Child abuse ruined me - former Wallaby

Rugby World Cup winning Wallabies prop Tony Daly believes childhood sex abuse led him to petty theft and driving offences, as well as battling alcohol and drugs.

A Sydney magistrate took this into account as Daly avoided jail and was instead sentenced to 500 hours community service and banned from driving for seven years for three counts of petty theft in 2015, driving while disqualified and injuring a cyclist in 2014, driving while disqualified in 2015 and not filing his statement of affairs after he was declared bankrupt last year.

He also failed to appear at Blacktown Local Court in October 2016 over the charges and was given an 18-month good behaviour bond.

In a report in the Daily Telegraph, the 51-year-old Daly, who was part of Australia’s 1991 World Cup winning team and played 41 times for his country, revealed he had been abused as an 11-year-old by a Catholic brother while attending St Joseph’s College in Sydney.

He had detailed the events to the Royal Commission in two assessment interviews.

‘‘The boarding school was the launch pad of what has gone wrong in my life. I’ve stuffed up two marriages, I was drinking a lot, abusing substances, I’ve been all over the shop for years,’’ Daly said.

‘‘I was 11 at the time and didn’t know any better, for years I thought it was normal behaviour.

‘‘I was with a group of boys at school talking about chicks and footy and sex; it was subtle, I realised you weren’t supposed to do those things.

‘‘I felt dirty, yucky; betrayed and angry.

‘‘I felt shame for years but on my last day at school, when I was 18 after sitting my HSC exam, I saw him, looked him straight in the eye and pointed at him as if to say, ‘I know exactly what you did’.

‘‘I was a footballer then, not a scared, short, little fat kid with blond hair and he s... himself and ran away.’’

He believes he has finally confronted his issues and turned his life around.

Ifelt