Several men took advantage of their positions of trust with young people to sexually abuse Margaux
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Margaux describes a difficult childhood growing up in the 1970s and 80s.
She thinks that lack of love and attention at home made her vulnerable to sexual abuse. Her parents never showed each other or their children any affection.
She suffered from a skin condition on her face and body, and because of this she was bullied and called names at school. She remembers crying a lot as a child, and not ever feeling ‘protected’.
Margaux joined a local youth club when she was in her early teens. The youth club leader gave her and two girls a lift in his car to an event. On the way back, he dropped the other girls off and turned into a dark lane. He stopped the car, put his hand on Margaux’s leg and tried to kiss her.
She pulled away, telling him that her parents would be looking out for her and he took her home. She never told anyone what had happened.
Not long after this Margaux’s father arranged for his friend, Billy, to give sports coaching to Margaux and her sibling. Billy would pick the children up in a sports car, which impressed them.
After one coaching session that Margaux went to alone, Billy stopped the car on the way back and kissed her. She doesn’t know if he ever did the same to her sibling, and she stopped going for the coaching.
For her remaining years at school, Margaux was groomed and sexually abused by more men. She believed she was in a ‘relationship’ with one of them.
When she went on a school camping trip, a teacher flirted with her. He put her hand down his trousers. Later, this teacher was investigated about inappropriate behaviour towards another female pupil. Margaux was questioned about him, but no one asked if he had done anything to her.
It wasn’t until Margaux had counselling as an adult that she recognised she had been sexually abused. She wonders if her lack of confidence and craving for attention made her an easy target for these men.
She thinks that youth workers should not be allowed to be alone with a young person and that people whose work connects them with schools, like bus drivers, should understand that relationships with pupils are inappropriate.
Margaux wonders if the men who abused her would think what they did was wrong, and whether they did the same to others.