A former youth football coach and scout accused of sexually abusing 11 boys under the age of 16 has died in a car crash just a day before he was due to face trial.
Michael Carson, known as “Kit”, 75, stood accused of 12 counts of indecent assault and one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
His trial was due to open yesterday (January 7) at Peterborough Crown Court, but police announced today that he had died in a crash on the A1303 at Bottisham yesterday morning.
Carson, of St Bartholomew’s Court, Cambridge, was driving his red Mazda 3 at about 9.45am when it left the road and crashed into a tree.
A police spokesperson said: “Emergency services attempted to save Mr Carson’s life but he was declared dead at the scene a short time later.
“No other vehicle or person was involved in the collision.”
Carson charged with the alleged offences at Cambridge Crown Court last year after being arrested in January 2017.
Police say that the victims have been informed and efforts are being made to contact all the witnesses.
At Peterborough Crown Court this morning (January 8), Jeremy Benson, prosecuting, said: “The defendant died yesterday morning.
“He was involved in a road traffic collision at about 9.45am.
“There is an investigation being carried out and I therefore don’t propose to go into any other details.”
Inspector Amarjit Singh QPM told the court the body of Carson was formally identified by his wife Pauline Carson.
Judge Matthew Lowe ruled that the case file be closed.
Carson, who denied the charges, previously worked at Norwich City, Peterborough United and Cambridge United.
Bail conditions had included Carson being barred from coaching children in the UK or travelling abroad to coach young people and from involvement in scouting under 18s.
Before working at Peterborough, Carson was at Norwich City from 1983 and had connections with other junior teams.
During his time as youth coach with Norwich City, he hosted David Beckham for a week in 1987.
In an interview with the Eastern Daily Press in 2002, Carson said: “I said to him [Beckham] ‘If you ever get a rejection from Manchester United, there is always a place at Norwich City for you’.”
Anyone who saw the collision or has dash cam footage should call 101, quoting incident 100 of January 7.
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