AN ABUSE victim who was routinely beaten while growing up in state care has told how reliving his experiences at a government hearing had left him suicidal.
Richard Tracey was violently abused by his late foster father George Tracey - who died in 1993 - but his complaints to Kilmarnock social services and his GP were recorded but seemingly not acted upon.
The 47-year-old claims to have been sexually abused by a family friend, before being taken into care where he was assaulted by a worker who was meant to be looking after him.
His ordeal took place in Ayrshire in the 1970s and 80s but he has revealed how he was unprepared to cope with the aftermath of reliving the incidents in a government 'truth and reconciliation' style forum.
These are designed to allow abuse survivors to speak out about their experiences in institutional care homes in Scotland.
Mr Tracey said he regularly received a "leathering" from his foster father and has records of a short inquiry into an incident in which one of the staff at a secure school pushed and hit him. Social workers took no further action.
More alarmingly, allegations of sexual abuse are recorded but not apparently followed up.
But the abuse survive has now lodged a complaint with the National Confidential Forum (NCF) after he was left feeling suicidal with no after-care or support from the agency.
"It has been entirely left to me to deal with the horrors afterwards," he said. "That has meant horrendous nightmares, the flashbacks, the self loathing and wanting to commit suicide, which I very nearly did."
Mr Tracey now works supporting a cancer patient through the night as a part-time carer.
After making a new life in Plymouth, he returned to Scotland in the last few years to report his abuse to police.
Police in Kilmarnock had investigated his claims in the 1990s but dropped the case. They subsequently denied they had investigated it at all, only to later concede that they had, when Police Scotland reopened the case in 2014.
Last year, Mr Tracey responded to an invitation to participate in Scotland’s National Confidential Forum which allows victims of abuse to have their accounts listened to and recorded.
Mr Tracey said that rather than helping him come to terms with his abuse, is was just the latest stage in a catalogue of failure by Scottish institutions to acknowledge how badly he he was let down, or attempt to put it right.
Mr Tracey has written to Education Secretary Angela Constance with his concerns about the forum.
Both Scottish Government officials and the NCF itself are understood to be considering how lessons can be learned from his case about the support of victims.
Eddie Fraser, director of East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership said it could not comment on specific cases.
Dr Rachel Happer, Head of the Forum, National Confidential Forum said: “The confidential nature of our work means we are unable to comment on individual cases. However, this does draw attention to how powerful the experience is of being heard and acknowledged.
“Sadly, too many people who have spent time in institutional care have lived through traumatic experiences. Coming to the Forum is a big step and it can trigger distressing memories for some people. The team at the Forum is very supportive to those who talk to us throughout their engagement with us, but we are not an ongoing support agency."
She said robust measures were in place to support those who take part in the forum, including a dedicated advice line, but those taking part should consider the risk of 're-traumatisation'.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel