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| Youth coach George Ormond guilty of sexually abusing boys | Youth coach George Ormond guilty of sexually abusing boys |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A youth football coach who went on to work for Newcastle United has been convicted of a string of sex abuse offences spanning 25 years. | |
| George Ormond "used his position of power" to abuse 18 boys and young men between 1973 and 1998, Newcastle Crown Court heard. | George Ormond "used his position of power" to abuse 18 boys and young men between 1973 and 1998, Newcastle Crown Court heard. |
| The 62-year-old had denied all charges but was convicted of 35 charges of indecent assault and one of indecency. | |
| At the end of the six-week trial, he was cleared of two further charges. | |
| Ormond will be sentenced later this week. | |
| He coached a grassroots football club in the 1970s and 80s before going on to work for Newcastle United's youth system in the 1990s as what was described in court as a "kit man, gopher and dogsbody". | |
| The jury heard he "manipulated his position" and held out "glittering future" to young players, but could block their progress if they stood up against him. | |
| The abuse took place at summer camps and in the back of his car. | |
| He would indecently touch boys while massaging them or treating them for injuries and insist on them not wearing anything under their shorts, then check they had followed the rule. | |
| The latest investigation into Ormond was sparked in 2016 by media reports of a sex abuse scandal in professional football. | |
| Det Supt Mick Paterson, from Northumbria Police, said: "These young men had had ambition, they had dreams of going on to glittering footballing careers. | |
| "Ormond was able - because he is a predatory paedophile - to have those dreams in his hands. | |
| "The insidious nature of [his] offending shattered the lives of almost 20 victims." | |
| Helen Westerman, from the NSPCC, described Ormond's abuses as "absolutely shocking and sickening". | |
| She said he "systematically abused" the boys and then "silenced them through threats, through blackmail, and telling them that their football career could be jeopardised". | |
| In 2002, Ormond was jailed for six years after being found guilty of abusing seven boys under 16 between 1975 and 1999. |