UK Athletics upholds coach ban for sexual abuse of an athlete

New York Times

2 hours ago

UK Athletics (UKA) has given an indefinite suspension to hammer coach Christopher Black for the serious sexual abuse of an athlete.
Black, 75, was found by an independent panel last year to have sexually abused a young athlete. The hammer coach appealed the findings in October 2024 but the decision released on August 5 rejected the appeal and made the indefinite suspension from all athletics activities — including coaching — final and binding.
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Black's behaviour was judged to be approaching the 'most serious form of abuse a senior coach could subject a young athlete to'.
The independent panel said nine charges were fully proven to a civil standard: five of sexual abuse, three of inappropriate sexual touching and one of verbal impropriety and inappropriate touching.
Three further charges were found to be proved in part by the panel and two dismissed. The age gap between the coach and athlete was also noted.
'I could not refuse to let you do it because it was terrifying,' the athlete said, as detailed in a UKA report. 'I was absolutely terrified.'
Black maintained his innocence throughout.
When questioned by the panel, the former Olympic hammer thrower said he did not know what the Coach Licence Scheme was (the conditions that require all coaches to meet adequate training and codes of conduct) and said he had never been asked to go on a course.
The release of the final decision comes just over a month after UKA permanently banned coach Chris Barnes from the sport after being found guilty of an intimate relationship with an athlete and sending racial slurs.
It also comes one day after the governing body released improvements to their safeguarding and disciplinary processes after an independent safeguarding review.
The key improvements included a clearer criteria for how cases should be handled, the power for the Case Management Group (CMG) to resolve lower-level cases and expanding the number of people that are permitted to carry out certain tasks such as notifying someone of an order.
'These are sensible and practical improvements that will make the system more responsive,' said UKA Head of Safeguarding Danny Williams in a statement. 'By allowing us to deal with level one or low-risk cases more quickly and proportionately, we can reduce the stress and delay that often affects both complainants and respondents.
'It also means our safeguarding panels can focus their attention where it's most needed — on more serious and complex matters.'