A notorious paedophile who abused boys for decades in the Geelong region took some of his victims to the Footscray Football Club in the late 1970s, say two men who survived the abuse.
Key points:
- Notorious Geelong-region paedophile John Coogan took victims to Footscray Football Club
- Two abuse survivors told ABC Sport that Coogan took them to the club, where he was a volunteer masseur
- Coogan is the third paedophile linked to the Bulldogs in the 1970s and 1980s
Warning: This story contains details of the grooming of boys.
John Patrick “Jack” Coogan, a physical education teacher who abused Geelong schoolboys in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, and was convicted of a string of child sex offences in the mid-1990s, took his victims into the inner sanctum at Western Oval, now home to the AFL’s Western Bulldogs.
The men have told ABC Sport the trips to the Western Oval, which took place on club training nights between 1976 and 1978, were part of Coogan’s grooming process.
They were not abused on the club’s premises but say Coogan knew the boys were football enthusiasts and used the trips to manipulate them. Both were approximately 12 years old at the time and were introduced to Bulldogs players and other staff, and given autographs.
Both men say Coogan clearly held a volunteer role at Footscray Football Club, most likely as a trainer, because Coogan was on friendly terms with players and gave them massage treatment.
“He had access to all areas at Footscray,” one of the men told ABC Sport.
“He used to massage all the players and seemed to have a fetish for thighs. He would massage with oil or deep heat.
ABC Sport has seen a 1993 police statement in which the other man detailed horrific and ongoing abuse by Coogan in the 1970s.
The statement includes details of one incident of abuse in Coogan’s office at St Joseph’s College in Geelong, after which the boy was allegedly taken to the Western Oval by Coogan and another man in a car driven by then-Footscray coach Bill Goggin.
In the statement, the man details an alleged argument between Coogan and Goggin, and the boy’s sense that Goggin was unhappy that Coogan was bringing the boy along for the car trip.
Both men say Coogan introduced them to Goggin, the Geelong football club legend who coached Footscray between 1976 and 1978 and later coached Geelong between 1980 and 1982.
ABC Sport makes no suggestion that Goggin knew of the abuse, only that he was an acquaintance of Coogan.
Goggin told ABC Sport that he was not aware of Coogan’s offending at the time and claimed that Coogan had no official role as a trainer at Footscray when Goggin was coach.
Goggin said he met Coogan during his time coaching VFA club Geelong West, where Coogan was also involved.
Of Coogan’s offending, Goggin told ABC Sport: “I knew nothing about it. If we had known, we probably would have said something or done something, I dunno. But I never suspected it. I can’t recall anything.”
Goggin said he had no memory of Coogan riding in his car, nor of Coogan bringing a boy along, nor of an argument about the car trip.
“I wouldn’t have even allowed that,” Goggin said.
In the 1990s, Coogan — who also taught at North Geelong High and Bell Park High School — was imprisoned for five years for 17 counts of indecent assault on multiple boys aged 10 to 15. The offences occurred between 1962 and 1983.
In response to questions from ABC Sport, the Western Bulldogs declined to comment on the matter and Bulldogs CEO Ameet Bains said the club did not possess any annual reports from the 1970s to confirm whether Coogan held any official titles at the club.
Coogan is the third sex offender linked to Footscray Football Club in the 1970s and 1980s.
In May, an ABC Sport investigation revealed harrowing abuse suffered by boys at the hands of Graeme Hobbs, a Footscray fundraiser and room steward, and John Wayland, the “ringleader” of a paedophile ring who admitted to ABC Sport that he met Hobbs during a stint as a Footscray trainer.
Hobbs used Footscray match tickets, membership medallions and money to groom boys in the Western Oval grandstands before abusing them in club offices and social club facilities.
Adam Kneale, a survivor of seven years of abuse by Hobbs, revealed the devastating scale of his suffering in the ensuing years.
Lawyers for Kneale subsequently lodged a Supreme Court writ against the Western Bulldogs, seeking damages.
Like Coogan, Hobbs and Wayland both received lengthy jail sentences in the 1990s for their offences. Coogan and Hobbs have since died.
Source: AFL NEWS ABC
