Two institutions failed to take action against the man who sexually abused Issac
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Issac was sexually abused by a leader in the Salvation Army.
He decided to share a written account of his experience with the Truth Project because he wants to contribute to the conversation about child sexual abuse.
Issac was brought up in the 1960s in a family with a strong commitment to the Salvation Army. The branch of the Salvation Army his family belonged to was connected to a Scout group.
When Issac was about 15, a Salvation Army leader offered to look after him occasionally and take him on trips. His parents were very busy with work and church commitments, so this was helpful to them.
The leader knew his parents well and they were happy to let him go, as ‘they felt they could trust him to look after me’. He thinks the leader was in his early 30s.
The leader abused Isaac on train journeys. At that time, rail carriages had separate compartments and, Issac says, ‘he made sure that we got into one with no one else in it’.
During the journey the leader started to touch Issac. He also exposed himself and got Issac to touch him. Issac recalls ‘I didn’t know what to do and so just let him continue’.
The sexual abuse continued for some time. The leader took a group of boys camping and Issac says he ‘managed to find ways to get me by myself’ in order to sexually abuse him.
The leader began taking Issac to his house, where the abuse escalated to anal rape. This was physically painful, and Isaac adds, ‘needless to say, this all had to be our secret’.
He continues, ‘I’m not sure why, but eventually he moved on from me. I strongly suspect I became too old for him and he went on to a younger version.’
Some years later, when Issac was a young adult, his father asked him whether the leader had ‘interfered’ with him. Issac had never said anything about the abuse to his parents, but he answered ‘yes’ to his father’s question. After that, it was never discussed again. He later found out that the leader had attempted to abuse two other boys, and they had told their parents about it.
Issac says that as far as he knows, the complaint was not referred to the police or any other authority, and he thinks ‘the whole situation was covered up’ as the leader disappeared. He wonders how many other children he may have abused and he considers that his experience reflects very badly on the Salvation Army and the Scout movement.
Issac concludes ‘It’s really difficult to identify what effect it had on me. The most disturbing thing was the fact that neither my father nor the Salvation Army officer attempted to talk to me about the incidents and ask how I felt about it all.’