Barry abused boys in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (Pictures: PA/Rex)
Paedophile football coach Barry Bennell died in his prison cell in a ‘significant amount of pain’ while being tube-fed, an inquest has heard.
While receiving end-of-life care for cancer of the tonsils Bennell had to write things down to communicate before he was found dead by an officer last September.
The former Crewe Alexandra coach, 69, had been serving a 34-year sentence at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire after being convicted of a number of child sex offences.
Bennell had legally changed his name to Richard Jones, and Monday’s inquest in Huntingdon was held under this name.
The inquest found he died of natural causes, Cambridgeshire’s area coroner Elizabeth Gray said, with Bennell having a history of throat cancer from 2004 and had one recurrence in 2016.
She said that a biopsy in early 2023 led to a diagnosis of cancer of the tonsils and at the time of his death his care was palliative.
Barry died in a ‘significant’ amount of pain, the coroner found (Picture: Rex)
The coroner said Bennell was fed with a tube and his ‘means of communication was to write things down’.
She described Bennell having a ‘significant amount of pain which was managed by the healthcare team at the prison’.
Bennell was seen for chest pain in July 2023 and in late July his speech started deteriorating.
He had discharged himself back to prison from Hinchingbrooke Hospital contrary to medical advice on September 12, four days before his death.
She said he had become confused on September 14 but declined to attend hospital before dying on September 16.
The serial abuser was given 34 years in prison (Picture: PA)
The coroner said: ‘I’m satisfied the conclusion for Mr Jones is he died as a result of natural causes.’
Manchester-born Bennell had been transferred to HMP Littlehey in July 2019, after being jailed for 30 years in 2018 after being convicted of 52 child sexual offences against 12 boys.
He was ordered to serve an additional four years in 2020 after pleading guilty to other offences against two boys.
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Bennell, a former Manchester City scout, abused boys he coached in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
He was first jailed in Florida in 1994 for raping a British boy on a football tour in America, before going on to face prison sentences in Britain in 1998, 2015, 2018 and 2020.
Following his convictions in 2018, more than 80 other alleged victims came forward to report abuse by him.
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