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BBC documentary on abuse in
Football reveals how survivors felt that years of enforced silence inflicted further damage
After last week’s exhaustive inquiry by Clive Sheldon QC into how young people in football have been subjected to horrific
Sexual Abuse during 25 years with no child protection, the nation this week will hear from survivors. In the testimony they give to a devastating BBC documentary series, they emphasise a constant theme: that their enforced silence for years did further dreadful damage to them, and how liberating it has been to speak out.
The programme recognises the watershed of Andy Woodward’s November 2016 interview with Daniel Taylor in the Guardian, which prompted hundreds of victims to finally come forward and led to new prosecutions, convictions, the Sheldon review itself and apologies this week from the football establishment. Woodward explains his motivation simply: “I was suffering mentally because of what had happened in my life.”