Failure to vet coaches sparks fears

Paedophiles could be working undetected within British sport, sports bodies fear, since they have been unable to carry out a single check on any coach in the country due to the chaos at the Criminal Records Bureau.

Sports such as swimming, gymnastics and football are to seek an urgent meeting with the government to demand that either a new vetting body be set up specifically for sport or that extra staff need to be drafted into the Bureau to deal with sports coaches.

The massive backlogs at the CRB, highlighted in the past fortnight by their failure to vet thousands of teachers in time for the new school term, mean the system designed to check whether coaches have been convicted of any sexual offences is not working. Some local authorities have already stopped providing sports coaching until full checks can be carried out.

Swimming in particular is anxious to check the sexual history of all its coaches following a number of high profile cases both in Britain and abroad. Three leading coaches have been convicted of offences against young swimmers in the past 10 years, including the former head of the British Swimming Coaches Association, Mike Drew, who was jailed for eight years in 2001 for abusing teenage boys.

Last week Matthew Pedrazzini, a former coach of the Australian Olympic team, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for offences of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and indecent assault.

Pedrazzini's case is particularly concerning because it involves a foreign coach. Sports such as swimming have been recruiting heavily from abroad but the CRB, even if it is functioning properly, will only able to check on the background of coaches within Britain. Sports bodies are now urging the government to close this loophole.

A report published this week by the NSPCC in association with the Amateur Swimming Association, In At The Deep End, analyses no fewer than 78 cases of coaches accused of abuse over a four-year period.