Legacy of misery for child victim

By EUGENE BINGHAM AND CATHERINE MASTERS

For more than 10 years, they have watched their son suffer because of what Peter Douglas Liddell did to him as an 11-year-old.

They have rushed to hospital to be with him as he goes through the breakdowns, and fought to help him shake off the haunting memory of his abuser.

They have had enough and believe it is time for society to wake up and realise the damage that child sex abusers like Liddell are doing.

"I would not have believed the serious damage this does to people if I had not been so involved with a victim," said the father of the boy, now aged 23.

"To see him walking around as though he has got the weight of the world on his shoulders is heartbreaking. The world should be his oyster."

Instead, the parents have seen their son struggle through adolescence and plunge into psychiatric illness, grappling with a sickening memory deep in his subconscious.

The boy was abused while Liddell was a counsellor at King's College.

Like the rest of the school community, the parents thought they knew him well enough to trust him to take their son away for the weekend.

"That's the reason Liddell was such an evil bastard - he was a counsellor," said the father.

"He was counselling kids - he knew what the effect would be."

Said the mother: "We just aren't looking after our young people enough. It's the ignorance of people that gets me - 'Oh, he's such a nice fellow, he couldn't possibly be doing that'."

They do not believe offenders should be getting name suppression and say the justice system should recognise that there is no cure for paedophilia.

"Castration does not get rid of a sick mind," said the father. "They should be locked away and kept away from kids for ever.

"I don't want to hear anything about their rights.

"I would kill the bastard [Liddell]. It's just that I would be depriving my son of a father [by going to prison]."