Former youth football coach given seven year sentence for abusing boys

Michael Coleman, aged 75, was in his 40s at the time of the offences, in which he sexually assaulted two boys aged between 12 and 14.

Coleman, managed Westhoughton Leisure Centre, ran numerous youth football teams and in the early 1980s he was coach of a Daisy Hill team.

On one occasion Coleman, who would shower naked with the team, was alone in the changing rooms at the sports centre with one of the boys.

The coach sat next to the boy as he got dried and began performing a sex act on himself under a towel before grabbing hold of his victim's head and pushing it down into his groin.

Recorder Rowena Goode told Mr Coleman, of Glaister Lane, Breightmet, that his actions were a “gross breach of trust of your position as a manager and coach”.

She went on to say that, during the course of the trial, "statements were read that disclose, in my view, that you had a sexual interest in young boys".

Adding: "You used your position, in which you were respected, as a cover for that behaviour."

She also spoke about the two victims saying there was clear evidence that the personality of the first boy had changed.

She said: "He ceased to be an achieving child and he sank into alcohol abuse that went on for many years."

Recounting the victim's testimony, prosecuting, Andrew Mackintosh, told how the boy said he had felt "embarrassed and ashamed".

He told the court: "To this day I wonder if I could have stopped this happening to anyone else."

The boy went on to say that he had suffered with depression and anxiety as a result of the sexual abuse and had turned to alcohol, as well as overdosing on at least three ocassions.

He added: “He ruined my life.”

The second victim also turned to alcohol, saying he would tell his friends at school that he was not needed in class before buying cider and drinking it rather than attending school.

He told the court: "I felt angry about what he did to me, I turned more to alcohol and I also sniffed gas."