Joshua was repeatedly let down by people and authorities and suffers mental health issues
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Joshua was sexually abused as a young teenager by his adoptive father Davy, who he describes as a ‘local celebrity’.
A conviction was secured against Davy, after another victim came forward. However, this was some time after Joshua first told people in authority about the sexual abuse and his experience was that he was not believed, and no action was taken because of his reports.
Joshua had been in foster care but was abandoned by his foster mum, which led to a swift adoption process when he was a teenager. He lived with Davy until he was 15. He does not want to talk in detail about the sexual abuse he suffered but adds that from the age of 14 he was passed around from paedophile to paedophile.
Joshua says he told teachers at school he was being sexually abused by Davy before the adoption went through. He recalls this resulted in a big argument between the headmaster and a social worker, with Davy present.
As far as Joshua was aware, the school did not take it any further and he felt he did not want to make a fuss. The first time Joshua told the police about the sexual abuse was after he had run away from home and Davy had reported him missing.
Joshua says by that time he was being groomed by another individual who told him he should report the sexual abuse by Davy. He felt the police did not want to know, because of who Davy was. Davy emphasised to Joshua that ‘he knew everybody’ and told him that nobody could prove he was a paedophile.
Along with Joshua’s experiences of trying to report the sexual abuse, this confirmed his belief that he would not be believed by the police or social services.
Joshua signed himself out of care as soon as he could. His life spiralled downwards with drink, drugs and sexual promiscuity. He says he was a like a ‘Tasmanian devil’ – an angry young man who felt dumped by the system.
Joshua did not hear anything more following his report to the police for some time, until he received a phone call from another child that Davy was sexually abusing. The police then asked him for details that he had previously given. He was told that some of the files had disappeared. The process made him feel bad and he did not want to do it, but he felt obliged to go through everything a second time.
Joshua says the police used his past behaviour against him to get him to go to court and believed they were partly in it ‘for the glory’. There was pressure to get a conviction to correct a wrong, and he does not believe that the case was investigated in depth.
The focus was on Davy, but Joshua’s own life was a ‘car crash’. However, he does not believe that only one man was responsible for that.
Joshua describes his life as difficult. He feels he was let down by several individuals and institutions, including his foster mother, his school (although he believed at the time that the headmaster did support him), social services and the police. His experiences have resulted in him suffering mental health issues.
Joshua would like to see interviews about sexual abuse of children conducted not by the police but psychiatrists or therapists, as they know best when to push or stop a conversation. The interviews should be based on the Icelandic model, where children are usually interviewed once by one person and the interview is used for multiple purposes.