The Story Dorset Never Wanted Exposed… by its survivors who did.
It is time to protect children inside of unregulated sport.
They called it “historic” abuse—a convenient lie to bury the truth. For the 11 million Britons living with complex trauma every day, this violence does not live in the past. But now, a powerful new memoir is ensuring that the story institutions tried to silence is becoming a reckoning they can no longer avoid.
One month ago today, the memoir ‘Historic: The True Legacy of Childhood Sport’ was published, launching initially on Amazon and now arriving in bookshops across 15 countries. In a remarkably short time, it has achieved bestseller status in the USA, United Kingdom, and Australia, but its success is measured in more than sales. It has ignited a global conversation.
The book chronicles the harrowing experience of a five-year-old girl in 1970s Dorset who was handed over to Olympians Brian and Monica Phelps. What should have been an honour became a near decade-long nightmare. Yet, this is not merely one survivor’s story. It is the story of more than a classroom of Dorset survivors whose voices have been systematically silenced for decades.
From Olympic Pedestal to Prison Cell
Brian Phelps was not just any coach; he was a national sporting hero. He won a bronze medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics at just 16, was a double European Champion, and claimed four gold medals across two Commonwealth Games. This glittering public persona, later bolstered by his role as a diving commentator for Eurosport, became a weapon of mass deception, granting him unparalleled access and trust.
After his competitive career, he and his wife, Olympic gymnast Monica Rutherford, founded the OLGA trampoline club in the South of England. The club, which produced many international performers, became the setting where the Phelps’ reputation shielded them from scrutiny for years.
This façade shattered in 2008 when Phelps was remanded in custody on a litany of charges, including rape and indecent assault. At trial, in Bournemouth, he admitted to 42 charges of indecent assault and indecency against girls as young as six, committed between 1975 and 1986. He was sentenced to nine years in prison and will be on the sex offenders register for life. Shockingly, it was claimed in 2023 that there are at least 12 further victims.
A Blueprint for a Revolution
‘Historic’ draws a damning line from Phelps’s celebrated career to the corridors of power where he and figures like Jimmy Savile operated with impunity. The memoir poses a formidable question: how was a predator able to abuse children for over a decade, and what happens when survivors stop asking for justice and start demanding it?
The answer lies in these pages. It is a story of what happens when legal justice fails, and survivors create their own. When institutions refuse accountability, survivors force it. When systems protect predators, survivors expose them.
This publication is a stark reminder that, three years after the Whyte Review confirmed systemic abuse within British Gymnastics, the institution still refuses to adequately support survivors. But ‘Historic’ proves what survivors can achieve when they refuse to give up.
The local community deserves to know this story. Parents now need to know this story. The overwhelming international response proves that the world is finally listening, and the message is clear: it is time to protect children inside the world of unregulated sport.
The truth they buried is out. The manuscript is now being converted for film, ensuring this crucial story reaches an even wider audience. Further information can be found at neverhistoric.com.
The reckoning has begun.
