My running coach abused me, aged 15 – Charlie Webster

The 31-year-old waived her right to anonymity to speak about abuse she suffered at the hands of her running coach as a teenager.

Ms Webster said she had formed a close relationship with her running coach since the age of 11 and that he abused her trust to sexually assault her when she was 15.

“I got quite close to the running coach because you do,” she told BBC Radio 5. “You start to trust them when you’re a young kid, and he started to take me for a few private sessions because he said I was good and I could do with some extra sessions because that would really help.

Not one time in my head did I think I’m being sexually assaulted, because if I did, I would have done something about it – Charlie Webster

“He took me into a private situation where no one else was… and then he abused my trust, and he abused the fact that I was an innocent person who wanted his support and his compassion and his care as my running coach.”

The man was later jailed for 10 years and put on the sex offenders register for life.

Ms Webster is about to embark on a 250-mile, seven-day run to raise money and awareness for Women’s Aid, a charity which works to end domestic abuse against women and children.

The head of the charity warned in December that domestic violence death toll will rise, because of a “shocking gap” in funding. The Women’s Aid annual survey for 2013, found that 155 women and 103 children a day were turned away from the first refuge shelter they approached in need, because of a lack of funding.

Video: Charlie Webster speaks to Channel 4 News on 31 January about why she’s running 250 miles in seven days, to raise money for Women’s Aid.

‘I didn’t know what he was doing was wrong’

She said that her sports coach had been a “male role model” to her, but that he broke the trust of his position by taking it too far.

She said: “You should never touch a young girl anyway, but he very, very manipulatively and very slowly sexually assaulted me.

Because of the vulnerability of young people at sports clubs and events the NSPCC wants the legislation extended to cover them – NSPCC

“It doesn’t matter how many times, (but) it happened, it happened a couple of times. You don’t realise, well I didn’t realise it was happening, because you trust that person and that trust is built up.”

Ms Webster said she did not tell anyone because she did not know then it was something she could report. It had been another, younger girl who began to record the abuse and took it to the police. “I didn’t understand. I really lacked confidence. I didn’t know what he was doing was wrong,” she said, adding: “Not one time in my head did I think I’m being sexually assaulted, because if I did, I would have done something about it.”

Legal protection

The NSPCC said Ms Webster’s comments were “extremely courageous”. The charity’s head of child protection in sport, Anne Tivas, told Channel 4 News that offenders “may seek out positions of trust, including in sport,” in order to have access to children, which is why sports clubs and organisations needed to have rigorous child protection measures in place.

But the NSPCC said the current legislation, which makes it illegal for adults in certain positions of trust to have sexual activity with 16 and 17-year-olds, does not extend to sports roles, such as coaches, instructors or helpers.

“Because of the vulnerability of young people at sports clubs and events the NSPCC wants the legislation extended to cover them,” added Ms Tivas.

“Charlie’s story illustrates how offenders can be extremely sophisticated in the way they groom and manipulate children, exploiting their innocence, leaving them to suffer in silence,” she added.