Victim told by police ‘not to pursue sex abuse claim’

The victim of child sex abuse allegedly carried out by a prominent Enniskillen businessman has revealed how the abuser was brought to his home to apologise.
Police told the victim who was just 13 at the time of the offence over 30 years ago that they would keep the alleged abuser’s name on file in case he offended again. 
But The Impartial Reporter can reveal that this man, who is still alive, did abuse again after a second victim came forward this week to reveal details about the alleged incident.
Both victims contacted this newspaper separately and neither victim knows each other. But both men revealed similar stories of how this sexual predator abused them and got away with it.
In separate interviews with The Impartial Reporter, Andrew and William (not their real names) have recalled how they could not escape the clutches of the wicked businessman., who is now retired.
Andrew says he was abused at this man’s business premises after he chillingly locked the door while William was abused in the man’s car after he refused to stop and let him out. They have given his name to this newspaper. He is well-known and highly regarded.
For Andrew it all began at some point between 1984 and 1986 when he took up a job at a local business in which he carried out general duties. He hated the job.
“Mr. [name supplied] started to take me on trips doing deliveries because he knew I wasn’t very happy standing around the shop. We would go to businesses around Enniskillen and Omagh; you would go and lift and deliver items.”
But Andrew was left disturbed by the actions of his boss behind the wheel.  
“He’d be driving a lot and would pounce on you and grab you by the arm. You would jump and he would laugh. As he was driving or sometimes when you were parked up he would have grabbed at you. It would have started on your shoulder and then he moved down. When I look back now, he was grooming me. This was going on for weeks and weeks. He’d grab you by your side and tickle you all over the place; in the van, in the work place.
“It would have progressed to the leg, then the knee, this happened for weeks. His hand would be going further up my leg. I didn’t like it, I would jump, he thought it was all very funny.”
Andrew left the job where he worked Monday to Friday and opted instead to work on Saturday mornings when the business was closed apart from an office which would remain open for the occasional customer who may have needed to visit.
His job was to deal with those customers but as he was to find out things were about to take a sinister twist. Suddenly without him realising his boss locked a side door that was usually unlocked and approached him at the back of the room. He was talking to him before he made his move.
“He was behind me, the next thing he approached me from behind and had his hands around my waist. He had his arms wrapped around me and was kissing the back of my neck. He said: ‘This is OK because I love you’ and within seconds his trousers were down. In some sick way he was trying to justify what he was doing by telling me he loved me. He had an erection.
His hands were all over the place, he touched my private parts, he exposed himself. He touched all over me and was attempting to take my trousers down,” recalled Andrew.
He believes the sexual abuse would have gone further had a customer not arrived. The customer kept pressing a buzzer because the door had been locked “and it was never locked”.
“He put his trousers back on, I have no doubt he would have gone further,” he said.
The man then asked Andrew to go to the shop to buy biscuits. Instead he ran home where he told his mother what had happened. 
“My mum took the money I had been given for the biscuits - I think it was a fiver – and went to him. She asked him what he was doing. He said to her, ‘I don’t know what came over me, I am sick, I am sick’,” he said.
Two police officers [he supplied their names] were called and visited his home where they interviewed Andrew and spoke to his mother. 
“One of the officers was keener to prosecute than the other. He said there wasn’t a lot of evidence and told my mum that if this gets out it could go against your son if it became public knowledge, that I could be bullied at school.
“Looking back it wasn’t right, it wasn’t right,” he said, with sadness etched on his face.
Incredibly sometime later the alleged abuser visited the schoolboy’s home to apologise. 
“A church minister was there too. Then this man arrived. I remember the church minister [he supplied his name] tearing shreds off him. I was in the kitchen, I was aware he was there,” he said.
Andrew’s parents were told by police that his statement would always be on record so that if this ever happened again “it would be evidence”.
This newspaper has learned that it did happen again after another man, William (not his real name) contacted us about the same man.
“In the summer of 1989/1990 I was hitching a lift on the Dublin Road to home, I had a part time job that finished at 10pm. This man lifted me at about 10.45pm.
“It was a really hot night, and to this day, I can remember that he was wearing blue tennis type shorts, light coloured socks, brown sandals and a white shirt.
“In the car, he was quite chatty,” he recalled. But then, like Andrew’s experience, the situation soon turned more sinister. 
“He seemed to be scratching the top of his leg or at least so I thought. It became obvious that he was pleasuring himself. 
“I said I wanted to go to Lisnaskea. He got quite aggressive and started to say that he was in a hurry and could not bring me to Lisnaskea. He still pleasured himself, he appeared to be lost in some kind of lust or was turned on.”
Outside Maguiresbridge the man began to pleasure himself for a second time. 
“He had slipped his penis out of the side of the shorts. I actually froze at that point. There was little or no traffic, and he had slowed right down to about twenty miles an hour. 
“He reached over and began to touch me and rub my penis through my trousers. He kept telling me that I was beautiful and that I should take it out I would be happy if I did. Then he asked me for a kiss. I tried to ignore him. He then told me I was beautiful again and that I he would love to go to bed with me and just hug and cuddle. 
“He kept telling me that he could look after me if I looked after him and he offered me a job. He said that I could be his special friend and that the pay would be good, that I could drive one of his vehicles at his business.” He then sexually abused him.
“He pulled my hand onto his lap and on top of his penis. I tried to move my hand away but he put his hand on mine and made me rub him. I tried to stop, he got mad and told me that I should have manners. He said that I could not expect a lift with nothing in return and he pulled in and told me to get out. Then he began driving again and tried to get me to touch him again.”
When William refused, his abuser stopped the car and told him to get out.“After that I saw him driving around the town on numerous occasions. You could set your clock by him. He would be out at Cherrymount at about 6.15pm every day, if he did not get someone into the car he would then be at Dublin Road about five to 10 mins later. You would then see him do the same around 8.30pm every evening, he would come down Queen Street onto the Cornagrade Road and out to Cherrymount, again if no one was there he would move towards Dublin Road. This would be repeated at about 10.30pm to 10.45pm. Most of the time that I saw him he would get someone into his car,” he recalled.
“I regret not doing something about this,” said William. “I may have stopped him abusing someone else but who would believe me against this highly respected businessman? God knows how many people he got his hands on over the years.”
William, who was about 15 at the time, will meet with police soon.
This newspaper informed Andrew that he was not the only schoolboy abused by this man.
“It makes me sick,” he said. “That’s the bit that is upsetting me now that something wasn’t done about me that maybe would have stopped this happening to others. I am sure there are more than the two of us.”
He will also meet with police.
“The police need to re-examine this, it should have been done before now. I feel let down by the police as an organisation. They, to me, didn’t do what they said they would do. They let me believe that my facts would be kept that if there was ever any mention or allegations they would have acted on it. Well, they clearly haven’t. 
“I will meet Detective Hilman and I will be saying to her - the PSNI let me down and everybody else. “Do I think he should be prosecuted? Yes. Should he be in jail? Yes.” 
“I am getting emotional now,” he said, during an interview with The Impartial Reporter.