December 2014
Exeter football coach faces jail for drugging and abusing young players
A football coach has been warned he faces a long jail sentence after being found guilty of drugging and abusing young players during the 1970s.
Anthony Mitchell was brought to justice almost 40 years after assaulting two boys because on of his victims spotted him coaching young players again on pitches in Exeter.
A second victim was spurred to come forward when the Rolf Harris scandal re-ignited painful memories of his own childhood trauma.
Mitchell, now aged 78, ran a youth football club in Exeter for 26 years but used it as an opportunity to groom and abuse players in his teams.
He claimed to be a father figure to the boys but he carried out assaults that amounted to male rape after persuading the boys to join him in overnight trips in a converted ambulance which he used as a team bus.
He was a night worker at a newspaper distribution depot and persuaded his GP to prescribe him huge amounts of strong sleeping tablets to help him cope with the anti social hours.
He gave boys double doses of Mogadon in their bedtime drinks during the sleepover trips to his beach hut on Dawlish Warren and then abused them as they slept.
Mitchell made the boys sleep with him in a double sleeping bag and victims remember him touching them as they were falling asleep or waking up.
He was caught for the first time in 1980 when four boys complained and he was sent to jail for a year after admitted drugging and assaulting two of them.
He has now been convicted of abusing two other boys in the five years leading up to his earlier arrest and conviction and faces a lengthy jail term because the offences are more serious and sentences for child abuse have been increased in the intervening years.
Mitchell, of Foxhayes Road, Exeter, denied two serious sexual offences which would now be classed as male rape, one of assault with intent to commit a similar offence, and three indecent assaults.
He was found guilty of all counts and bailed to await sentence later this month. Recorder Mr Ignatius Hughes, QC, ordered he should not have any visitors aged under 18 at his home in the meantime.
He told him:”You have been convicted of very serious sexual offences against young children, albeit a very long time ago.
“The offences of which you have been convicted will inevitably lead to a substantial prison sentence.”
The Judge also asked the prosecution to provide more information from the police high tech crime unit which found evidence on Mitchell’s computer of a sexual interest in children.
He questioned why it had not been made available in time to form part of the case against him and asked for an explanation from the Crown Prosecution Service.
He said:”It is of concern in a case like this where the defendant is protesting he has no sexual interest in children and it seems there is material to debunk that which is not available.
“As it happens, he has been convicted without that but if he had been acquitted then the two complainants who have been through the ordeal of coming to court would be entitled to be annoyed at the very least.”
After the verdict Detective Constable Mark Uren, who led the inquiry, praised the courage of the two men who had come forward after so many years.
He said:”The police would like to commend the strength of the victims and their bravery in coming to court. We hope the outcome will help bring closure and allow them to move on.”
During a week long trial the prosecution alleged Mitchell was a serial abuser whose technique was to befriend boys in his team and assault them while on trips to Dawlish Warren.
One boy said he suffered a series of painful sex attacks in Mitchell’s converted ambulance while the other said he was also drugged and assaulted while on a team tour to the Isle of Wight.
He said he was told it was a privilege to share the ambulance with Mitchell rather than sleep with the other boys in a marquee but was then given tablets and assaulted.
He said he woke up to find himself in a trance like state and unable to move but naked and bent over a makeshift massage table in the van.
Mitchell denied any inappropriate sexual activity. He even denied the offences which he pleaded guilty to in 1980. He claimed he was like a father to the boys and would never hurt them.
Sports officials in Exeter have reviewed safeguarding procedures as a result of the case. Mitchell was able to return to coaching at a senior club but his role gave him access to some teenaged boys.
Police say there have been no complaints about his behaviour in this.
