Hugo says the man who abused him ‘used his position to mask the darker side of his personality’
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Hugo was groomed and sexually abused as a teenager by a man who seemed respectable, cultured and well-connected.
‘In hindsight’, says Hugo, ‘he was always a predatory paedophile’.
Hugo shared his experience in writing. He says ‘finding the words to express it has been a cathartic experience’.
When he was 17, he joined a youth choir. This gave him opportunities to sing in concerts and arts festivals with esteemed conductors. He describes these as ‘an experience not to be missed’.
During one festival in a university city, Hugo says the choir became aware of a man ‘hanging around’ while they were rehearsing. It emerged that this man was a lecturer at the university.
Hugo describes himself as a popular and confident member of the choir. He had a quick wit and enjoyed entertaining the others, and he wonders if this is the reason that the lecturer, Dr Wilson, began to pay him attention.
He says ‘Dr Wilson came across as a charming and engaging man’, and he found the attention flattering. When Dr Wilson asked Hugo to join him for dinner one evening, he accepted.
Hugo continues ‘Throughout the meal Dr Wilson was attentive and considerate’. He mentioned that he was in a local political association and enjoyed talking about his associations and friendships with politicians. ‘Looking back’, Hugo writes, ‘I would say that he was “name-dropping” to impress me’.
Hugo adds that Dr Wilson also showed a great interest in him, his personal life and his aspirations for the future. He says that as ‘a 17-year-old working-class lad’ from a city council housing estate, this attention was enjoyable.
Although Hugo says Dr Wilson was ‘perhaps a little too tactile’, he was touched by his sincerity, interest, kindness and generosity, ‘which left an indelible impression on me’.
During the rest of the festival, Dr Wilson continued spending time with Hugo, and introduced him to some prominent people in the arts and politics. He then announced that he would be attending the next music festival the choir were performing at, in a different city.
After arriving, Dr Wilson invited Hugo to dinner in an expensive restaurant and suggested they went for a walk. Hugo says ‘At Dr Wilson’s suggestion we lay down on the grass and looked at the stars. It was at this point that he made his first sexual move on me’.
Dr Wilson kissed Hugo, touched his genitals and carried out oral sex on him. Hugo describes walking back to his accommodation with the lecturer in ‘awkward silence’.
The next day, Dr Wilson invited Hugo for dinner again. He tried to decline but, he says, the lecturer ‘appeared hurt, even upset, so I changed my mind and agreed’. After dinner, Dr Wilson sexually abused Hugo, and did so several more times during the festival.
After Hugo returned to his home city, Dr Wilson contacted him, and visited regularly over the following year.
Hugo writes ‘Our meetings always followed the same pattern, dinner, being introduced to friends, and then visiting a place owned by one of his friends for sex’. He adds that they never returned to the same place twice, and that Dr Wilson seemed to have a network of properties available to him in expensive areas of the city.
During this time, Dr Wilson introduced Hugo to several men he recognised as politicians, and says ‘they clearly knew Dr Wilson well’.
Dr Wilson also took Hugo away for weekends in the country, where he would host dinner parties for two or three men, some of whom Hugo had met before in restaurants. The evenings always ended in the men sexually abusing Hugo.
Hugo was beginning to feel uncomfortable about what was happening with the lecturer, but says ‘his ability to make me feel special would never make me question what was happening’.
He adds that apart from one who was much older, all the men he met through Dr Wilson who sexually abused him were ‘middle-aged, well-spoken, educated, cultured and appeared well to do’.
Hugo stopped seeing Dr Wilson when he began asking if Hugo had any school friends who might like to ‘join us for dinner’. The older man continued calling Hugo, but ‘he eventually got the message and the calls stopped’.
The next time he saw Dr Wilson was about 14 years later. During their conversation, Dr Wilson boasted to Hugo that he was enjoying spending time in the Far East, where he was sexually abusing children. Hugo says that the abuser ‘was visibly shocked by my vehement disgust at what he was describing’.
It is too late for Dr Wilson to be held to account for his predatory and abusive behaviour, Hugo says, because he has now died.
Looking back, Hugo is now aware that he was groomed by the lecturer for his benefit and for the benefit of the other men. Despite being so young, Hugo says he doesn’t see himself as a victim because he feels ‘I could have said no’.
He adds that when he was a man in his 30s, seeing Dr Wilson again made him realise he was ‘an obvious, prolific sexual predator … who bragged about … engaging in sex with underage boys in foreign countries’. He says he is thankful he was not himself younger than 17 when he met the lecturer.
Hugo has not told his family about his experiences because he does not want them to be hurt. He comments that during the time he is describing, safeguarding of children was never spoken of, and ‘possibly never existed’.
He hopes that ‘sharing my experience may do some good’, and that the work of the Inquiry will lead to some closure for victims of abuse.