Two of Barnaby’s teachers colluded in sexually abusing him and other children
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Barnaby suffered sexual abuse by two teachers, at different stages in his school life.
It turned out that the two perpetrators had previously known each other before they worked at the same school.
Barnaby says that he grew up in a ‘loving’ family, but his father was often absent because he worked very hard running businesses. He recalls ‘getting on well with other children who did not have a father figure at home’.
His first memory of sexual abuse is from when he was about nine years old. He had a new teacher, Mr Green, and he remembers finding this man ‘scary’.
Mr Green encouraged Barnaby to look after the school’s pet animals, and used this as an opportunity to sexually abuse the boy. The abuse began with the teacher fondling Barnaby’s genitals, and then escalated, taking place frequently during the following year.
At the time, Barnaby says, he did not know he was being abused and he didn’t question what was happening to him when the teacher started to touch him. Looking back, he remembers that Mr Green also seemed to ‘go out of his way’ to hurt him.
The sexual abuse by Mr Green came to an end when another child in the class told his mum that he was being abused by the teacher. She spoke to the headteacher, Mr White, and then several mothers came into school to discuss things that had happened to their children.
Mr White promised he would sack Mr Green, and told the mothers they should not go to the police because it would be very ‘painful’ for their children to have to go to court.
Shortly after, Barnaby remembers Mr Green approaching him and saying, ‘I know you’ve all been talking, and so it won’t be happening again’.
He also recalls how upset his mother was when she heard what had happened, and how she asked him why the school hadn’t told her sooner.
Mr Green did leave the school, and in the years that followed Mr White developed a close friendship with Barnaby’s parents. Barnaby thinks this relationship developed after the headteacher made contact with his parents about some alleged misbehaviour, but he can’t remember doing the thing he was accused of.
Mr White became so involved with Barnaby’s family that he sometimes went on holiday with them, and he took the opportunity to sexually abuse Barnaby, who was a teenager by this time. The abuse included rape and it continued for about five years.
Barnaby says that he could never have told his parents what was going on because they respected Mr White so much. The abuse came to an end when Barnaby’s younger brother told his mother that Mr White had tried to kiss him. She confronted the teacher but he denied it.
Barnaby says he still did not want to tell his mother what Mr White had done to him, because he was scared she wouldn’t love him if she knew.
He now knows that Mr White was arrested at some point for sexually abusing children on school trips. He says it was also discovered during the police investigation that Mr Green and Mr White had met each other abroad many years earlier and that Mr White had been in prison in a developing country for child sexual abuse.
Barnaby has now reported to the police what happened to him.
He describes the ways his life has been affected by the sexual abuse he suffered. His education was affected, he has abused alcohol, and has struggled with sex addiction. He feels shame and self-loathing.
He thinks it is essential that police checks on school staff are properly carried out and should extend beyond this country to countries abroad.