Coach Minichiello who helped Ennis-Hill to gold banned for sexual misconduct

UK Athletics coach Toni Minichiello, who worked with athletes including multiple Olympic gold medal winner Jessica Ennis-Hill, has been banned for life for ‘sexually physical behaviour’ including emotional abuse and bullying spanning a 15-year period.

The 56-year-old was found guilty of 11 different serious charges after an investigation by UK Athletics, including making inappropriate sexual comments to athletes he coached, touching the breasts of a female athlete without consent, and mimicking sex acts during training sessions.

The Sheffield-born coach was suspended last summer pending the findings of the investigation, and has now been banned in perpetuity from applying for a license to practice again in future for incidents which amounted to ‘gross breaches of trust’ and had a ‘severe consequences for the mental health and mental wellbeing of the athletes under his charge.’

UKA released a scathing statement detailing its findings on Tuesday morning.

‘UKA has considered the matter and decided that these findings are of the utmost seriousness, the statement reads. ‘They amount to a large number of breaches of the UKA Coach Licence Terms over a 15-year period.

‘The issuance of a UKA licence to a coach is essentially a representation on behalf of UKA that the coach in question can be trusted with the athletes under his charge. UKA is firmly of the view that there will never be a time in the future at which it would be appropriate to grant that assurance and issue such a licence.’

The 11 charges which were upheld against Minichiello compromise the following incidents:

Minichiello began coaching Ennis-Hall when she was aged 13, and oversaw her career at the top of the sport, including the London 2012 Olympics when she won the gold medal in heptathlon and four years later in Brazil when she took silver.

Ennis-Hill’s success in London subsequently led to Minichiello being voted coach of the year by Sports Coach UK, and he has regularly worked as a BBC pundit on the broadcaster’s athletics coverage.

Minichiello allowed his coaching license to expire during the investigation, which means he cannot be formally suspended or sanctioned by UKA.

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