I was eight when coach abused me....I was sickened when I heard of others

Ex-gymnasts are 'fighting for justice'

-  AMANDA EVANS

AN ex-neighbour of a British Gymnastics coach at the centre of sex abuse allegations claims in a shocking TV documentary he also interfered with her.

Jess, who does not want to give her surname, says she visited the home of former Olympian Stan Wild when she was eight and explored his daughter's fancy dress box.

On the show, she recalls walking into the garden in a tutu and claims Wild asked if she had wet herself, before patting her privates.

She claims: "He asked if I needed to get changed. I remember feeling really embarrassed. It was then he crouched down and touched me.

"He was breathing strangely and quivering. As an adult I understood he was turned on.

Now a mum of two, Jess says she is speaking out after reading an article by another of Wild's alleged victims, ex-gymnast Nikki O'Donnell.

"I read Nikki's story and my blood went cold. I knew in my heart who it was. I felt physically sick. He stole my innocence. Everything changed when that happened to me," she tells tonight's ITV1 documentary Gymnastics: A Culture Of Abuse?.

The programme chronicles the fight for justice by former gymnasts who claim they were physically, emotionally, or sexually abused as children by their coaches.