Emmerdale plot spurred victim of child sex horror to report his abuser

MAN CAME FORWARD NEARLY 40 YEARS LATER

- By MARTIN NAYLOR [e-mail]

A CHILD sex abuse victim of Nottingham paedophile Steven McNally says he is living proof that it is never too late to come forward and tell the police after waiting nearly 40 years for justice.

Derek not his real name was repeatedly abused in the 1970s by the former scoutmaster and care home worker who carried out what a judge called "a tyrannical regime" of regular beatings of children at Nazareth House in Lenton.

The now 68-year-old "relished" in meting out regular beatings and threatened the victims who stayed silent for almost half a century, until a police investigation began in 2016 and they were interviewed about their horrific experiences at his hands.

Derek chose to remain silent as he mainly feared that he would not be believed, as well as having a misplaced sense of shame and a negative view of the police - even keeping his abuse a secret from his wife.

But he said that all changed when he was spurred into action by the plot of a TV soap opera and chose to come forward.

He said: "I was watching Emmerdale with my wife and there was a storyline at the time about a young boy who'd been sexually abused.