When he told his adoptive father that he was being abused, Harlan was told men had sex ‘to keep warm’
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Harlan was born a few years after the end of World War II, and adopted when he was a baby.
He was sexually abused by a teacher, and his adoptive parents refused to take him seriously when he told them.
He describes his childhood as ‘like being on a battlefront’. There were frequent rows between his adoptive parents, who would often then turn on him and verbally abuse him, telling him he wasn’t their son.
When Harlan was eight years old, his primary school closed and he was sent to another one. A teacher who worked at the nearby senior school, called Mr Jones, spent a lot of time at the junior school. Harlan says it was not clear there was any legitimate reason for him to do this, and looking back on it, it seems Mr Jones was only there to ‘check out the young boys’.
He relates that Mr Jones began sexually abusing him very soon after he started the new school. The abuse went on for more than 10 years, and happened ‘on hundreds of occasions’. Harlan has vivid memories of Mr Jones’s hands inside his trousers and pants, and he remembers the teacher taking him in his car to remote spots where he would abuse him.
He told his adoptive parents what was happening but they dismissed what he said. His adoptive father’s only response was to tell Harlan that during the First World War, soldiers kept warm by having sex.
Harlan believes there were clear signs his parents must have seen that would have indicated he was telling the truth – he says he often came home from school smelling of sweat and semen but they would carry on as if they didn’t notice anything.
The abuse continued throughout Harlan’s childhood and adolescence, and he says Mr Jones even tracked him down when he was at college. On one occasion when he was out, Harlan became aware the teacher was following him in his car.
Harlan wishes that there had been an independent adult he could have spoken to, such as a social worker, who could have acted to stop him being abused.