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LTA apologises for failing to act sooner over child abuse case

LTA apologises - Getty Images Fee
LTA apologises - Getty Images Fee

The Lawn Tennis Association has issued an apology for failing to act sooner in the case of Dan Sanders, former head coach at the Wrexham Tennis Centre in north Wales, who was jailed for six years in July after pleading guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a minor.

Sanders, who is 42, was arrested late last year but concerns about his behaviour were raised as early as 2012. In fact, an enquiry was held that year by Tennis Wales, which shares a building with the Wrexham Tennis Centre.

Formerly a fringe player on the tour who once played doubles with Tim Henman, Sanders seems to have used his reputation and charisma to evade such questions over his conduct, and that 2012 enquiry had little impact, even though he was briefly suspended while it was going on.

An investigation by The Guardian newspaper quotes Peter Drew, chief executive of Tennis Wales, who said: “The outcome of [the 2012] investigations determined that while there was some unprofessional conduct involved, it did not involve issues of child protection.”

The central complaint under investigation at that time did not relate to minors. Instead, Sanders had shown sexually suggestive images during a presentation to other coaches at the centre. But it is surprising that no concerns over his conduct regarding underage players were uncovered, given how many parents and coaches now say that they had suspicions about him.

Indeed, one of the WTC directors who ran that inquiry is reported to have been approached with information from another coach while it was still going on. This woman said that Sanders had asked her for naked pictures when she was only 17, and later propositioned her during a coaching conference.  

In a statement, the LTA said: “We have always been committed to having the best safeguarding procedures possible at every level of the game, but in this case the actions we took were not enough,  and we apologise sincerely for the impact on all those affected.  Now that the legal case has come to a conclusion, we decided to undertake a wide-ranging, independent inquiry into Wrexham Tennis Centre and this case.”

The LTA also insisted: “We have always been committed to having the best safeguarding procedures possible at every level of the game.” Their head of safeguarding is a former detective inspector from the Met Police - David Humphrey - who specialised in child abuse cases.

Sanders – who is now said to have bullied many of his young charges, as well as making sexual comments or advances to some of them – was supposedly given specific training after the 2012 incident. The same goes for WTC itself. According to The Guardian’s investigation, one of the recommendations of the WTC enquiry was that he should keep clear glass in front of his office so that he would be in plain view. But he soon covered it up.

Three officials at WTC resigned when Sanders was arrested, including Bob Moore, the director in charge of welfare, and Debbie King, who was also involved in the 2012 inquiry.