Like many young lads who grew up with a dream of becoming a footballer, the sport was my whole life.

It was the be-all and end-all. I didn’t even want to think about not being offered a contract.

That dream looked like it could become a reality when I made it to Southampton Football Club at 13 years old. They had produced some of my favourite football heroes and I was given the amazing opportunity to train with boys like myself, who wanted to be the next big thing in football.

All of this came to a halt when I was subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of a coach that I trusted and looked up to.

Bob Higgins was a well-respected football coach for Southampton FC who abused his position of power and subjected me to what I can only describe as pure hell for two and a half years.

In the 90s, myself and five other boys who were also sexually abused by Higgins came forward to bring this man to justice – even though at that time child sexual abuse was not something that was spoken about.

I was scared that people would think that a man as well-known as Higgins could never do such an abhorrent thing to any boy. 

We lost our criminal case against him, and Higgins was able to go back to football coaching, and to continue his secret terror of sexual abuse against other children. 

Finally, in June this year, Higgins was finally convicted of sexual abuse and jailed for 24 years for the abuse of 24 schoolboys over a 25 year period, from 1971 to 1996. But he wasn’t convicted for sexually abusing me. 

The system failed us back in the 90s, and the law is failing us again now. 

A loophole in the law called ‘double jeopardy’ means Higgins can’t be retried in a criminal court for the same charge. People can only be retried for the same crime if there’s new and compelling evidence and the crime is considered  ‘serious’ or ‘severe’ enough. 

It’s disgusting that most forms of child sexual abuse aren’t considered ‘serious’ or ‘severe’ enough for a retrial. This is why I’m campaigning to change the out-of-date ‘double jeopardy’ law, so that other children don’t have to go through the same thing we had to endure. 

An 800-year-old law that doesn’t deem child sexual abuse as a ‘serious’ enough offence is not a law that should have a place in our society

I am also doing this for closure – for myself and the five other men who were brave enough to come forward with me in the 90s. 

Even though Higgins is in jail right now, he spends no time in his cell for the abuse he subjected us to. He sits in jail knowing he got away with it when it comes to us. 

Higgins stared at me during the trial in the 90s, trying to get me to react. He sometimes even laughed at me, knowing that he was still having an effect on my life. 

He took away years of my childhood and ruined my adult life, without paying any consequences for it. There isn’t one day that I don’t feel sick to the stomach, or sleep through one night without waking up and thinking of what he did to me.

All I’m asking for is an acknowledgment that the abuse took place. 

What Higgins did to us is something that can happen to any child, at any time. I want to do everything in my power to get this law changed and get justice. 

An 800-year-old law that doesn’t deem child sexual abuse as a ‘serious’ enough offence is not a law that should have a place in our society.

We need to do everything we can to get the government to listen. That’s why I’ve started a Change.org petition to prove to MPs and the government that people care about this issue. The more people that sign, the louder our voices will be. 

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