Priests, teachers, coaches: Children’s home sex abuse survivors publish harrowing report
RT
According to Shirley Oaks Survivors Association’s (SOSA) own investigation, two men dressed as Father Christmas abused children at the Croydon facility, just one in a horrifying list of crimes that date as far back as the 1960s. The report was compiled by former residents who lost hope in the controversial Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse following the resignations of its two first chairs and prestigious panel members.
Some of the survivors described the harrowing experience at the children’s home, including alleged sexual abuse and beatings. Paul Annon, who was put into care with his brothers after their mother died, was only five or six years old when his abuse at Shirley Oaks started.
“A big man used to come into the room and sexually abuse me, and a woman would come in, but not at the same time – a couple of nights the man and then a couple of nights the woman,” Annon said.
“Then a few nights there would be nothing and you would get some sleep and then you would be woken up by your covers being taken off and – I won't go into details.
“It was hard, it was really hard.”
The 51-year-old also said the abuse was on an “industrial scale” and the decade he lived at the home – 1969 to 1979 – traumatized him for life.
“Even now, today, I find it hard to sleep. I lie in bed sometimes and think ‘how could people do things like that?’” he continued. “I don't remember many names, you don’t when you are five or six. It is only when I got a little bit older you know people and you remember things.
“I didn’t really understand it at the time and I couldn’t really talk to my brothers – I thought it was me, something that was happening to me. You blame yourself like it is your fault.”
Annon added that every time he attempted to warn people about the ongoing abuse, “it would fall on deaf ears.”
https://www.rt.com/uk/370525-sex-abuse-children-home/