Victim of Feversham Special School paedophile Kevin Brown has urges others to break their silence and come forward
Keith Adamson from Gateshead who was a victim of child abuse
He stood up to his vile abuser to make sure he could see him jailed.
And now Feversham paedophile victim Keith Adamson is urging others to do the same.
The
44-year-old suffered in silence for more than 30 years, too terrified
to tell even those closest to him about the vile sexual assaults he
suffered while he was a pupil at the Newcastle special school.
Keith’s bravery on the witness stand at Newcastle Crown Court helped get Kevin Brown, who was already behind bars, jailed for a further six years.
But the victim remains convinced there are more people out there who have been abused by Brown.
And he is today urging them to come forward so that the vile predator can be locked up for longer.
He said: “I know he is behind bars now but I want him kept there for longer.
“I just want any other victims to come forward.
“Once
you tell someone it feels like the burden you have carried on your
shoulders is lifted, because you have finally been able to share that
secret.”
In the Chronicle yesterday we told how vile Brown began abusing Keith in 1977 when he was sent to Feversham at the age of eight.
And the sex assaults continued several times a week for the next five years.
The
victim never told anyone and his terrible secret ruined the rest of his
life, leaving him unable to trust anyone and his confidence destroyed.
But
in 2011, after reading in the Chronicle that Brown had been jailed for
abusing other youngsters, Keith finally decided to tell police.
His
evidence, along with that of other young victims, formed part of a huge
police investigation into historic child abuse at Feversham.
And last week Brown, of Inchberry Close, in Benwell, Newcastle, was sentenced to a further six years behind bars.
Kevin Brown and John Leslie Duncan who have been jailed for historic sex crimes
John Leslie Duncan, of Hyde Park Street, Gateshead, who
worked as a social worker at the Dr Barnardo’s home at Shotley Park
before moving to Feversham in 1986, was jailed for nine years in 2001
after admitting sexually abusing two boys at Feversham School and
Shotley Park, in Consett.
Keith admits that coming forward was terrifying.
But he says meeting other victims has helped him move forward.
And he now wants to do the same for others.
“I’d
like to think that there were no other victims, but I think there will
be and I still want justice for other victims,” he said.
“I want them to be heard like I have been now.
“I’m hoping that if there are any other victims out there, they will take that step and come forward.”
Keith,
who has struggled to hold down a job because of the damage Feversham
caused to his mental health, would now also like to help other victims.
“I
would like to speak to other victims in person,” he continued. “I’m
going to try and set something up for other victims, like a helpline.
“Being able to help others has given me a real focus.
“I
did not realise this until I met other victims myself, but when you
talk to another person who has been abused, they can really understand
you.
“They know how you feel. And I feel like I can do that for other people now.”
As well as supporting abuse victims, Keith is now also planning to fight for a public inquiry into what happened at Feversham.
He
wants to know why the school’s trustees, the charity Mind, did not
fully investigate when allegations of abuse were made to them.
And he also hopes Brown and Duncan’s jail sentences will act as a warning to other perverts.
He
added: “I hope this sends out a message that if you are abusing a
child, even if you don’t get caught now, it can come back to haunt you
years later.”
Keith Adamson, from Gateshead, has never had a relationship after trust was destroyed at the Newcastle's Feversham School
Abused for years by a vile paedophile employed to protect him, Keith
Adamson will forever wonder how his life would have turned out if he
never went to Feversham.
Now 44, he was sent to the residential
special school at the age of eight by social workers who believed he was
struggling to cope with home and school.
But the cruel irony is that this was a decision that destroyed Keith’s entire life.
So horrific are the mental scars left by the abuse at the hands of his carer, convicted sex predator Kevin Brown, who was also known as Ken, Keith has been left unable to trust others, and has never had a partner in his life.
But
now after finally seeing his vile predator convicted and jailed, the
victim is hoping he can finally escape his past and start over.
Keith
said: “I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had not
been to Feversham. I look at people with a wife and kids, good jobs and
nice homes, and I think ‘why haven’t I got that?’ And that’s because of
Feversham.
“I was sent there because I was supposed to be
disturbed. But I wasn’t. I was disturbed when I left though. I know now
it wasn’t my fault, but I still feel ashamed.”
Keith, who grew up in Cramlington, was sent to Feversham in 1977 after having difficulties at his local school.
Although
he disliked being separated from his family, the youngster settled into
the establishment, where children were encouraged to live in a “family
unit” with carers, fairly quickly.
But things changed when social worker Ken Brown got a job at the special school several months later.
“At
first he was just another person that was there to care for us, but
after a while he became very friendly, much more than the other carers,”
he explained. “He used to like having you on his knee and was far more
tactile than other carers. But at that age I didn’t realise what was
going on, I was an eight-year-old lad whose dad wasn’t there, so it was
comforting.”
But one night Brown came into Keith’s room while he was in bed and touched him.
And
over the following months the sexual abuse escalated, with Brown
creeping into Keith’s room several times a week, joining him in the
bathroom, and taking him away from the school during the day to assault
him.
“Looking back now I know exactly what he was doing,” Keith
continued. “But at the time I didn’t understand. I just thought it was
normal and he was convincing me it was normal. It just got to the point
where I thought that was what men did with boys.”
The vile attacks continued until the youngster left Feversham five years later at the age of 13.
Keith
carried the burden of his secret throughout his teenage years and into
adulthood, and began to self-harm and drink heavily in a bid to escape
what had happened to him.
But fearing he would not be believed he never told anyone.
“After
I left Feversham I never spoke of it again,” he said. “But by the time I
was in my teens I realised I had been sexually abused. That moment when
it sinks in is just horrendous. I wanted to say something to someone
but I couldn’t. I didn’t think anyone would believe me.
“I put it
in a box in the back of my mind and closed the door on it. But I
couldn’t move on. I wasn’t living, I was just existing.” Finding it
impossible to trust anyone, he has never managed to hold down a job and
has never been in a relationship.
“I had huge trust issues and paranoia,” he said. “It stopped me having a job or a relationship.”
But
it was a chance glance at the Chronicle’s website in 2011 that started
the process that would finally free Keith and help bring Brown to
justice.
Keith logged on after his parents ask him to look for
details of a car crash near their home, in Cramlington.
But before
finding details of the smash he was confronted with a picture of his
abuser, and our story about Brown being jailed for eight years for the
abuse of three youngsters at Feversham
“When I saw his picture
there on the computer screen it was like someone had picked me up and
put me back in that school. I just couldn’t believe it. It was like
being kicked in the stomach. I could only read about half the article,
but I couldn’t read on. There were tears rolling down my face. My first
feeling was guilt. I just thought, if I had told someone I could have
stopped this happening to all those other boys. But then I thought I was
just a little boy. Then I just thought, ‘thank god someone has got him
convicted’.”
The story prompted Keith to confide in his mum for the first time, then he rang the police.
Keith’s
statement, along with those of other victims, led to Brown and
colleague John Leslie Duncan being charged with a string of sex offences
from their time at Feversham.
And Keith found the courage to
relive the abuse in front of a jury at Newcastle Crown Court, helping to
convict his abuser of indecent assault. Last week Brown, of Inchberry
Close, in Benwell, Newcastle, was sentenced to a further six years.
And Duncan, of Hyde Park Street, Gateshead,
who worked as a social worker at the Dr Barnardo’s home at Shotley Park
before moving to Feversham in 1986, was jailed for nine years in 2001
after admitting sexually abusing two boys at Feversham School and
Shotley Park in Consett.
“When he was charged I just felt like
someone had finally believed me,” said Keith. “When I went to court I
was terrified. I felt like I was on the witness stand as a little boy
not as a man. But I knew it was the only way I could help him get what
he deserved.”
And now that Brown has been convicted of abusing Keith, he finally feels like he can get on with his life.
“The
flashbacks will probably be with me for the rest of my life,” he said.
“But when he was jailed it really felt like the first day of the rest of
my life. It is up to me what I do now. This is like a new start.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.