Nowhere to Run: Abused by our Coach

Episode
Episode One
Broadcast Info
2021 (59 mins)
Description
Charlie Webster is a broadcaster and journalist. She’s covered the world’s biggest sporting events. But there is one story she’s never been able to tell. When she was 12, Charlie joined an all-girls running group in Sheffield. Running became her passion and escape, and the girls in her running group were her best friends. It was a dream. But all that time their sports coach was abusing her. She never spoke to any of her friends about what was happening to her. It became my own secret that I pushed really far down, but I carried it with me everywhere. When Charlie was 19 their coach was arrested and convicted. He was sent to prison for 10 years. And it was only then that she realised she wasn’t the only one he’d abused No-one had ever spoken to Charlie about it - not the police, not the athletics club - no-one. She left Sheffield and didn’t speak to any of her friends again. To this day she doesn’t know what they went through. She has no idea who spoke up, or who else was abused by their coach. Now she wants to find out. She’s finally ready to talk to them - but she doesn’t know if they’ll talk to her. Charlie’s journey to find the friends she left behind all those years ago reveals a compelling personal story - of a tight-knit group of teenagers pushed apart by a predator who operated in plain sight. As Charlie finds each member of her old running group, she discovers what happened to them. Each discovery reveals a different side to their collective story. The more friends Charlie finds, the more she is able to piece back her past to really understand what happened to her. But there is another question that needs answering - how was this allowed to happen? As she digs deeper into her own past, Charlie wants to find out if what happened to her and her friends could happen again. She wants to know how young athletes are protected now. What she discovers is that abuse is still happening today - and the system is still failing young athletes, in exactly the same way. And that is something Charlie is determined to stop. Finding the friend who spoke out, whose testimony convicted their coach, brings Charlie the final answers she’s been searching for. And bringing the friends back together who haven’t spoken in decades, enables them to find the support and friendship that was taken from them all those years ago.
Genre
Health & Social Care; Sport
You are here: Search results (390)  >  Commentary - Utd V City  >  Commentary - Talking Point - End the Strikes  >  Commentary - Torquay V Huddersfield  >  Commentary - World News Highlights: Medal for MP  >  Commentary - London Royal Caribbean Journey Begins  >  Commentary - World News Highlights: Japan’s First Jet Plane  >  Commentary - News Flashes  >  Commentary - FA Cup Fourth Round  >  Hayes on Sunday  >  Westminster Council homes for votes inquiry  >  Commentary - Holiday News Flashes: Herne Hill Cycle Meet  >  Stun gun attack on student  >  Commentary - Varsity Rugby Match  >  Ross Perot in presidential race  >  James Goldsmith complaint - Press Council decision  >  Anthony Burgess on autobiography, work and life  >  Possible Government defeat over Maastricht Treaty Bill  >  Plans for new conference building in London  >  ICI profits  >  Empty houses squatted  >  Penlee lifeboat disaster reconstruction  >  Margaret Thatcher visits ICI factory  >  Mercury cuts jobs  >  Hugh Jenkins on London airports  >  Prince Charles on the youth of today  >  Noraid demonstration in New York  >  Our kind of town  >  City week  >  Teachers dispute over assessment and testing  >  Brecon Beacons Scout rescue  >  Jean-Marie Le Pen invite from Tory  >  Chancellor Howe on economic recovery  >  Murder of Lenore Gilbey - Lawrence Foye charged  >  White collar workers training scheme  >  Reagan’s controversial war cemetery visit  >  Decision makers  >  Wedding party snowed in  >  Businessman attempts to break flight record  >  Report on Peter Chimilovski, rapist  >  Education policy demonstration  >  Bethnal Green Hospital changes  >  Brecon Beacons Scout rescue  >  Margaret Thatcher on Bonn summit  >  Safety improvements after Marchioness disaster  >  Boy scout on record camping attempt  >  Loch Ness monster expedition  >  Front National rally  >  Kampuchean refugee special  >  Norman Tebbit on Le Pen visit  >  Irish Americans to protest during Queen’s visit  >  Salvation Army Blitz appeal  >  Obituary of John Lennon  >  Ronald Reagan at 40th anniversary of UN General Assembly  >  Youth unemployment  >  Copyright case over A Clockwork Orange  >  Three more pits to close  >  Steve Jones show  >  Ruling on teachers’ boycott of school tests  >  Channel tunnel to go ahead - Dover Chamber of Commerce view  >  Prince Charles visits Toxteth  >  Lebanese conflict - Israeli view  >  Le Pen won’t speak to Tories  >  Norman Lamont’s Mansion House Speech - Reaction  >  The Music Of Time  >  London pub fire leaves two dead  >  Margaret Thatcher at 40th anniversary of UN General Assembly  >  Inside Our Autistic Minds  >  Genius of the Modern World  >  Scout Movement - 75th anniversary  >  Genius of the Modern World  >  The Secret Life of Children’s Books  >  Shakespeare Live  >  The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway-The Final Countdown  >  25th International Playwriting Competition  >  Andrew Marr’s Paperback Heroes  >  Calculating Ada-The Countess Of Computing  >  The Music Of Time  >  Survey claims economic recession  >  Michael Mosley - Just One Thing  >  Andrew Marr’s Paperback Heroes  >  The Secret Life of Children’s Books  >  Panorama  >  Teachers’ salary deal  >  Inside Our Minds  >  Marchioness disaster-salvage operation  >  The Music Of Time  >  Blitz: The Bombs That Changed Britain  >  Inside Our Minds  >  Nowhere to Run: Abused by our Coach

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Nowhere to Run: Abused by our Coach". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/240068 (Accessed 24 Nov 2025)