‘I fear I was the victim of paedo ring’
ASOUTHPORT man who said he was raped in his own bed when he was a boy fears he was the victim of a “paedophile ring”.
Paul Waine said he was raped by a man who stayed the night at his home in the 1970s. He said that the man later tried to groom him, buying him toys after school.
The 54-year-old said that things began to deteriorate when a friend of his dad’s started coming around to the house.
He said: “I remember coming down in the morning, and when my dad was not looking this visitor would sometimes expose himself to me. I was around ten or 11 years old at the time. And then one night I was in my own bed. He got in next to me and said that my dad said that it was all OK.
“He then took down my pyjama bottoms, and then raped me. I was just very frightened.”
Paul’s behaviour began to suffer after the abuse, and he started to run away from home. Eventually, he came to the attention of social services, and he was sent to the Beechwood care home, in Nottingham.
He said that one of the senior managers at the home soon began to show an unhealthy interest in some of the boys.
Paul said: “A member of staff used to line us all up in a row. We then had to wash our genitals in front of him, and then turn around and show our backsides to him. At the time, he made out it was all to do with hygiene. I remember once he made me sit in front of him and he grabbed my leg really hard. I cried.”
Paul said that, once he reached 16, he started to run away from Beechwood, and commit offences. He said: “I was running away. I remem- ber begging the police not to take me back there. And then I was in and out of Borstal. I hated everyone and blamed everyone for what happened to me.”
By the age of 20, Paul decided to change his behaviour, and stopped committing offences. But he said that the abuse he suffered as a child at home and in care ruined his life. He said: “I was a damaged person, and this ruined my adult relationships.” Paul said that the abuse he suffered was flagged up with the authorities, but that “nothing happened”.
He said: “In 1979, I told a social worker that I had been raped at home. And, in 1989, I told the police about it but nothing happened.”
In 2013, Paul began speaking to Nottinghamshire Police.
He was interviewed as part of Operation Daybreak, which was a largescale investigation into child abuse at Beechwood community house.
It is understood that the man alleged to have raped Paul at home has since died. The man alleged to have abused Paul at Beechwood is also deceased. A file was passed to the CPS in relation to a third man, but it did not meet the evidential test. In October, 2015, Paul began writing a book about the abuse he suffered.
Little Boy Wonder, selfpublished on Amazon, takes an unflinching look at Paul’s life growing up.
Former Southport MP John Pugh, now a ward councillor, said: “Paul and his partner have been astoundingly brave.
“They have been to hell and back, with Paul having to deal not only with profoundly disturbing family matters but the knowledge that the agencies that should have protected him let him down. Only his courage and persistence has enabled him to survive.”
Corporate director for children and families at Nottinghamshire County Council, Colin Pettigrew, said: “We are aware of Mr Waine’s allegations.
“The county council is co-operating fully with the police-led operation which is investigating child abuse in Nottinghamshire children’s homes that goes back many decades.”