What do these two have in common? The institutions for which they worked, both Manchester United and Countess of Chester Hospital, failed to respond appropriately or in time!
Whilst Greenwood has not been found guilty of anything Manchester United trained Mason Greenwood from aged 7. Plenty of time to instill the discipline and the code of conduct they wanted – I doubt very much they bothered with anything that wasn’t about action on the pitch. I remember the case of a 17 year old girl who was ‘roasted’ by a group of professional footballers.
From The Standard 5th October 2003
“‘I did not agree to group sex’ The schoolgirl at the centre of the football gang rape scandal has vehemently denied that she consented to group sex with several players. The girl was said to be “devastated” by the claims by party organiser Nicholas Meikle that she had agreed to have sex with him and three other men on the night of the alleged assault at the Grosvenor House hotel in Park Lane. The 17-year-old has vowed to see her attackers in court…
…Meikle, 29, a nightclub PR, who is a friend of several of the players, admitted at the weekend that he and other footballers had slept with the girl who had been a willing participant. He revealed that the England international at the centre of the rape stories was Newcastle star Kieron Dyer. Dyer, 24, had booked the rooms at the Grosvenor House Hotel used by the players but had not been at the hotel at the time.
Meikle, 29, revealed a disturbing culture among highly-paid Premiership players, in which girls are shared out for sex. He insisted that the Catholic schoolgirl had been a willing participant in a type of orgy known as ‘roasting’ which he claims many footballers would consider ‘normal’. He said two other Premiership players and a fourth man had slept with the girl and not eight as had been originally claimed.
The group did not know she was 17 because she looked four or five years older, he claimed. ‘No-one got heavy with her, this was normal,’ he said. ‘She didn’t say no, she didn’t push anyone off.’ He claimed after taking it in turns to have sex with her, they had all gone to sleep together and shared breakfast with her the next day….
…The newspaper (News of The World) claimed Meikle’s statement was backed up by a sworn affidavit from another of the accused men. The two Premiership players he claimed were involved were from different clubs, he said. The relationship between the accused men and the alleged victim soured over breakfast in the room 316 at Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, Meikle said. ‘Looking back, I suspect she could hear bits of conversation and thought it was about her and we were laughing at her,’ he said. ‘Even so, when breakfast arrived she stayed to eat.’ But the girl insists she left after the sex was over and took a taxi home.
She confessed to agreeing to sex with a footballer that night but said they were interrupted by a group of seven or eight men, four of whom who forced themselves upon her.”
I remember discussing this case with a crown prosecution source at the time. She told me the case was dropped because the crown prosecution didn’t think it was winnable. They thought the 17 teen-year-old woman would have been torn to pieces. I wonder what not pursuing the case did for her!
Regarding Mason Greenwood, Manchester United need to take a long hard look at how they train junior talent. It’s not just racism that needs kicking out of football; I think misogyny needs to be the next target. Footballers need reminding that misogyny is also a hate crime. Concerning the serial killer nurse – what should be a statutory inquiry needs to take a very close look at the senior management of that hospital. Chief Executives and Medical Directors need contracts that state if they ignore credible warnings and serious damage to patients results that, their wages from the time they should have taken action to the time they did are forfeited along with their pension earned in that time.
Hospital management needs to be regulated in the same way doctors are. The relative power of doctors and management needs adjusting. Perhaps doctors should be told to report mysterious deaths on a unit directly to the police if management doesn’t take action within their next shift. Perhaps one day, AI could help when medical records are all online, then red flags could automatically report unexplained deaths in a unit directly to the police.
#masongreenwood #manunited #CountessofChesterHospital
