A PAEDOPHILE football coach has died in jail while serving a 21-year sentence for drugging and raping young boys.

Anthony Mitchell used his position as a youth coach at a team he ran in Exeter in the 1960s and 70s to groom and abuse boys aged 11 to 13.

He took them on weekend trips to Dawlish Warren in a converted ambulance which he used as a caravan but then drugged and sexually assaulted them.

Mitchell was a night shift worker at the time and asked his GP to prescribe him large amounts of Mogadon sleeping pills which he then used to stupefy his victims.

He was prosecuted and jailed for a year in 1980 after complaints by four boys but the full truth only emerged when two more went to police in 2014 as a result of publicity about Jimmy Savile’s crimes.

He was jailed for 21 years in 2015 after a trial at Exeter Crown Court at which they told of their ordeals at his hands. Police believed there were many other victims who chose not to come forward.

The attacks contributed to one of his victims turning down the chance to become a professional footballer after being offered trials at Manchester United and Spurs.

The judge, Recorder Ignatius Hughes, KC, said: ‘These men had their childhoods pretty much destroyed by you. There was abuse of trust, grooming and planning.’

Mitchell was aged 86 when he died in jail on February 1 this year. The Ministry of Justice have confirmed his death but not said at which jail he died.

A spokesperson said: ‘As with all deaths in custody the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.’

Mitchell was said to be suffering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma when he was jailed in 2015.

At the trial in 2015, Mitchell, of Exwick, Exeter, denied but was found guilty of two serious sexual offences which would now be classed as male rape, one of assault with intent to commit a similar offence, and three indecent assaults.

The jury convicted him after hearing how he ran a youth football club in Exeter for 26 years and used it as an opportunity to groom and abuse players in his under-13 teams.

He claimed to be a father figure to the boys but drugged and abused them during the sleepover trips to Dawlish Warren. Mitchell made the boys sleep with him in a double sleeping bag and victims remember him touching them as they were falling asleep or waking up.

Mitchell denied any inappropriate sexual activity. He even denied the offences which he admitted in 1980. He claimed he was like a father to the boys and would never hurt them.