980’s and the claimants lawyers are accusing the club of a lack of protection for the claimant from the alleged abuse whilst they were under the club’s care and supervision.

It is being claimed by Simpson Millar LLP that United did not “cooperate fully” with the attempts of settling the matter out of court and the victim is alleged to have been left with no choice other than to begin the issuing of legal proceedings.

Simpson Millar have failed to comment on whether the complainant, unnamed for legal reasons, was a youth player or whether they were just in and around the club as a youngster, which The Telegraph Sport are calling a possibility.

An Independent Review into Child Sexual Abuse in Football report in 2021 by Clive Sheldon KC referred to the accusations around a caretaker at the club.

The report said: “The club was made aware in 2016 of allegations that in the 1980s the caretaker had made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature, physically pulled an individual into an office against his will, followed an individual into a sauna at the training ground and wrestled with him.

“There was also an allegation that the caretaker had tried to touch another individual inappropriately in the showers; that the caretaker was referred to by youth team players as a ‘pervert’. There was a further allegation that the caretaker had tried to touch another boy, and when confronted had said that ‘I’m only messing, shut up’.

“The club referred the matter to the FA in 2016. The club has discovered that there was an investigation into the caretaker in the 1980s (not related to these particular allegations), and he was re-deployed from the club’s training ground to the club’s stadium. It is not known what the reason was for his re-deployment though it is known that he left the club within a number of months following his re-deployment.”

United also commented on the allegations when they first emerged, saying: “We have co-operated fully with the Sheldon Review in an effort to make sure we were as comprehensive on this important matter as we could be.

“This involved conducting multiple interviews as part of our wide-ranging enquiries pursuant to the review.

“These included a former employee who had conducted the disciplinary process against the former caretaker in the 1980s and other current and former employees who worked at the club in the 70s and 80s.

“All interviewees provided their full co-operation and information relating to the former caretaker has been included in Manchester United’s submissions to the review.

Billy Watts, who died in 2009, was also a groundsman in addition to roles as a caretaker and kit man, being in his 50s when he worked at The Cliff training ground.