Former Linby football boss told to expect prison after admitting a raft of sexual and blackmailing offences against women

The trial of Lewis Saxby was due to start on Monday, November 29, but at the 11th hour, the 32-year-old, who used to manage Linby Colliery Welfare, changed his plea to guilty to a raft of charges.

When he appeared before the court, he admitted the charges against different women, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The court heard that between February 2016 and May 2017, Saxby engaged in controlling behaviour with a woman he was in an intimate relationship with – threatening to publish sexual photographs of her, sending abusive texts, seizing her mobile phone, and refusing to collect the victim’s sister unless she agreed to have sex with him.

Saxby also admitted that, between July 2019 and January 2020, he had blackmailed another woman – demanding money in return for him not publishing intimate images of her.

Similar charges against a third woman, dating from May 2019, were also admitted by Saxby, of Lymington Road, Mansfield, when he appeared before the court.

On Friday, November 26, Saxby had also appeared before Nottingham Crown Court, where he admitted fraud to the tune of £89,000 – with court records showing that he had claimed he needed the money to fight an unfair dismissal claim.

He also admitted another blackmail charge on a fourth woman – again threatening to publish sexual photographs of her.

Separate counts of voyeurism and taking sexual photographs of a female without her consent were ordered to lie on file.

Mitigating, Simon Eckersley said that Saxby had a range of mental health issues and asked for a psychiatric report before being sentenced.

Judge Stuart Rafferty QC told him: “You have now pleaded guilty to these offences, and I seem to recall telling you that you should have done it much sooner.

“The advantage is that you have spared these women the embarrassment of giving evidence and you will be given credit for this.

“But don’t think for one minute that you will not be going to immediate custody – these offences are so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence will follow.”

Saxby had initially denied all charges against him when he appeared first at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court and later at the crown court in January, and would typically be given less credit in the severity of his sentence due to his late guilty plea.

Saxby resigned from the manager’s job at Rainworth FC in June 2020 before his offences came to light, citing personal reasons and saying that ‘he wanted to spend more time with his family’.

In 2015 he was appointed manager of Mansfield Town Ladies Team, after managing non-league Teversal and Forest Town.

He was appointed Linby manager in 2016 but left a year later to take charge at Blidworth.

He will be sentenced on Friday January 28 and was released on conditional bail - including that he must cooperate fully with the authors of the psychiatric report.