I was leafing through the BBC news website tonight - the way you do in an idle moment - and a name leapt off the page. A former student of mine from my teaching days in Glasgow in the 1970s has been sent to prison for grooming and sexually assaulting teenage boys. The name and the history are so unusual that I know I'm not mistaken.
To begin with, I couldn't believe it. I remember this boy from my classroom. He was clever and hard working. He was pleasant and well-mannered. He came from a lovely family. He had major health challenges, which he managed well.
To begin with, I wondered what happened to him - if anything did - to make him prey on young boys. Then I thought: what if the boys he exploited were in my family? Would I be tempted to understand, having known him when he was in his teens? Frankly, no. Bugger that. I'd want 10 minutes with him with no one watching. Because I don't think he has been punished enough: 18 months in jail and life on the sex offenders' register will not make up for the damage he has done to his victims. In court, it was said his crimes had escalated over the years. In other words, his victims suffered more as he got better at grooming and exploiting them.
The victims are the ones I dealt with when I was a teacher: from the 6 year old girl acting out sexual behaviour she's been taught by someone at home to the 12 year old boy attempting suicide to bring to a halt to abuse by a neighbour. A lifetime of therapy and medication is all these kids face.
My former student is now 51. He has copped to crimes during the period between 1996 and 2004 but I don't think for one minute that's when he started and he didn't stop just because he moved to another part of the Central Belt. That's not how this works. Meanwhile, he's had quite a nice life. Had a job. Had a place to live. The victims aren't always so lucky.
Good luck to him in jail. He'll need it. I hope his time there passes very slowly.
No comments:
Post a Comment