Former Cambridge United football coach Michael 'Kit' Carson dies in car crash ahead of trial

Former youth football coach Michael “Kit” Carson, who was due to stand trial accused of the indecent assault of boys aged under 16, died in a single vehicle crash on the A1303 at Bottisham.

Michael Carson, 75, of St Bartholomew’s Court, Riverside, Cambridge, was driving his red Mazda 3 at about 9.45am when it left the road and crashed into a tree on Monday (January 7). He was due to appear at Peterborough Crown Court that morning.

Carson worked as a coach and scout at Cambridge United, as well as Peterborough United and Norwich City.

Emergency services attempted to save Mr Carson’s life but he was declared dead at the scene a short time later.

No other vehicle or person was involved in the crash.

Mr Carson was due to appear in court to face multiple sexual assault charges, alleged to have happened between 1978 and 2009.

Cambridgeshire police said the alleged victims had been informed of his death and efforts were being made to contact all the witnesses.

Mr Carson was arrested last year as part of an investigation into historical child sex abuse in the game.

In April, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and was originally bailed to appear at Peterborough Crown Court on May 15.

Mr Carson worked at Norwich as a youth coach between 1983 and 1993, before linking-up with Peterborough to run their team's youth academy until 2001.

He spent five years at Cambridge United as their head of talent development and later worked at non-league Histon in Cambridgeshire as well as in Finland.

Peterborough Crown Court was told the details of his death today (Tuesday, January 8).

Jeremy Benson, prosecuting, said: "The defendant died yesterday morning.

"He was involved in a road traffic collision at about 9.45am yesterday morning.

"No other vehicles were involved.

"There is an investigation being carried out and I therefore don't propose to go into any other details.

"The position is that the car was registered to Mr Carson and the person who died was of the appropriate age and had in his possession identification documents in the name of Mr Carson and also yesterday afternoon at approximately 4.30pm the body was identified by Mr Carson's widow."

Judge Matthew Lowe ruled that the case file be closed.