These are some of the experiences of child sexual abuse shared with the Truth Project by victims and survivors. All names and identifying details have been changed.
Download a PDF sample of accountsread full account of Viviennes experienceThe teacher who sexually abused Vivienne presented his crime as a loving relationship
Vivienne says that as an ‘emotionally vulnerable child’ she welcomed the special attention one of her teachers gave her.
By the time she was 14, this man was raping Vivienne, but had convinced her they were having a love affair.
read full account of Lilianas experienceLiliana says ‘If you are caught in that web of abuse it is so difficult to get out – you need help’
As a young teenager, Liliana had to cope with a fractured and insecure family life.
Her school arranged for her to live with a clergyman as part of a mentoring scheme, but this man sexually abused her.
read full account of Fredericks experienceFrederick says ‘I was denied my justice’
Frederick never reported that when he was eight years old, he was sexually abused by his teacher.
Decades later, when he felt he might be ready to speak out, he discovered the perpetrator had died a few months earlier.
read full account of Drews experienceDrew criticises himself for not ‘resisting’ being abused
Drew was lonely at boarding school.
A member of staff took advantage of his vulnerability to sexually abuse him.
read full account of Jorges experienceDecades after he was abused, Jorge says ‘I have managed to become the person I want and need to be’
When he was growing up, Jorge dreamed of flying in the RAF. When he met a pilot, it seemed ‘like a dream come true’.
But, he says, ‘things changed quickly’.
read full account of Julias experiencePolice did not pursue Julia’s case as she could not remember what underwear the perpetrator wore
Julia’s stepfather was a callous child sexual abuser who was never brought to justice.
When Julia told him she wanted to end her life, he suggested he should rape her first.
read full account of Audreys experienceAudrey says that when she was a child, no one wanted to believe parents could abuse their children
Audrey confided in two education professionals that she was being abused by her stepfather.
Both these people dismissed her as a liar.
read full account of Lees experienceLee was groomed and sexually abused by a Scout leader who exploited his loneliness and vulnerability
Lee transitioned to male as an adult. He was sexually abused as a young teenage girl. Lee describes his former self as a vulnerable child, who was bullied in school, and had no friends.
He was unhappy at home and says he felt he had no adult advocates. He found comfort in reading and at school he was placed on both the gifted and talented track and the learning difficulties track. He began self-harming by cutting around the age of 11 years but hid this from his parents.
read full account of Dillans experienceDillan asks ‘How can children like me be allowed to be stranded and be lost?’
As a child who was abused in the care system, Dillan was failed again by the services he asked to help him.
He struggles to understand how this could have happened, and to live with the long-term effects of his experiences.
read full account of Jills experienceJill was traumatised when her family covered up her grandfather’s sexual abuse
The trauma of being sexually abused as a child by her grandfather became even more devastating when Jill realised that other family members had known and been complicit in covering it up.
Jill relates that she came from a middle-class background, with a businessman father. When her parents divorced very acrimoniously her time was split between them, with most of the holidays spent with her father.
read full account of Elspeths experienceHer parents were ‘respectable’ and Elspeth thinks no one believed anything bad was happening at home
Elspeth describes her parents as two middle class and respectable people, on the surface. But behind the scenes, there was domestic violence in the family home, and they both sexually abused their daughter.
Elspeth was the eldest of two siblings. The abuse she suffered at home was so regular and extensive that she finds it hard to be sure when it began. She knows that when she was a baby she was placed into foster care because her mother had serious mental health issues.
read full account of Floures experienceFloure says ‘All victims get crushed by not being believed and the younger they are the worse it is’
Floure suffered such violent physical abuse by her stepmother that she sometimes had to go to hospital.
When her stepmother began working away from home, Floure’s father used these times to sexually abuse her.