Reported historical sexual abuse case today. Please help me.

[Celticliving]

Today I gave a video statement to the police, reporting one of the people who sexually abused me and my friends 25 odd years ago.

Not only that, I named each and every one of the men (from the same institution) that sexually abused the other girls in my circle.

I was encouraged to name these people but now I'm feeling horribly guilty and uncomfortable that my childhood friends are going to hate me.

Was I unreasonable to finally expose this abuse?

I can barely breathe right now.

You're very brave op, I wish I could be as brave as you.

I disagree.

There are very few abusers who feel shame or remorse.

They are relentless liars. They put their victims through hell in court with their absolute refusal to confess and by continuing to blame their victims.

They are repeat offenders and have many victims.

What I do think is good about reporting an abuser is that these reports stack up, police build up data even if they were unable to persuade the CPS to convict.

Not forgetting that a victim may feel some relief from the act of reporting as long as they are supported throughout the process.

A failed past prosecution is still useful when a new victim comes forward.

This literally says more about her than you. Her response is defensive and tells you she knows she didn't protect you. X

This is totally unacceptable. Any child asking their parent to not let someone on the house needs to be taken seriously and supported and discussed openly.

For her to say if you need to tell her who raped or attacked you and are ‘bad’ for not doing so - I don’t think deserves the right to be called a mother. Have you had therapy regarding your mother?

it might be that you need to have support to either empower you to discuss it, or cut her out.

My friend was raped by her elder brother (9 year age gap) from the ages of 6-16. She disclosed it to her parents at 22. Her parents didn’t want to go NC with him neither did they want her to report it to the police believing he was a ‘child’ also eg started at aged 15. And they believed it to be more incest like rather than a 15 year old abusing a child. It has taken years to process and for her to deal with them. For her it was extremely damaging for her parents to dismiss her ‘abuse’ and imply she was consensual at 6 etc.

For anyone to imply that the innocent victim is bad or consented for whatever reason is totally and utterly abhorrent.

Many families want this abuse brushed under the carpet or don’t want to have to face it and it’s just wrong.