England Boxing has allowed stalkers, sex pests and violent criminals to coach and officiate the sport’s young hopefuls, the Mail can reveal.
People with extensive criminal records, those who have been court martialled, or lost disciplinary hearings on sex assault charges have all been given unfettered access to vulnerable adults and young people.
When presented with the Mail’s findings England Boxing refused to comment – but Sport England, the government body which provides funding to the sport, described them as ‘very serious’, and has now launched a probe.
The Mail found affiliated officials included former British Army sergeant Paul Rosendale, who was kicked out of the Armed Forces for sex offences, and Brian Alvin Finch, who sexually assaulted a colleague at an official boxing event.
Coaches include Ritchie Fox, jailed for more than six years for stalking his ex-girlfriend. He sent her mother threats to harm her, followed her to work events and bombarded her with obsessive violent and sexual messages.
And violent career criminal Sean Martin, who has committed at least 70 offences, remains head coach at a club in Cheltenham.
Boxing England requires an enhanced DBS check – a background check which flags any safeguarding concerns or criminal convictions – for all coaches and officials, which must be renewed every three years.
But once a conviction is reported it is up to Boxing England bosses whether to exclude the person from affiliation, with cases being decided by a small panel of insiders, whistleblowers said.
Here, MailOnline takes a look at some of the men England Boxing has allowed to hold roles within its ranks.
Paul Rosendale, referee – sex pest thrown out of army
Paul Rosendale, was kicked out of the armed forces for sexual offences before becoming a boxing referee who pursued a female official for a threesome
England Boxing has allowed stalkers, sex pests and violent criminals to coach and officiate the sport’s young hopefuls, the Mail can reveal
England Boxing allowed disgraced army sergeant Paul Rosendale to become an affiliated boxing referee despite being kicked out of the armed forces for sex offences.
He has refereed at the highest level of boxing and previously said he aims to officiate at the 2028 Olympics.
While serving in the Royal Corps of Signals, he committed ‘disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind’ by having sex with an intoxicated female colleague, who told the court that she ‘did consent to have sexual intercourse with him purely because of my drunken state’.
A military court also heard he attempted to force himself on the same colleague days later after gaining access to her room.
A court martial convicted him and he was demoted in rank, dismissed from the army and jailed for 11 months.
But after his release from prison, England Boxing granted Rosendale affiliation as a referee – which he used to commit more sexually inappropriate behaviour.
He was recently reprimanded for pestering a female colleague for a threesome at an England Boxing training course he was running in September 2022, both in person and via messages.
There were also multiple other claims of misconduct made against Rosendale, the Mail understands, but the details are redacted in England Boxing’s report.
He was ordered in May to serve a ten week suspension over the threesome incident from March to May this year. At the hearing, he admitted sending messages requesting a threesome, but denied that this contravened England Boxing’s policies.
The panel said it had considered sending him to ‘some form of training’ on what is appropriate behaviour due to his attitude towards women, but ultimately decided that facing disciplinary proceedings would be ‘sufficient’.
Rosendale has since been permanently suspended for ‘disciplinary reasons’. No details of the basis for the ban have been given.
Brian Alvin Finch, referee – sexually assaulted official
Brian Alvin Finch sexually assaulted a female boxing official during a boxing trip – but was allowed to immediately return to the sport after a disciplinary hearing
England Boxing found that referee Brian Alvin Finch sexually assaulted a female official while on an official boxing trip, but allowed him to immediately return to the sport.
While staying at a Premier Inn in Newcastle Upon Tyne during the National Amateur Championships in 2023, Finch sexually assaulted the woman in full view of three witnesses, who all gave statements to an England Boxing disciplinary panel.
Finch was found to have groped the woman’s bottom without consent after a group had been drinking in the hotel lobby.
At the hearing he denied the assault and being drunk, but witnesses saw him with an open bottle of wine in front of him.
One witness said Finch asked the victim ‘Can I grab your arse?’ before doing so ‘very aggressively using his full left hand’ without waiting for an answer.
Despite ruling the incident had taken place, England Boxing praised his 40 years in the sport and said it was ‘out of character’, and that he was a man of ‘good character’ who had had a ‘momentary lapse in judgment’.
It was ruled that he should be given a three month ban from the sport – but as he had already been on suspension for three-and-a-half months awaiting disciplinary proceedings, he was permitted to immediately return as a referee without sanction.
Ritchie Fox, coach – jailed for six years for stalking
Founder of Ashfield Spartans Boxing Club in Nottinghamshire, Ritchie Fox, is a convicted stalker who was jailed for six-and-a-half years for stalking his ex
Founder and coach at Ashfield Spartans Boxing Club in Nottinghamshire, Ritchie Fox, is a convicted stalker who was jailed for six-and-a-half years in 2014 for a seven-month campaign of harassment against his ex-girlfriend.
Fox, 36, admitted two counts of stalking and one of perverting the course of justice in a campaign which saw him bombard his victim with sexual and violent messages and even contact her mother with threats to harm her.
During their relationship he had secretly stolen her passwords and taken over security settings on her social media accounts, and synced their phones so he would receive all her messages.
After she broke matters off he visited the sites more than 2,000 times in just one month.
Fox also sent obsessive amounts of text messages, including many of violent and sexually graphic content that showed he knew where she was and what she was doing.
He followed her, including trailing his ex and her mother to a work Christmas party, before sending her a tirade of messages which left her so fearful she left early.
Fox then began sending messages to his victim’s mother threatening to harm her daughter and let down the tyres on her car.
When interviewed by police, he even produced faked messages from his victim in a bid to suggest he was the real victim of stalking.
In a bio on his club website, far from showing remorse for his actions, he bemoans how he ‘served the best part of four years of the peak of my life behind bars’. He does not disclose online why he was jailed.
Fox has recently been nominated as boxing coach of the year by Boxing England.
At Fox’s club other leaders’ bios reveal their own histories of criminal offending – including assault of a police officer – and drug abuse.
Sean Martin, coach – floored man in ‘cowardly’ attack
Sean Martin, 41, was head coach at Kings Amateur Boxing Club in Cheltenham and already had an extensive criminal history when he appeared in court on assault charges in 2019
Martin (pictured outside court) floored his victim with a single punch, delivered from behind, in what the judge described as an ‘utterly cowardly’ attack – and appears to have faced no sanction from England Boxing
Violent criminal Sean Martin, 41, was head coach at Kings Amateur Boxing Club in Cheltenham and already had an extensive criminal history when he appeared in court on assault charges in 2019.
The court heard he had 26 convictions relating to 68 separate offences.
Soon to be added were assault causing actual bodily harm and criminal damage.
Martin floored his victim with a single punch, delivered from behind, in what the judge described as an ‘utterly cowardly’ attack.
He then went on a rampage, causing criminal damage to a glass window, bar, bar stool and door.
He remains in post at Kings ABC and in a recent interview with Gloucestershire Live, he said: ‘I’m registered with England Boxing. They’re our governing body. So, you’ve got to abide by their rules.’
It is not clear that Martin faced any sanction from Boxing England over the conviction.
Mick Driscoll, coach – two counts of sexual assault
Mick Driscoll was convicted of two counts of sexual assault of the same woman in 2019
Just last week award-winning England Boxing coach Michael ‘Mick’ Driscoll was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault of a woman in 2019.
His victim told the court Driscoll barged into her room at a Holiday Inn in Crawley on May 20, 2019, a stay which coincided with the England Boxing National Schools Championships being held in the town on the weekend May 18-19.
It was heard he forced his way into her hotel room, pinned her to the wall and kissed her.
The woman managed to break away but Driscoll then ‘stripped to his underpants” and threw her onto the bed before sexually assaulting her.
The court heard Driscoll ‘had an erection’ and ‘slobbered all over’ his victim while ripping at her clothes and ‘rubbing himself against her trying to ejaculate’.
He was convicted on a second charge of sexual assault after groping the same victim ‘around the backside and crotch area’ in December of the same year.
Driscoll, who oversaw the development of more than 100 national champions, was acquitted of a third count of sexual assault relating to pinning the woman to the wall and attempting to kiss her.
As a former boxer, he fought for the British title and narrowly missed being selected for the Seoul Olympics as light-welterweight.
Driscoll has been dismissed from England Boxing following a number of allegations emerging against him.
Whistleblowers told the Mail England Boxing’s lack of regulations concerning criminal records allows individuals who they believe should not be overseeing children and vulnerable people to slip through the cracks.
The scale of offenders hiding in boxing could become worse in the coming months, with multiple coaches and members awaiting trial for sex offences.
The Mail is aware of ongoing cases concerning members of England Boxing being charged with sex offences against children.
And at least nine further coaches, including Quinton Shillingford – who has coached Boxing GB and England fighters and has been awarded with an MBE for services to boxing – are currently suspended for safeguarding reasons pending further enquiries.
Dr James Newman, a sport and exercise psychologist specialising in safeguarding from Sheffield Hallam University, said the Mail’s findings highlight ‘a continuation of maltreatment and abuse in sport which is still normalised.’
He added that the cases found by the Mail ‘indicate concerns […] around the hypermasculine nature of sport, which legitimises highly problematic behaviours.’
Dr Newman said: ‘Stories of this kind also reflect that there is much to do still to make sport a physically and psychologically safe environment, where victims are protected.
‘In line with our research, allegations of this kind within any sport suggest that a cultural intervention is needed to address welfare at both the individual, organisation, and wider systemic level of the given sport.’
A Sport England spokesperson: ‘These allegations are very serious, and we strongly encourage any concerned individual to report illegal activity to the police. We are in contact with England Boxing over this matter.’
