Survivor describes sexual abuse from time at Shirley Oaks children’s home
A man who said he was sexually abused and beaten at a south London children’s home has described his harrowing experiences.
Paul Annon was put into care with his two brothers after their mother died, and was just five or six years old when the abuse started at Shirley Oaks children’s home in Croydon.
The 51-year-old spoke out following the publication of a report by Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (Sosa) which found abuse taking place at the home on an “industrial scale”.
Living at the children’s home between 1969 and 1979, which was run by Lambeth Council, Mr Annon said he was sexually abused by both a man and a woman during that time.
He told the Press Association: “A big man used to come into the room and sexually abuse me, and a woman would come in.
“But not at the same time – a couple of nights the man and then a couple of nights the woman.
“Then a few nights there would be nothing and you would get some sleep and then you would be woken up by your covers being taken off and – I won’t go into details.
“It was hard, it was really hard.”
He said what happened during the night was the worst form of abuse he suffered while at Shirley Oaks, with beatings also occurring.
“Even now, today, I find it hard to sleep. I lie in bed sometimes and think ‘how could people do things like that?’,” he said.
“I don’t remember many names, you don’t when you are five or six. It is only when I got a little bit older you know people and you remember things.”
Mr Annon said whenever he tried to tell someone about the abuse “it would fall on deaf ears”.
He added: “I didn’t really understand it at the time and I couldn’t really talk to my brothers – I thought it was me, something that was happening to me. You blame yourself like it is your fault.”
With more than 700 people now part of the Sosa group, Mr Annon said it was “sickening” to find out the abuse happened to so many other people, especially his two brothers.
“We all shared the same room – so for that to be happening and no one seeing or hearing anything going on untoward is really worrying,” he added.
“There was no one to turn to – you couldn’t talk to other people. When we went outside and we played, we played, it was like a release.
“Then to know once you had finished and it was time to go and get ready for bed, then these things would happen, you tried to delay going to bed.”
Over the years he kept what happened to himself and tried to cope with it the best way he could.
He described the process of beginning to talk about the abuse as “like a weight off my shoulders”, and that in the years since, his experiences have impacted his relationships, pushed him into drug taking and drinking and left him feeling “worthless”.
His older brother died two years ago, just nine days before his fiftieth birthday from cirrhosis of the liver, Mr Annon said: “What happened to him pushed him to what he did.”
In the wake of the findings within the report Lambeth Council announced it will compensate former residents of Shirley Oaks, but Mr Annon said for him it is “not about the money”.
“There’s a lot of people out there who this has happened to and it stopped them from working, forging relationships, but it is about recognising what has happened,” he added.
“These people (the current council leader and chief executive) have to take the brunt of their predecessors. I feel sorry for them in a way, but then who is feeling sorry for us?”
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2016, All Rights Reserved.
