BREAKING: Paedophile football coach Barry Bennell dies in prison

Paedophile football coach Barry Bennell has died in prison, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed. The former Manchester City scout and Crewe Alexandra coach was serving a 34-year sentence for child sex offences and had cancer.

He died at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire on Saturday, confirmed the MoJ. An investigation will now take place in line with procedure for all deaths in custody.

Bennell was convicted of 50 sexual offences against boys at Liverpool Crown Court in 2018 and given 30 years, having already been convicted of child abuse on three other occasions in the UK and US. In 2020 he was sentenced to four more years for abusing two young boys.

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When he was first sentenced in February 2018, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, described Bennell as 'the devil incarnate'. The court heard he was a 'child molester on a industrial scale'.

A Prison Service spokesperson said on Monday: "Prisoner Barry Bennell died at HMP Littlehey on 16 September 2023. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate."

In 2018, Bennell was found guilty of abusing 12 young boys between 1979 and 1991. Sentencing him, judge Goldstone said he had 'stolen their childhoods'.

The ex-scout was convicted of 50 child sexual offences, including rape, committed between the late ‘70s and early ‘90s. The court was told he would serve half his sentence in custody with the rest on licence, with an additional licence period of one year.

The judge told him: "Your behaviour towards these boys in grooming and seducing them before subjecting them