Carlton says ‘Not a day goes by when I don’t think about my time in that house’
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Carlton’s mother died when he was a small boy. He was left at the mercy of his stepfather and stepbrother, who both sexually abused him.
After many troubled years, Carlton reported the abuse to the police, but the case was badly mishandled.
Carlton remembers his mother as loving. He was six years old when she died, and he was sent to two different children’s homes. He remembers his time at the second one fondly, with a caring ‘aunt and uncle’.
His stepbrother was there too, but unlike Carlton he was not happy and well-behaved in the home. Carlton says ‘He was much different to me’.
After about three years, his stepfather came and took both boys back to the family home. Carlton says he was very distressed by this. He says ‘I was a loveless, motherless little kid’.
There, he shared a room with his stepbrother, who was bigger than him. One evening his stepfather said that Carlton had to sleep in his bed. He held Carlton down and made him perform oral sex.
Carlton says he didn’t know about sex but he knew it was not right. He remembers his stepfather saying he would ‘understand’ when he was older, and also telling him not to tell anyone.
A couple of days following the first abuse by his stepfather, his stepbrother started sexually abusing Carlton. The abuse continued for around a year. During this time, Carlton says he was withdrawn at school, and his appearance was unkempt.
When he started secondary school and heard other youngsters talking about sex, he realised even more clearly that the things that were happening to him at home ‘were not right’.
Carlton left home in his late teens and never saw his stepfather again. With no means of support he drifted around, rough sleeping. He became a compulsive gambler which led him to a life of crime, with periods in prison. He says that he was a model prisoner and earned the respect of inmates and guards in the prisons he was sent to.
More recently, he was befriended by a member of the local church who supported him to find accommodation. He confided in this person about the sexual abuse he had suffered, and with their encouragement, he made a report to the police.
He was told by two supportive police officers that it was highly likely that the case would be followed up.
But the case was allocated to another police officer who inferred that travelling the distance to talk to his stepbrother would be a waste of time. Eventually the police did interview his stepbrother, but came back with no evidence to pursue the case.
Some time later, Carlton began to receive letters from his stepbrother threatening to hurt him if he didn’t drop his accusations. Carlton was concerned that his address had been made available to his stepbrother.
He made a complaint about the way the case was handled and the fact that his stepbrother had got his address. He has reservations about the objectivity of the investigation of his complaint.
Carlton feels he was let down by the police. He believes that officers investigating accusations of childhood sexual abuse need to be experienced in dealing with such cases.