Boarding school abuse still haunts me

Like Justin Webb in the final part of The Mail on Sunday’s serialisation of his new memoir The Gift Of A Radio, I too was sent to a Quaker-run boarding school at the age of ten due to the death of my mother.

I was subjected to the cruellest abuse by an older boy, which went on for about 18 months.

It caused me so much distress that I could not learn. Eventually relief came when my father was asked to remove me.

When I tried to tell the headmaster, he would not listen. I could not tell my father as I thought he would not believe me, so I never received any help whatsoever.

The school, just after the war, was like a prison and we were starving.

To this day, I still suffer traumatic flashbacks. I have looked into how I can obtain some sort of justice, as I believe I was a victim of criminal negligence, but that is not possible now.

If parents knew how their innocent children suffer at boarding schools, they would be aghast. My life was tainted.

David Pilkington, Chapel-en-le-Frith,

Derbyshire