Graham Taylor alleged to have been involved in football sex abuse cover up, inquiry hears

An independent inquiry has heard Taylor is alleged to have discouraged former Mansfield and Chesterfield player Tony Brien from reporting sex predator Ted langford after he became one of his victims as a teenager.

The Guardian newspaper has reported the inquiry was told Taylor told Brien that he should “move on” after the young player informed Villa in the 1987-88 season that he knew from personal experience, aged 12 to 14, that boys were at risk, having been abused at a feeder club for Leicester City.

Brien Alleges Taylor told him on the telephone that if the story was published in the press the player would be the target of terrace taunts at the start of his professional career.

Brien was 18 and had just made it into Leicester’s first team.

He claims the message was, “Can you really be doing with the abuse from the terraces?”

Clive Sheldon QC the barrister in charge of the inquiry has also heard another boy told Taylor what was happening, who alleges Taylor visited him at home with another member of staff to discourage him from taking things further.

The police were never informed and evidence shows former Leicester scout Langford, continued to work for Villa until the summer of 1989.