A former Norwich City youth coach who died in a car crash the morning he was due to stand trial over sex abuse allegations was part of a 'paedophile ring', a victim claims.

Norwich Evening News: The scene on the A1303 near Bottisham in Cambridgeshire where a red Mazda 3 driven by youth football and scout Michael 'Kit' Carson collided with a tree yesterday morning, killing the 75 year old. Carson had been due to stand trial at Peterborough Crown Court on 12 counts of indecent assault and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. Photo: Joe Giddens/PA WireThe scene on the A1303 near Bottisham in Cambridgeshire where a red Mazda 3 driven by youth football and scout Michael 'Kit' Carson collided with a tree yesterday morning, killing the 75 year old. Carson had been due to stand trial at Peterborough Crown Court on 12 counts of indecent assault and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. Photo: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

Michael 'Kit' Carson was killed when his car left the road at the A1303 at Bottisham on Monday morning - the day his trial was due to begin.

He was due at Peterborough Crown Court to face 12 allegations of indecent assault and one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

One of the 11 men due to give evidence at the trial told the Sunday Times Mr Carson was part of a paedophile ring which included Barry Bennell - sentenced to 30 years in prison last year for sex offences, and could have hundreds of victims.

The victim described training sessions at Peterborough United in the 1990s, where boys would be told to strip.

'He would have us essentially doing a regime of exercises stripped down naked,' he told the Times.

'We would start off having our Peterborough training shorts on, and he would just say, 'Take them off. There is no point in having them on.'

'He showed pictures of penises at various stages of development. That was the key phrase; 'I want to check your development'.

'He would get us to strip down so he could see how we were getting on. It was just a facade of a coaching process he had fashioned up.'

Mr Carson had been youth coach and scout for Norwich City for a decade from 1982 to 1992.

The offences were all alleged to have happened between 1978 and 2009.

The first alleged assault occurred in a hotel in the North of England, while the other offences took place in and around Peterborough.

The incitement offence allegedly took place between February 2008 and February 2009 in Cambridge.

One former player, who made allegations to the police, told them: 'Kit was a gateway to success. You did what you were told.

'If you questioned anything you were unprofessional. He used to say: 'Do you trust me?

'Only on reflection you see it was wrong. I looked up to him as a role model.

'You felt if you complained, if you went to your parents you would be released for being unprofessional.'

Another victim, who was coached by Mr Carson at Cambridge United after joining aged 11, told the BBC trainees would be made to fight each other naked.

'It was all to build character, but it always felt really awkward,' he said.

The former player also said Mr Carson would get into the shower with the boys.

'Afterwards again he would make us massage ourselves - this could take up to an hour, being in the changing room with him, naked, showering and massaging ourselves,' he said.

'Looking back at it now I wish someone did raise the issue,' he added. 'I can see how wrong it is but at the time we all just thought it was natural. We never really reported it to our parents.'

'Back in the youth team days I saw players drop out after these tournaments. It killed their football because of this one man.'

Mr Carson had denied the charges.