UNITED KINGDOM
Lexology
Bolt Burdon Kemp
Dino Nocivelli
United Kingdom
April 15 2015
Survivors of childhood abuse often feel that their lives were changed beyond recognition the first time their abuser started to groom and abuse them.
As the vast majority of child abuse survivors do not disclose their abuse for a number of years after the actual assaults, this causes a period of time where they often struggle to manage the emotional impact of the abuse and this then affects their relationships with family members, partners and friends. Often survivors will become disruptive in school and at home while it is also very common to see them start to drink excessively, take illegal drugs or self-harm in an effort to erase their feelings and memories of the abuse.
Below I have noted extracts from some of my current clients (their names have been anonymised for confidentiality, as have their abusers) who have had a number of different relationships affected due to childhood sexual abuse:
Parents
Peter’s family were practicising Roman Catholics and were parishioners in their local church. Their local priest, Father Steven, presented himself as a good standing member of society and therefore my client’s mother had no issue when Father Steven first asked her if Peter, who was still a child at this time, wanted to become an altar server and later on if he wanted to help out at the church. Peter was sexually abused by Father Steven at the church while he was carrying out these roles.
Peter’s mother noticed that he had started to misbehave at home and school while his school teachers had told her that he seemed unable to focus on his studies and his effort had decreased substantially. At the same time, Peter’s family continued to go to mass every Sunday and his mother even confided in Father Steven about the change in Peter’s behaviour as she was struggling to control him and she was becoming increasingly concerned.
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