Another victim of sadistic abuser Geoffrey Eve at Warwick School comes forward to tell his tale

Geoffrey Eve smashed my head against a wall at Warwick School twice in the late 1970s. Those incidents were so horrific that I have almost blotted out the daily terror he instilled in me for one whole year. After more than ten years of campaigning, Warwick has privately apologised to me for the abuse I suffered as it has run an enquiry into historic sexual and physical abuse. Within two weeks, I plan to name a living teacher who sexually abused boys at Warwick and who Warwick protected.

The scale of the physical and sexual abuse at Warwick is at this stage unclear. Over the next months I plan to name five paedophile teachers. I fear there were more and also that Eve was not the only teacher who stepped way over the mark in terms of physical abuse.  The reason we have no idea of the scale of historic abuse is that Warwick has publicly suggested that there was very little or none, as I discussed HERE last week.

And so, most of the victims who have come forward do so after reading my writings which are now increasingly shared on OW forums. But the folks who chat on such forums tend to be those who remember their “Glory days” not those of us with every reason to hate the place. Until Warwick aggressively reaches out to every living OW admitting that there was both sexual and physical abuse which it failed to prevent, and in some cases actively covered up, and inviting victims to come forward, nobody will have any idea of what went on.

I have no idea if Geoffrey Eve is still alive. I know he was a couple of years ago but he would, if still polluting this planet, be 97 this year. I have an awful feeling that Warwick will not come clean about his crimes until Eve is burning in hell as he undoubtedly will. Why spare him? He is not the victim. He is a man who has traumatised dozens, if not more, boys, scarring us all for life.

The latest victim to come forward is older than me so suffered in Eve’s first stint at Warwick Junior School after which, because of his abuse, the school gave him a year of paid leave to calm down. He then came back and handed out another five years of beatings before being given early retirement on a full pension.  Victim number, I really have lost count at this point, writes:

“I remember Geoffrey Eve for his viciousness whilst I was in Junior School. He was my least favourite and most feared teacher. Recently, a younger person was asking me about boarding school and if abuse had taken place and I named him as the worse – and it brought back memories.

The dragging you out over the desk in class by your hair, head banging against the blackboard, hair pulling, knuckle rapping onto head, ruler slapping seemed not an uncommon occurrence whilst in Warwick Junior School, but I thought the worse was Eve’s way of crushing your knuckles under the lift up lid of the old ‘inkwell’ style tables.

He used the lid to smash against your head whilst holding your hair and then then he would make you put your hands between desk and lid, slowly sit on the lid with your fingers jammed beneath crushing them whilst you sat in your seat not being able to move. It was incredibly painful and prolonged.

Eve seemed to relish it. I had this inflicted upon myself and witnessed it happen to other boys and it seemed to be accepted that he was just downright vicious. The sadistic abuse that I witnessed dished out by Eve was for not giving correct or quick enough answers in class etc. or perhaps talking. It seemed unfair, definitely unjustified and dished out immediately. I was unaware that he left Warwick for a time and then returned.”

I had forgotten those desks. In my time in 3A were did still use ink pens but we had modern pens with cartridges which you could refill from a bottle. I always seemed to be getting ink on my hands and clothes. But the old desks we each had were of the inkwell era. I think I had blotted out those memories as I blotted out the daily terror I felt, that we all felt, knowing that Eve would be teaching us. Who would be dragged by his hair that day from the classroom for a beating, whose fingers would be crushed with us all watching in terror? We were just ten. Does Warwick not appreciate how awful thus all was?

I have suggested that this victim, the second new victim to contact me in a week, should go to Warwick to tell his tale. Now, such are the numbers of victims who have come forward, he will be believed.  The question is whether the current Headmaster will, at last, do the right thing and admit to the shameful past of his school and reach out for victims, for there will be many more, to step forward.