The image caption is.
The men said Barry Bennell was a scout for Manchester City.
A group of men who said they were abused by Barry Bennell lost a High Court fight.
The men said he abused them when they played for him.
Mr Justice Johnson ruled that there was no evidence that City was responsible for Bennell's acts of abuse.
The men were shocked and dismayed by the lawyer who represented them.
The men, who are now in their 40s and 50s, claimed that the relationship between the paedophile and the club was akin to employment and that Bennell was a scout for City when they were abused.
The court was told that the man was a scout in the mid-1970s but not when he was abused.
When he gave evidence in the High Court trial, Bennell denied that he was linked to City in the 1980s.
He told the judge that he was a local scout for City between 1975 and 1979 but not between 1979 and 1985.
Bennell said that he was never a City coach and junior teams he coached after 1979 had no connection to the club.
He told the court that he had used his previous connections with City for his own benefit.
The image is from PA Media/Elizabeth Cook.
The image caption is.
The trial of Barry Bennell took place via video-link.
Each of the claims had proved that Bennell abused them, according to Mr Justice Johnson.
He ruled that the claims were too late to be fair.
The evidence was not as clear as it would have been had the claims been brought in time because a key witness died in 2010, he said.
He said that it was not fair to make a binding determination on MCFC's responsibility for the abuse based on the partial evidence that is still available.
The judge said the connection between the abuse and Bennell's relationship with City was insufficient to give rise to vicarious liability.
The relationship gave Bennell the chance to commit abuse, but MCFC didn't give the welfare of the people to him.
It has not been proven that MCFC is responsible for Bennell's acts of abuse.
Court handout with image source.
The image caption is.
The trial was shown a card that said 'North West Representative'.
The men would be appealing, according to the lawyer who represented them.
The club has escaped liability despite the judge accepting that there was a connection between Bennell and Man City and that he was scouting for them.
The behavior of Manchester City Football Club has upset my clients.
Bennell was sentenced to 34 years in prison in the UK and the US for sexually abusing boys on five separate occasions.
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