Hove ex-sports coach jailed again for sex offences against boys

A paedophile who worked as a sports coach has been jailed for a second time for historic sexual assaults on boys in Sussex.
Michael Green (Photograph: Sussex Police)Michael Green (Photograph: Sussex Police)
Michael Green (Photograph: Sussex Police)

Sussex Police said Michael James Green, 74, of Aldrington Close, Hove, was sentenced to a total of 12 years at Lewes Crown Court today (September 21) having been convicted of 17 indecent assaults against a total of seven boys aged between 12 and 16.

Green had pleaded not guilty to all the charges but was convicted on Wednesday after a 13-day trial.

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Police said nine offences were committed against four of the boys, three of whom were separately assaulted at Green’s then address in Nevill Road, Hove, in the 1980s. He was convicted of four offences against each of two of those boys, three offences against another one, and one offence against the fourth boy.

The other three boys were separately assaulted on dates between 1988 and 1994. Green was convicted of four offences against one of them, and two offences against each of the other two boys.

The prosecution followed an investigation by detectives from the Brighton Safeguarding Investigations Unit.

The court also heard that Green, then of Aldrington Close, Hove, had been sentenced to nine years imprisonment at Hove Crown Court on February 28 2014 for four counts of sexual offences against four young boys.

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Those 2014 convictions had resulted from an investigation by Brighton detectives into information received in 2011 that a young boy had been sexually assaulted by Green in the early 1980s.

Three further victims forward during that first investigation, and Green was convicted of one offence of a serious sexual assault against a boy, and of indecent assault against three other victims, all in Hove. A further charge of of a serious sexual assault against the first boy was ordered to lie on the court file.

All the boys in the 2014 case were teenagers at the time of those offences which took place in the 1980s. Green had met them whilst he was engaged in the running of junior cycle speedway clubs.

Detective Constable Dawn Robertson, who was involved with both investigations, said; “Green’s 2014 sentence received considerable publicity and as a result these seven further victims came forward to us over the ensuing months.

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“We have great admiration for their readiness to help see justice done, and for giving evidence at Green’s trial where he denied the allegations throughout and continues to do so even after conviction, as he did in 2014.

“It is clear that throughout that period of the eighties and nineties he was actively involving himself in different types of sports coaching, all of which had one thing in common – they gave him access to young and often vulnerable young boys who he systematically abused under the guise of helping them.

“Reports of this type will always be taken seriously and investigated wherever possible. Anyone who wishes to report such offences can contact the police at any time online or by calling 101, and can arrange to talk in confidence to experienced investigators.

Police emphasise that offences relate to a period starting nearly a quarter of a century ago, and that there are no current safeguarding issues in relation the sports activities involved.