Child sex victims told accusations could ‘ruin’ abusers’ lives

VICTIMS of child sex abuse are often told by the authority figures they have confided in that their allegations could “ruin the perpetrator’s life”, an analysis of more than 3,200 cases found.

The Truth Project in England and Wales compiled the experiences of more than 4,000 survivors of child sexual abuse. Of these, 3,265 accounts were analysed by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

According to a report published today, the IICSA found most victims were sexually abused by the age of 11 (79 per cent) while almost half of the victims (46 per cent) were under eight when the abuse began.

Nearly half of all child sexual abuse (45 per cent) was perpetrated by someone in the victim’s family.

The report, published today, showed that even when victims came forward to report abuse, they were encouraged to stay silent, ignored or threatened. Victims were warned by those in authority, including police and social services, that their accusations could “ruin” the lives of perpetrators.

Others were dismissed as “attention seekers”, or behaved badly at school, but the signs were not picked up by their teachers. Some 86 per cent of survivors told the IICSA the abuse had a long term impact on their mental health, with more than a third reporting depression (37 per cent).

Chris Tuck, a member of the inquiry Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel, said: “If we are to protect future generations of children, we need to listen to those who have experienced abuse and learn from them about what went wrong, why it went wrong and what we can put in place to stop it going wrong in the future.”