Update 2012 – Released and now living in winlaton

May 2011

Another victim of Gateshead paedophile breaks silence

ANOTHER victim of jailed paedophile Trevor Williamson has told how he broke his silence 45 years after he was abused, to make sure the pervert was locked up.

The Chronicle reported on Monday how the 62-year-old was jailed for 32 months after his victim finally told police of the sexual assaults she endured as a child decades ago.

The investigation that followed revealed that the woman, now a grandmother, was not Williamson’s only victim.

And today a former police officer, who was attacked by the bus driver in the 1960s, has told the Chronicle why he decided he had to come forward.

The victim cannot remember exactly how old he was when Williamson woke him from his sleep and carried out a sick assault, while he was staying at the pervert’s parents’ Gateshead home, but he believes he was around 10 or 12 and Williamson was some eight years older.

Too young to fully understand what had happened to him, he never told a soul.

The now 55-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “I was asleep when he got into bed with me and I was woken up by what he did,” he explained. “I didn’t really understand what was going on. I didn’t know why but I realised what was happening shouldn’t be happening.”

But the victim kept his shame bottled up and never told anyone.

He went on to become a police officer, working as a PC and then a detective in Newcastle’s West End.

But even when investigating sexual offences himself, he never saw any point in making a complaint against Williamson.

His professional experience taught him that with no evidence and the offence happening so long ago a conviction would be unlikely.

“I always felt uncomfortable about it,” he continued. “As I got older I sort of put it into context. I always felt the shame of being abused. But I kept it to myself. I knew that reporting it would mean telling my own colleagues what happened to me. And that would have just added to the shame.”

Yet, the former detective had no idea that Williamson had another victim who was going through the same torment.

Mam-of-three did decide to tell police, two years ago, when she suspected Williamson could be abusing someone else.

When the ex-policeman heard Williamson had been arrested over that incident, he knew it was time to break his silence

And at that moment, he decided to reveal the secret he had kept hidden for 45 years.

“I just said; ‘about time, he abused me too’,” he explained. “I had said it in my head thousands of times, but that was the first time I had ever said it out loud.”

The dad-of-four got in touch with his old police force immediately knowing that he could help get justice for Shirley and finally see Williamson punished for what he did to him.

And faced with two victims willing to give evidence against him, Williamson, of Litchfield Terrace, Winlaton, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to three charges of gross indecency with a child and two charges of indecent assault on a female. He was jailed for 32 months at Newcastle Crown Court, last week.

And his victim said he was pleased to see justice done almost 50 years on.

“As far back as I can remember I have wanted to see him punished,” he said. “This has given me some closure. I hope he suffers for every minute of his sentence.”