Queen awards Graham Wilmer an MBE for helping survivors.

Wirral charity worker awarded MBE for services to victims of childhood sexual abuse.

Graham Wilmer, founder of the Wirral-based Lantern Project, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, for his work over the past 13 years, helping survivors of childhood sexual abuse cope with the long-term impact of the trauma they suffered.

Mr Wilmer, who, like the majority of survivors, kept silent about abuse he had suffered as a child, for 40 years, until finally disclosing his ordeal in 1998, after suffering a mental health breakdown, following which he set up a small support group, Victims No Longer, to help himself and other victims.

In 2003, with the help of his friend and fellow survivor, David Williams, he founded the Lantern project, a registered charity, based initially in Graham’s family home in New Brighton, offering support and counselling to victims in Wirral.

Graham also set up a web site, offering support through a Survivors Forum, and within12 months, the charity had been contacted by hundreds of victims from all over the UK.

Professionals, including GPs, Social Services and other agencies began referring victims to the project for help and support, and by 2005, the project was inundated, so an application to the Lottery provided a small grant that enabled the project to rent a small building that became the hub of the counselling service, which ran a day time and evening service, until 2008, when the project was given a grant from Wirral Primary Care Trust, enabling them to move to larger premises and hire additional counsellors, to help deal with the ever increasing demand for their services.

Since then, the project has produced a range of books and films, to help victims deal with the trauma they have experienced, and also to give professionals a better understand of the long-term consequences of child abuse, and how to treat the problems that emerge over the life of survivors.

The Lantern Project is also working with the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside police and North Wales police, on a number of high profile child abuse investigations, providing support and counselling to the victims.

Graham is a also leading the call for a national commission for victims of abuse to be set up by the government, an idea which is gathering momentum, following declarations of support for the idea from the heads of child protection at the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission.

Graham said: “I am trying to get the government to publicly recognise the awful damage caused by child abuse, which needs to be treated as a public health epidemic, because that is what, in reality, it is. They continue to drag their feet, but we are now making some headway, thanks in part to the sea change in the way the police and the CPS are now treating victims of child abuse, as a result of the fall out from the Jimmy Savile case.

“Obviously, I am delighted to have been given this award, but I accept it on behalf of everyone involve with the Lantern Project, as is also in recognition of the thousands of hours of voluntary work they have all done to help victims of child abuse, and will continue to do so, provided we are able to find the funds to keep the project going, which is a major problem at the moment, but we will find a way.”

Michael Bennett

3:17 PM on 8/6/2013

The ECHO should be ashamed that they even ran a story which singled out an very good school, who work extremely hard with its youngsters and who have never, ever, been under an investigations for such crimes.

Graham Wilmer

2:32 PM on 10/6/2013

Until myself and the other victims of abuse at Salesian schools came forward, which led to the current investigation into allegations of child abuse at schools in England run by the Salesians, (Savio High School is run by the Salesians), there had never been any 'investigations for such crimes' in any of the other schools run by the Salesians either. The current police investigations (as at 30th May) had recorded eleven new allegations from seven victims, naming eight suspects, and involving the Salesian schools in Battersea, Oxford and Farnborough. This is in addition to previously reported cases, including my own, at Salesian College Chertsey, and Salesian College Blaisdon, and the Salesian Seminary college (now closed) at Shrigley Hall inCheshire. The Liverpool Echo were absolutely right to publish this story. We (the victims) have been silenced for too long. We are now breaking that silence, and I encourage all victims to come forward and talk to the police.

Further news coverage of the expanding police investigation into child abuse at Salesian schools in England over the past 50 years.

The Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 29th May 2013

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/catholic-religious-order-behind-bootles-4026130

Catholic religious order behind Bootle’s Savio Salesian College facing child sex abuse claims

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

Metropolitan Police has received “a number of allegations” relating to Salesians of Don Bosco order

MET Police investigate child abuse at Salesian schools.

The Metropolitan Police Child Abuse Command are investigating widespread sexual abuse of Children who attended Salesian Catholic schools in the UK over the past 50 years. A significant number of victims have already come forward to the police since the investigation began two months ago. Anyone who would like to talk to the police should ring 101, or contact me at the Lantern Project, and I will pass your details to the police for you. Below are some of the news articles about the investigation, which are published today, Sunday May 26th 2013.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pa ... 20-1911825

http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4980/ ... -met-probe

http://davidhencke.wordpress.com/?blogsub=confirming


Graham Wilmer
07866 508094
http://www.lanternproject.org.uk

Former Salesian Provincial 'house bound' after police investigation.

A former Provincial Superior of the UK Province of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has been investigated by Greater Manchester Police following allegations of sexual abuse spanning decades. The investigating officer, Detective Sergeant Keith Isherwood, explained the outcome of a year long investigation into Fr George Williams thus:


Mr WILMER.
Regarding your allegation of sexual abuse at the hands of Fr George WILLIAMS.
The matter was jointly investigated by the Child Protection Unit at Bolton and Bolton Social Services.
All the information raised in your complaint has been passed to DC Mike HOBBS from Surrey Police, by DC PARKER of our unit.
The reason for this was that the historical offences you outlined in your complaint were committed in the Surrey area.
The Salesian College has been visited and Fr Michael WINSTANLEY is aware of the allegations.
Fr WILLIAMS is now house bound and has no contact with any vulnerable persons, and he is deemed currently not to be a danger to children.
In respect of the Police at Bolton there are no further lines of enquiry to pursue.
Regards.

Keith Isherwood
Detective Sergeant
PPIU
Child Protection Unit

The primary reason why the investigation has not resulted in a prosecution is that the victims who came forward, following the publication of my book Conspiracy of Faith, in which I tell the story of how Fr Williams protected my abuser, Hugh Madley, were not willing to make a formal complaint to the police. Such is the power of the Catholic Order on vulnerable children and vulnerable adults.

It's not over yet, though!

Picking Up The Pieces

Picking Up The Pieces - A survival guide for all victims of childhood sexual abuse



Written by Graham Wilmer and fellow survivors, this book will be of real help to survivors, counsellors and all other professionals working with victims of child abuse.

'Picking up the pieces' answers all those difficult questions - like how to tell someone that you have been sexually abused; who to tell; what will happen next; where to get help and what type of help is available. It includes first hand information on how sexual abuse affects children and their development, and unique insights into the mental health problems that often occur later in life, resulting from abuse.

It also includes an up-to-date, comprehensive review of the criminal and civil law in England in relation to victims of abuse, and the moving and disturbing accounts of more than fifty survivors of child abuse - voices of courage, who have told their stories here, many for the first time ever, to help other victims understand that they are not alone and they can recover.

I haven't 'gone away'.

28 November 2008

Hugh Madley
52 Hale Lane
Mill Hill
London
NW7 3PR

Dear Hugh

I am writing to advise you that I have decided not to proceed with the civil action for damages against you that I have been preparing. My barrister (a leading specialist in child sexual abuse claims) has advised me, after looking at my case, and based on all of the evidence available (which includes the statements you made to Surrey police after your second arrest in October 2004) that, while I have a 70% chance of wining a claim against you in the High Court, the amount of damages I could expect, if I won, would not be that great, probably in the order of between £15,000 and £30,000 maximum.

Against this, I have had to weight the prospect of taking the claim through to trial, if you were to decide to fight the claim rather than make a part 36 offer, something that my barrister said is possible, given your previous decision to fight the criminal charges against you, despite you having admitted to the police everything you did to me.

I have also taken into account the fact that any judgement of damages I might obtain from the court would then have to be extracted from you, which would involve me placing a charging order on your house, which could take years to realise.

Then there is the psychological cost of having this hanging over me for perhaps several more years, as against the more palatable prospect of being able to draw a line under it all now by accepting that we are where we are and leaving things at that.

I think even you would understand that, when everything has been taken into consideration, there is more likely to be a better overall outcome for me, in terms of my recovery, in not proceeding with a claim for damages than there is in me proceeding, so that is my decision.

While this decision, I am sure, will be good news for you, I want you to know that I still carry the same level of cold hatred towards you as I did after the trial collapsed in September 2005, which I accept was partly due to the errors made by the police, but only happened because you chose to plead not guilty, when, of course, we all know you clearly are guilty, as you have admitted publicly on at least two occasions since.

You should also know that your decision to ignore the subsequent letters both I and David Williams have written to you has not helped matters in respect of where we go from here, as, my decision not to proceed with a civil claim for damages against you does not mean that I have forgiven you, as I have not.

Since my book Conspiracy of Faith was published, numerous other victims have made contact with me and revealed allegations of child abuse against the Salesians, which are now the subject of ongoing police and child protection team investigations and civil actions as well. You will no doubt have seen the recent criminal trial (September 22nd) of Fr Peter Carr, who is now in prison, this being just one of them, and others will follow.

I can tell you now that at least one of these allegations involves you and a Battersea boy called Andrew, whose mother has told me about the events that occurred when you took Andrew (a vulnerable boy whom I am told was diagnosed with a mild form of ‘Ausberger’s Syndrome) away on a camping holiday. She told you subsequently, when you tried to arrange a further holiday with Andrew, several months after he had actually left the school, that she did not ever want you make contact with her or Andrew again.

Her version of events was also confirmed to me independently by a former teaching colleague of yours, Kevin Boyle, who was also a close friend of Andrew’s family, and who taught Andrew for a while at some stage. This particular allegation emerged after my story was published in the Guardian in August last year, in which you admitted to Frances Beckett that you had abused me, although you tried to temper the account by claiming that it was all my fault - we all had a good laugh at that as it was such a pathetic claim to have made and so typical of you.

So, I will continue to investigate the allegations against the Salesians, which continue to grow, passing what information I have to the relevant authorities as the evidence emerges, which, hopefully will lead to more prosecutions in time, including yours, as the police, and myself of course, have never accepted that I was the only child you abused. It is simply a matter of time before sufficient evidence emerges to enable the police to prosecute you again, hopefully next time with a more positive outcome.

I am not expecting you to reply to me, although I would would like to hear your views on all of the above, but I want you to understand one thing - I will never give up until I have seen you prosecuted, so don’t think that ignoring me will make me go away - it won’t. I will pursue you to the end, wherever, whenever and however that occurs.

Yours sincerely

Graham Wilmer