Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
741 276 328 STAR had spoken out a save other victims
Roper ‘was targeting boys from the 1960s’
daughter Sienna – his and Bev’s first grandchild – in March has helped him to learn to love again.
He says: “It is my family, my loved ones, who saved me. In football, in the dressing room, I found a place where I belonged. I have that again, right where it always was; at home, with the little granddaughter who is lighting up all our lives.”
Paul says he still suffers from depression and has suicidal thoughts, which have dogged him all his adult life, even at the peak of his career.
But rather than keep his problems secret, he now confides in Bev.
He adds: “The hardest part of the abuse is its impact on my family. It is my inability to say what I feel. It became apparent in doing the Mirror story just how much I had learned to block out all those memories.
“Depression can hit the richest and the poorest. It has no respect for money, or status.
“It is a mental illness that I suffered throughout my time at the top.
“Roper came back in nightmares. I shared how I was feeling with my wife.
“It was done in the form of a text, I wrote: ‘I don’t know what’s up with me, feel really low.’
“She is there for me. It shows that I have learned to share feelings.
“Like a soldier returning from war, you can be traumatised for a lifetime. Flashbacks may come back years later, you are back in that situation of danger, it is as real as it was before.” In the Mirror interview, Paul claimed Roper threatened to kill his parents and brothers if he ever told anyone about his sick attacks.
He said: “At 11 years old, you believe that. The mental scars led me into problems with drink and drugs. I know now it was a grooming process.
“The level of abuse got worse and worse. He was a monster.”
Roper died from prostate cancer at St Ann’s Hospice in Stockport, Gtr Manchester, on September 13, 2005. It meant he never faced justice.
But Paul added: “Bev was concerned that digging up the past might be too much, reliving that pain all over again. I reassured her: ‘It doesn’t matter that he’s dead. I buried him a long time ago.’” Despite his agony, Paul never lost the sense of humour that made him a popular figure in the dressing room.
Legends of the game, including Peter Reid, Niall Quinn and Chris Waddle have all come forward to pay tribute to him and the courage he has shown in speaking out.
He played alongside all-time greats such as Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker, John Barnes, and Ian Rush.
And he was guided in his career by top managers Terry Venables and the late Graham Taylor.
After his 1988 move from Man City to Tottenham for a record £1.9million, he lived with Gazza at the height of the Geordie star’s fame.
He rubbed shoulders with Elton John, Rod Stewart and George Michael and met Princess Diana.
Paul tells of Gazza asking “Where’s jug ears?” as he lined up to meet THE paedophile who preyed on Paul Stewart targeted young boys over a period dating back 50 years, the new book reveals.
Ex-blackpool player Steve Harrison told how Frank Roper was the official photographer at the club, Paul’s first, in the 1960s.
Steve, who coached Paul at Crystal Palace later, said: “[Roper] was there when we went to tournaments with the youth team.
“I was only 16 or 17, so about the 1969/70 season.
“That was 15 years before Paul played for the club and seven years before Paul first met Roper. It is frightening when you think about it.”
He added: “Roper worked his way in at Blackpool, got his feet under the table and was coaching youth players.
“He became a scout and would be driving kids around, taking them to his home. He manufactured ways of getting in a position of trust.”
The club has said in the past it would cooperate with any inquiry.
Roper lived in Thailand in the 1990s, returning to the UK 15 years ago. He died of cancer in 2005.
Steve said Paul’s coming forward was “tremendously courageous”. Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker have also paid tribute to him.
Prince Charles before the 91 FA Cup Final against Nottingham Forest, which Spurs won 2-1.
But the overriding message of the book is for anyone finding themselves in the horrendous position he was to not suffer in silence.
He says: “You are not alone. If you suffer as I suffered, seek help as soon as you can.
“Don’t keep it secret like I did for so many years. It is not easy. But you can pull through.”
Paul Stewart: Damaged, Trinity Mirror Sport Media, on sale September 7, from Amazon, sportmediashop.com and book shops, ebook available.