Vicente Modal: A former Olympic track and field coach accused of sexual crimes against children appears in court

Former British Olympic athletics coach Jose Vicente Leyva Modal has appeared in court after being charged with child sex offences.

Leva Modal, 65, the husband of former Olympic middle-distance runner Diane Modal, faces 19 separate charges including sexual assault of a child, rape and controlling and coercive behaviour.

Leyva Modal, also known as Vicente Modal, appeared from custody at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday for a 15-minute hearing in which no pleas were noted.

District Judge Richard Gibson sent the case to Manchester Crown Court, telling Leyva Modal that some of the allegations were too serious to be dealt with in the magistrates’ court.

Leiva Modal was granted conditional bail ahead of her pre-trial and plea hearing on 18 November.

Among the conditions of bail were to reside at an address in the Warrington area, adhere to an electronic curfew from 21:00 to 07:00 and not contact witnesses in the case.

He was also ordered to surrender his Spanish passport and not have any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.