Harvey says sexual abusers ‘weave themselves into the hierarchy of society’
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
The headteacher at Harvey’s primary school was held in high regard by the local community. He put on musical productions and organised outward bound trips that impressed supportive parents.
But behind the facade of respectability, he was sexually abusing children, including Harvey and his older brother.
Harvey relates that the headteacher, Mr Richards, would select him and other pupils for extra reading lessons in his office. During these sessions Mr Richards would undo Harvey’s trousers and masturbate him. He made Harvey do the same to him.
Harvey remembers complaining of a sore penis and telling the doctor in front of his mother that ‘sir done it’. His comment was not picked up by either adult.
The abuse continued over Harvey’s final two years at the school. Mr Richards also made Harvey perform oral sex on him. Harvey says that as the abuse went on, he began to realise something was wrong.
When the boys were taken on an outward bound trip, Mr Richards sexually abused Harvey and at least four others during the night, masturbating them and making them take part in oral sex.
Mr Richards had built a good relationship with Harvey’s parents and when he asked to take their sons to his caravan for the weekend, they readily agreed. Harvey tried to refuse, saying that Mr Richards ‘was a bender’ but his father was furious with him for this and told the brothers they had to go.
At the caravan the boys insisted they wanted to sleep in the same bed. Harvey says that Mr Richards spent most of the night trying to abuse them.
The next day the headteacher told Harvey and his brother he was taking them to the cinema, but he then stopped the car and called their parents to say he was bringing the boys back early. Harvey believes Mr Richards ‘decided he’d had enough’ as the boys were resisting his advances.
The abuse ended for the brothers when they left the primary school. Harvey recounts that Mr Richards’ behaviour was later flagged up by another teacher who spotted that he only called boys into his office for reading – never girls.
Looking back on the abuse, Harvey says: ‘I put everything to the back of my mind’ but that his brother has ‘really struggled’ as an adult with his memories of that time. He adds that on one occasion, his brother went to Mr Richards’s house aiming to ‘try and hurt him’.
Harvey’s brother did try to report the abuse to the police but Harvey says nothing was done about it. A couple of years later another former pupil reported abuse by the headteacher. While it was being investigated Mr Richards hanged himself.
Harvey comments that after this happened, ‘all of the local dignitaries came out to say what a wonderful man Mr Richards had been and how tragic his death was’.
When Harvey and his brother subsequently approached the local council for compensation the police denied anything had been reported to them. Another seven or eight people then came forward to their solicitor to report similar abuse and the council eventually settled with Mr Richards’s victims.
Harvey says he feels let down by the police and his parents and other institutions that missed the abuse.
He would like to see more rigorous checking of teachers, especially those who move school regularly. He also thinks there should be greater transparency in the different services responsible for the welfare and safeguarding of children, and that relevant bodies should link together and share information effectively.