Alleged victim claims he was raped by ex-RUC officer at 13 and ‘nothing was done’

A MAN has claimed he was raped by a former RUC officer in the area when he was 13 years old and then told if he said anything he would be “put where your father will never see you again”. 
The man, who is now 45, claims he was sexually abused by the now retired officer around 150 times for three years when he was a child and says “nothing was done” when he reported it to the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the summer of 2003. 
He also claims his father tried to report the abuse to police in 1986 but was advised not to do so. 
He has provided this newspaper with detailed accounts of the abuse which took place in 1983 to 1986, the locations of where it allegedly took place and even the names of the senior police officers that he reported it to.
It comes as The Impartial Reporter continues its long-running investigation into historical child sex abuse in the area.
“I was sexually abused by this man,” said Tom (not his real name) in an hour-long interview with this newspaper in recent weeks. “He befriended myself and spent a long time befriending me and I thought it was nice having a big adult friend until he started to abuse me.”
It was an almost idyllic childhood for Tom with long days spent soaking up the countryside air outside, playing football in the hope of being selected for Tyrone and going for long bicycle rides. 
“You know what wee cubs are like; you wanted to be super footballers. You wanted to play for Tyrone or Man United. It was all going well until I met that man [provides name] who ruined it all.
“I would be cycling up and down the road and he would stop to talk to me. He used to get me into his Land Rover and gave me sweets. I still remember what they were: chocolate coated toffee. 
“At that time the Maine mineral crowd were always on the road, the lorry would have been about but it never stopped at our house. He would have had bottles of pineapple drinks in the Land Rover. He’d take you out to the top of the hill and gave you drinks and sweets. I always thought he was nice to me,” Tom told this newspaper.
Then the “big adult friend” allegedly turned more sinister and the carefree days playing with friends in the street and kicking football soon became a distant memory as the abuse began.
“At the start it was very soft abuse, he’d put his hand on my leg and that carried on until it was full on sexual contact. He flicked you in the privates but you didn’t think much of it at the start until it got worse.
“In some of the cases he made me perform sex acts on him in his own Land Rover. In the centre part of the Land Rover there was a small section. The Land Rover had a hardtop back but there was a wee small centre section where it was removed so you could get over the gearbox and into the back. 
“He would have had oul bags of stuff in the back such as cushions and cattle feed bags. He would drive about that road. There was a small slip road that nobody used and that’s where he’d be,” he said.
Tom claims his alleged abuser used to pick him on that road after watching him pushing his bicycle. 
“He would be waiting to offer me a lift, he would chat me and then hand out sweets. When he was taking me up through the farm lane the bicycle was brought in and hidden behind a ditch. It wouldn’t have been seen by anybody. A stone lane took you over the top of the mountain. 
“The full-on sexual abuse would have been at least once a week, he was prowling about. I was away playing with a wee friend [provides name]. Then [provides name] came down there too, he would have been waiting in the Land Rover. He brought you back up the road in the Land Rover with the bicycle in the back, abuse you and then let you off before the dip in the road.”
Tom claims his alleged abuser then threatened him. 
“I do remember how [names alleged abuser] threatened me. He said: ‘If you mention this to anybody, I’ll put you where your father will never see you again.’ At that stage he had a revolver and had no problems showing that to you.
“There is no doubt his colleagues [provides name] and family [provides names] knew what was going on,” he claims.
In all Tom claims he was sexually abused several times for three years, adding up to, he believes, about 150 times. The abuse only stopped when his parents discovered their distressed son one Sunday morning.
“Mummy and Daddy came home from the Chapel on a Sunday morning and I was in the bath. At that stage there would have been fighting sessions to get you to go to the bath. You would have 50,000 different excuses, but that Sunday morning I was in the bath. I was in the bath because I had been raped. I was 13.
“Daddy saw that, he made me explain what had happened. It was the only time I saw Daddy crying, the only other time was when my mother died years later,” he said.
He says his father went to the home of a police officer [provides name] in 1986 [provides address] where he spoke to the officer informally about what he had discovered. 
“I remember that too. I got carrot cake; it was the first time I got carrot cake and couldn’t work out how you could get carrots in a cake. That policeman was a very gentle, humble man.
“He said he was going to deal with this personally himself. I thought that is the end of it, that the man wouldn’t get me again. But that was the start of years of hell,” he said. 
During this time the alleged victim claims a local priest [provides name] was sent to visit him at his home, arranged by the police officer he had met with his father a few weeks previously. 
Tom claims his father then attempted to make a formal statement with police about a fortnight later, arranged by the officer he had met previously, but was advised against it. 
“Daddy went in to meet the Inspector [provides name] and brought me with him but the specialist officer who had been brought in from the child abuse and rape inquires unit in Gough Barracks in Armagh refused to meet me with Daddy. 
“He told him that he would be ‘well advised not to pursue it’, that it wouldn’t be good for him ‘or the boy’. He said those words to Daddy. He said [alleged abuser] had a lot of friends in the police and in this very station.”
After spending years trying to forget what he had experienced as a child Tom claims he made a formal statement to police at a Police Station in 2003 and has named the Inspector he alleges dealt with him at the time. 
“He [provides name] said he would investigate it. I made a statement to him, then Cookstown Police Station got involved and took a statement from my sisters as [provides name of alleged abuser] made sexual advances towards them too. I can still picture him doing that. 
“Then in recent years I reported the abuse again in the same police station. “I never heard anything from the police after that, they didn’t get back to me,” he said. 
Tom claims he knows of at least four other alleged victims of the same man, three of whom he claims took their own lives. He has provided the names of the men.
“When you start to get into the detail you break down, I have spent a period of years going for counselling with Nexus and others. 
“Now I will meet with police, but they are going to have to take it seriously. 
“It is my belief that this has been covered up and now they must listen to the victims for a change,” he said. 
Asked to respond, a PSNI spokeswoman said yesterday (Wednesday): “We are aware of a report of alleged child sexual abuse made to police in 2003 and a file submitted to the DPP however, it has not be possible to retrieve any further information within the timeframe given.”