Ex-football coach guilty of trying to rape child star player in 1980s

He approached a group of boys playing football in a park and told him he was starting a new team.

A former football coach is facing jail for trying to rape his 13-year-old star performer more than three decades ago.

Ronald Webb, was in his 40s when he lured the promising player into his bathroom and launched his attack.

The boy was playing football with his friends in a park when Webb first approached them and said he was starting a new team.

The victim said Webb would always ‘hang around’ with them and now doubts he knew much about football at all.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court took just over 90 minutes to convict Webb, now 75, of attempted buggery against the boy.

The court heard how in 1986, the boy and a small group of friends visited Webb’s home during their school lunch break.

Webb, from Bath, had put on a porn film, leaving his victim feeling embarrassed.

He went to the bathroom and, as he was relieving himself, was followed by Webb, who barged his way into the room with his flies undone.

The predator forced the boy against the cistern, pulling down his football shorts with one hand and pressing his back with the other.

The boy was only able to escape when his attacker was distracted by the shouts of his friends as they left the home.

The victim told police that, had he not escaped, ‘I was in no doubt where his penis would have gone’.

As a talented footballer, the boy saw Webb’s offer to for him to join his new team as a chance to play more regularly in league games.

He said: ‘He’d just hang around with us. Really odd now, but back then we never thought anything of it.

‘I don’t think he had any knowledge of football whatsoever. He probably knew the ball was round.’

Webb is due to be sentenced at the end of this month.

Recent scandals involving child sexual abuse in English football clubs had inspired the man to come forward and report the assault three decades later.

Wiltshire Police’s Detective Sargent Lawrence Billi said: ‘We know that this kind of abuse has a huge impact on people, often it is something they carry with them throughout their lives and we should not underestimate the courage it takes to speak out and report these type of offences.

‘I hope this case shows no matter how long ago a crime has been committed, we will listen to victims and we will do everything in our power to get justice for them.’

Following the conviction, an NSPCC spokesman said: ‘Webb may have believed he had got away with this horrific crime after all these years – but his victim has shown immense bravery in speaking out, and reliving the trauma he suffered, to bring him to justice.’