OF SUFFERING
room on the floor. One night Peter came home from the pub drunk.
“Instead of going to sleep on the couch as usual he started talking to me about being gay.”
A few hours later Chris was woken by his predator uncle abusing him. “He was spooning me, had his dirty vile hands down my boxer shorts.
“As I came to my senses I was terrified and used all my strength to push him away.
“He just shrugged it off as though it was nothing, said sorry and went back on to the couch.”
Wilson’s father, also called Peter, is serving an eight-year jail sentence for indecent assault on a female under 13 years old. Years earlier, Peter stood trial for sexual assault but was acquitted. His alleged victim later died of a drugs overdose.
Suicidal
Chris was encouraged to keep quiet but, unable to keep his “dirty secret” he went to the police. Like his cousins, Chris was told there was not enough evidence to prosecute.
Struggling to cope, he had suicidal thoughts and began self-harming.
But in a twist of fate, Chris was contacted by officers to provide supporting evidence in Peter Wilson Senior’s case in 2014. The abuse Chris suffered was investigated. The police began looking into all three victims’ old statements and re-opened the case.
Natasha said: “All we knew was that other family members had made allegations but we weren’t told who.”
Only when Chris, Natasha and Sophi arrived at crown court to give their evidence did they find out they were all Wilson’s victims. They were not allowed to talk to each other until the jury found Wilson guilty of ten counts of sexual assault, between 1991 and 2001, against themselves and one more victim. Judge Martin Hurst called him a monster.
At the sentencing hearing, all three asked f or t he curtain around the witness box to be removed as they read their victim impact statements, facing their perpetrator. Natasha said: “It felt so empowering to look my father in the eye and tell him that what he had done to me was very wrong and that he didn’t deserve to be called a dad.”
Now the three have made a pact not to let the abuse they endured dictate their future but instead focus on rebuilding their friendships. Mum-ofone Sophi said: “I have my sister and cousin back. That’s incredible.”
Chris said: “For so long, I felt like no one would believe me. I felt embarrassed and humiliated by the abuse, especially being a man as there is still such a stigma around male abuse, but now I have my two cousins by my side and they are helping me deal with what that evil brute did to me.”