Members of sports clubs and sexual abuse lawyers have called on the United Kingdom government to appoint an independent sports ombudsman to investigate sexual abuse claims.
The UK government opened an independent inquiry into child abuse in 2015, looking into organizations such as the Catholic Church, and its findings were released in October and await government response.
However, charities and abuse lawyers question why sexual abuse in sport wasn’t included in the investigation, and are now calling on the government to take action to prevent future cases.
Dino Nocivelli, a lawyer who represents child abuse survivors and abuse victims, spoke to BBC’s Felicity Kvesic earlier this month to discuss the need for government action.
“Sadly it is quite extensive in relation to the number of survivors that sport has affected and the time period as well,” he said.
When asked why sport wasn’t included in the government’s inquiry, Novicelli said: “This is something I ask myself every single day.
“You consider abuse in gymnastics, athletics, and numerous other sports–it needed to be covered. It’s a really important area where children partake and are at risk, and we know abuse happens. It was a failure by them not to look into sport at a sufficient level.”
Nocivelli said an independent ombudsman to investigate abuse claims is needed, as the current system where each sport governs its own claims isn’t working.
“For far too long we’ve relied upon individual sports to basically referee themselves,” he said. “We need independence, we need every single athlete and child to feel able to disclose and make sure that it’s going to be independently considered, and we need to also ensure the level of safeguarding is the same across every sport. At the moment it’s a bit of a sport lottery. Certain sports are safer, not safe, but safer than other sports.”
Among the athletes interviewed by Kvesic was Amber Keegan, a Sheffield-based swimmer who finished fourth in the women’s 400 IM and fifth in the 1500 free at the 2023 British Swimming Championships earlier this month.
“I was sexually assaulted,” Keegan said. “I felt like I’d done something wrong, which in hindsight I know I hadn’t, but at the time that’s how it felt.
“I was scared to talk about it. I felt like I was in an environment where perhaps I wouldn’t be believed, and even if I was believed, there’d be questions. I felt like I’d been victim-blamed.
“Sometimes the competitive nature of your sport gives people an excuse to act in a way that would not be considered acceptable in perhaps other workplaces or in an educational setting, for example. When we think about the standards that we hold people to, we should be thinking about workplaces and educational settings.”
“There will be scandal after scandal unless the government acts now”
@DinoNocivelli has told me that an Independent Ombudsman needs to be introduced by Parliament to supervise all sports all the way from grassroots to the highest professional level to stamp out abuse in sport pic.twitter.com/zIFbjPJG2R— Felicity Kvesic (@FelicityKvesic) April 12, 2023
The UK government’s Department For Digital Culture, Media and Sport told BBC that UK Sport and Sport England have already taken significant steps to improve safeguarding, including revising standards and protections of children in sports. UK Sport has also introduced a “complaints and disclosure” system and they’ve also strengthened their positions of trust legislation to now include sports coaches.
Kvesic mentioned that the government should consider implementing a sports version of Ofsted, which is a government department that monitors and inspects schools in England.
The United States has implemented the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which is similar but is funded by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) rather than the government.
Earlier this year, Swim England CEO Jane Nickerson announced she was stepping down at the end of 2023 and issued a public apology to those affected by the scandal that involved the Ellesmere Titan swim club in 2021.
Swim England then implemented a new safeguarding, welfare and culture plan, Heart of Aquatics, which had an action plan to listen to the ‘experiences and views’ of everyone involved in aquatics in a bid to be able to take ‘proactive formative action’.
This article is misleading in relation to Ellesmere Titans. The victims of the Titans closure decision that was the subject of the complaints that led to the Weston investigation were the children whose education and health were damaged by Swim England’s decision to disaffiliate the club – a decision which Weston queried had any basis, and he also said he saw no evidence their welfare had ebeen been considered. Their parents asked for an apology but the Swim England board declined to give one when asked and Jane Nickerson has never apologised to those children or their parents., despite Weston saying they were made subjectvtomprocesses that ” fail the sport”. Perhaps you could amend the article to make that clear… Read more »
There needs to be in independent body dealing with ALL kinds of complaints against Swim England and other governing bodies, not just sexual abuse. They are simply unaccountable. Despite the Weston Report and the PR that comes with Heart of Aquatics, Swim England just announced they won’t change the outcomes of the cases that led to the Weston Report – even though there has still been no input from the child victims whose voices Weston said weren’t given a proper hearing, and even though he said he couldn’t see any basis for one of the decisions. Why no independent review to allow a proper hearing for those whose childhood, education and mental health have been wrecked by these decisions? Are… Read more »
It’s called the police.
Interesting that Amber Keegan is always quite vocal about this sort of stuff but is still quite friendly with Max Litchfield (going off of recent Instagram comments) who is rumoured to be involved in a similar situation, maybe something to read into about that
I think it is unfair to continue to speculate about Litchfield. He is effectively blacklisted by BS.
If he has questions to answer the police should be called in otherwise he should be free to ply his trade and earn a living.
If it is poor behaviour below the level of a crime he should serve an appropriate punishment and be allowed back after completing said punishment and making restitution.
what happened to innocent until proven guilty