Court date for shamed former Mansfield football boss Lewis Saxby put back again

Former Rainworth FC boss Lewis Saxby had initially been due to appear before Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, January 28 for sentencing – but proceedings were then delayed until February 25.

On Friday, Saxby’s case was again removed from the court list, and he will now appear before Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday, March 3.

The 32-year-old has already been told to expect prison after he changed his plea to guilty in the eleventh hour, shortly before his trial was due to start in November last year.

The court heard that between February 2016 and May 2017, Saxby engaged in controlling behaviour with a woman he was in an intimate relationship with – threatening to publish sexual photographs of her, sending abusive texts, seizing her mobile phone, and refusing to collect the victim’s sister unless she agreed to have sex with him.

Saxby also admitted that, between July 2019 and January 2020, he had blackmailed another woman by demanding money in return for him not publishing intimate images of her.

Similar charges against a third woman, dating from May 2019, were also admitted by Saxby, of Lymington Road, Mansfield, when he appeared before the court.

Saxby had also appeared before Nottingham Crown Court, where he admitted fraud to the tune of £89,000 - with court records showing that he had claimed he needed the money to fight an unfair dismissal claim.

Separate counts of voyeurism and taking sexual photographs of a female without her consent were ordered to lie on file.

He also admitted another blackmail charge on a fourth woman – again threatening to publish sexual photographs of her.

Speaking at the time, Judge Stuart Rafferty QC told him: “You have now pleaded guilty to these offences, and I seem to recall telling you that you should have done it much sooner.

“The advantage is that you have spared these women the embarrassment of giving evidence and you will be given credit for this.

“But don’t think for one minute that you will not be going to immediate custody.

"These offences are so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence will follow.”

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