A top football coach is calling for a criminal investigation into fellow coach Andrew Bascome’s claims he was sexually molested as a youngster starting out in the sport.

After revelations by Mr Bascome at a press conference for the ABC Football Foundation yesterday, Maceo Dill said that prosecution of offenders was the next logical step.

“They need to be investigated to see how many more there were,” Mr Dill said. “Sports clubs also need to do investigations, and provide support for victims — to lobby the Bermuda Football Association and the Government to put legal policies in place to protect our kids.”

Mr Dill said he had received positive responses since speaking out on the issue last week, but had also been ostracised.

“At my local club over the years in North Village, I’ve been pretty much ridiculed,” he said. “I’ve had people turn their backs on me for challenging the organisations of football to do better. I don’t think the clubs have been happy with me challenging them in a lot of areas like drug and alcohol abuse, and gang violence.

“I don’t feel well received, but there is a portion of Bermuda that has been very supportive of me. My big concern is, can we improve our game?”

Mr Dill spoke out last week in this newspaper, in the wake of a scandal in Britain where a host of former professional footballers came forward about their own abuses.

Subsequently, both Mr Bascome and younger brother David spoke candidly, and publicly, of their ordeals.

“My relationship with Andrew goes back to childhood,” Mr Dill said. “He was my idol growing up in North Village; he is our standard of football. I have been aware of what happened for some time. It was just about Andrew being able to have the confidence to get it off his chest.”

Asked if he believed Mr Bascome’s openness could serve as a tipping point for others to speak up, Mr Dill told The Royal Gazette: “That’s the hope. It’s unfortunate that something has to happen for us to put laws in place. It’s unfortunate that we aren’t more proactive. I will be pushing for these reforms and changes.”

Mr Dill said that North Village Community Club had brought in more stringent training several years ago when he exposed problems, but added that the unaddressed legacy of sexual abuse ran through institutions all over Bermuda.

“Over the years, I’ve become a magnet to people that have been sexually abused,” he said. “It’s wide-ranging through Bermuda football — and sports. I am more interested in solutions and in prevention, and where we go from here. I’ve had many meetings in clubs where you bring up this subject and you get shut down. Clubs refused to admit that they have this responsibility. We need to get laws in place to protect kids. At our clubs, there are kids from certain social backgrounds who are very vulnerable, just like Andrew growing up in a boys’ home. We need to do a better job.”

With the regulation of volunteers still voluntary rather than mandatory, Mr Dill said Mr Bascome’s willingness to speak had left him feeling “very optimistic”.

He added: “I have very mixed emotions. At this point, there aren’t any winners. It’s something rampant in our community; not just in sports.”

He said Bermudians would be “very surprised” to know some of the people who had suffered abuse.

“I’ve never been sexually molested or abused,” Mr Dill said. “But rejection and aloneness gives me some sense of what people go through. There’s an isolation and loneliness that victims go through because of what’s happened to them ... that they have to live in.

“I’m an adult, so emotionally I can comprehend. But imagine a kid aged 12. They don’t have the emotional skills and they have to carry it into adulthood. I have a lot of respect for them. That’s a level of bravery that I can’t say I have.”

Mr Dill said his conscience demanded that he see the push for change through to the end.

“We are very slow to change,” he said. “Hopefully, something like this shows the need to drastically change how we do things. I’m just looking to be supportive of the process.”

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