FORMER youth coach Bob Higgins has been jailed for 24 years and three months at Winchester Crown Court for sexually abusing young players over 25 years.

The 66-year-old was found guilty of 44 counts of indecent assault following a retrial at Bournemouth Crown Court.

He was found guilty of another count last year.

Higgins touched and groped 24 victims, most of them trainees at Southampton FC and Peterborough United, between 1971 and 1996.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard his status as a “God-like” figure enabled his decades-long campaign of abuse.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Brown, of Hampshire Police, said Higgins was a “predatory paedophile”.

Last week, Saints issued an “unreserved apology” to the victims of Higgins.

The Premier League club issued a statement in which it said it was “deeply sorry” that former youth players had been exposed to abuse by Higgins.

The club added it had been instructed by the police not to contact victims during the investigation and said it recognised the lack of contact may have caused “anger and further distrust”.

Sentencing Higgins at Winchester Crown Court today, Judge Peter Crabtree said that he "carefully groomed" the boys by giving them gifts such as football shirts signed by professional players and trips to football matches.

The judge said: "You encouraged many of them to treat you as a father figure.

"For a number of boys who were brought up without a father and were vulnerable this had a profound effect."

Higgins, who also coached at New Forest club Bashley, was "cunning and manipulative" and used sexualised behaviour to "normalise" the abuse he carried out, the court heard.

Judge Crabtree added: "A number of the boys idolised you and were prepared, and did, anything to further their dreams of becoming a professional footballer."