This is physical abuse not sexual abuse but it is still very serious. I detailed the abuse I suffered here and that prompted a second victim of teacher Geoffrey Eve to come forward here. Now a third boy has stepped forward.
This boy was not a victim but a witness and what he saus makes it clear that what went on went on over many years (he is older than I am) and on a massive scale. One of the things that makes you not come forward as a victim is a worry that maybe what happened to you was unusual, maybe in some way you sort of deserved it. You know that cannot be the case but you engage in self doubt so you say nothing about memories that never go away.
So boy three, now in his fifties, writes:
I vividly remember Eve violently bashing the boys heads against the wall outside 3B classroom. Luckily not mine but I did get hit across the head, like most in the class when he was in a rage.
Ends.
Eve did not just hit your head, he stood you next to the wall and hit you so hard that your head bounced off that wall. Or in one case for me a bank of metal cages.
I was in 3 A on the second floor, 3B was on the ground floor. There were two classrooms either side of that room. 1M with Mrs Moffatt and the Lower 2 form on the other side. Next along was the staff room. Is Warwick still claiming that no-one was aware of Eve's activities?
Ensuring that Eve faces justice is one matter. I hope that the current Warwick School HM will keep to his word and go to the Old Bill about this. But there is another issue which is almost as big, the way Warwick did not tackle this abuse and indeed engaged in an active cover up to protect Geoffrey Eve all those years ago. This was a man who took leave after a series of boys complained and then was just allowed to come back to abuse again. Eventually a parent complained so much that Eve was forced to take early retirement. But he was still treated as part of the family, invited back to OW events (until I complained five years ago) and concerts until the present day.
Warwick as an institution failed those it was meant to be looking after. The best way it can apologise is by ensuring Eve is punished. But it also needs to say sorry in a very public manner for its own manifest failings. And it need to act with a sense of real urgency.
If the HM is too busy why not ask a retired former teacher who knows the ropes and the characters involved and who is utterly without reproach to take charge of this manner. The HM and I discussed one former PE teacher who was a very good chap indeed and utterly honourable and who is now retired when we met. Would he do it as a favour to the school and to boys whose welfare I know he cared about? Or can the HM do it himself and make it his top priority?
If any other OW's suffered at the hands of the sadistic abuser Geoffrey Eve please get in touch with me on [email protected] - confidentiality is assured. I am not going to let this matter rest.