Simon Warr - Presumed Guilty: A teachers solitary battle to clear his name

T hrough a mutual friend, I have got to know a man Ill call him Chris now in his early forties, who was sent away to boarding school at the age of eleven. Barely into his teenage years, he was groomed and systematically sexually abused by one of his teachers. That teacher had left a previous school on account of an inappropriate relationship he had had with a teenage pupil there. When Chriss abuse was uncovered, the perpetrator first denied any wrongdoing and then admitted his guilt, qualifying what he had done by saying Chris had enjoyed it. He was sacked from the school and, if reports are correct, he went on to teach at yet another institution, in the south of England, even being supplied with a decent reference.

As for Chris, both on account of those serious sexual offences to which he was subjected and the fact his abuser failed to recognise his own wrongdoing, his life has been pretty much ruined, although recently he has found a partner to love. During the intervening thirty years, apart from his education being spoiled, Chris has undergone many years of therapy and has repeatedly taken overdoses in a bid to end his life. Despite now having a partner, Chris is adamant that he never wants to bring a child into the world for fear he or she might conceivably be subjected to sexual abuse similar to what he suffered. He realises this attitude is irrational, but he believes he would never be able to let any child of his out of his sight. He told me he would, once again, end up a nervous wreck.

Listening to Chris speak, you would need a heart of stone to not be moved. He accepts that abusers exist and that some have absolutely no scruples about satisfying their own sexual appetite by preying on young children. I am amazed how strong and level-headed he is. His abuser was, many years later, arrested by the police and charged, and he had no option other than to plead guilty. He was duly sent to prison. Chris feels that this punishment of his abuser has helped to get his own life back onto something resembling a normal track, although he knows he will never forget what happened to him. He has set up his own company and is at last forging a career for himself. He has certainly not courted publicity about his abuse. He feels what happened to him is very private, something to be shared with only close family members and interested professionals.

Chris is a genuine victim of abuse, reacting, I imagine, how most others do in a similar situation.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who take full advantage of ordeals such as Chriss for their own greedy, nefarious ends, particularly since the Savile scandal. They often read accounts in magazines and newspapers and even in court transcripts of the experiences of cases like Chriss and use the information to furnish their own fantasies. They think it is fashionable in modern Britain to join the survivors network, a group set up to help those who have been genuinely abused but which, unfortunately, has now been infiltrated by liars and fantasists. As well as the obvious public sympathy and attention these unscrupulous people receive, they are well aware it is also immensely lucrative.

These liars undermine those, like Chris, who have been genuinely abused.

The furthest thing in my mind when writing this book was to drive victims of sexual abuse back into the shadows for fear they will not be believed. My purpose is to convey a clear message that, while being alert to the needs of those who claim to be a victim of abuse, like the extraordinarily brave Chris, all state agencies must also be mindful that there is a possibility that the complainant might not be telling the truth, which would then make the accused the victim.

When so many people have suffered the nightmare of having been sexually abused, is it perverse for me to focus upon the wrongly accused? In answer to this, I contend that by arresting, charging and even convicting innocent, good, hard-working people, as is currently often the case, this will only serve to diminish the chances of real sexual abuse victims being believed and securing ultimate justice, which is their right.

As author Richard Webster states in his masterpiece The Secret of Bryn Estyn: The Making of a Modern Witch Hunt: One of the greatest failings of the modern child protection movement is that, in its zeal to believe all allegations, it has betrayed the very children it seeks to protect.

This book is the story of what happened to me when an opportunist duped the police into believing that, when he was at a school at which I taught over thirty years ago, he had been abused by me in a communal shower room after a PE lesson. The fact that Id never taught him or the subject PE didnt seem to cause the police to consider whether he might be either mistaken or, more likely, lying although the truth eventually emerged.

I was inspired to write this book having spoken to a number of members of the organisation FACT (Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers, www.factuk.org). One of them recommended that I read The Secret of Bryn Estyn. Of the myriad books I have read during my lifetime, this was positively the most shocking, absorbing, detailed, revealing, superbly expressed true story I have ever come across. It was an enormous help to me in writing Presumed Guilty.