Supporting survivors

Earlier this year, former youth football coach, Bob Higgins was jailed for 24 years and three months for abusing young players.

Higgins sexually touched and groped 24 victims, most of them trainees at Southampton and Peterborough United.

When he was found guilty at a retrial of 45 counts of indecent assault between 1971 and 1996, Judge Peter Crabtree called Higgins a ‘predatory, cunning’ serial sex abuser who ‘carefully groomed’ the teenagers.

Nailsea workplace coach and postman, Phil Underhill, (pictured left) who joined Southampton at the age of 13 and spent six years at the club, is an ambassador for the Offside Trust, a charity working to combat child abuse in sport.

The Offside Trust was set up ‘by survivors for survivors’ in December 2016, following a series of high-profile revelations regarding child sex abuse in football. Several players came forward and waived their right to anonymity to speak out about the abuse they suffered. This led to a number of convictions against coaches who had been working at professional football clubs across the country.

Following Higgins’ conviction, Phil said: ‘This was a great result after three years of pain, stress and two trials. On the back of this, we are now trying to get Parliament to change the ridiculous "double jeopardy" law that stops the six brave lads who came forward back in the early 90s getting closure.

‘To get the government to even think about looking at this, we need 10,000 people to sign our petition to make all sexual abuse offences exceptions under the double jeopardy rules.’

The support that Phil has provided to victims of sexual abuse in sport led to ex-footballer and co-founder of The Offside Trust, Steve Walters, asking him to be an ambassador.

‘I was honoured to accept the role,’ said Phil, ‘which now means I need to raise awareness around historical child sex abuse in all sports, along with offering support to existing victims and helping to ensure that the correct safeguarding procedures are in place at grassroots level to protect future generations.’

For the last two years the Trust has been providing support to abuse survivors and working to raise greater awareness of the need for safeguarding in sport to protect children from sexual abuse.