The victim of a pensioner paedophile last night said he had forgiven his abuser – but that he would never forget what he had done to him.
The man, who fled the north-east 15 years ago because of what he endured, said that if he did not let go of what William Brown had done, the anger and hurt would eat away at him for the rest of his life.
“If I forgive him, it will leave my system,” he explained.
“But I can’t forget. The only time I will forget is the day I die. It will always be in my mind.”
The victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons – explained how, as a teenager, Brown became like a “father-figure”, letting him stay at his when times at home were tough.
But, soon, the man who had made him feel safe changed.
“I can remember it all from day one,” he said.
“He said that this was going to be our secret.”
Yesterday, Brown was found guilty of abusing the man, now in his 40s, at various locations across the north-east between 1982 to 2000, including in a lorry and car at Elrick Hill and even on the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road.
He would then give his victim money and say not to tell anyone.
The abuse stopped in 2000, just before his victim moved to London to start a new job – “a fresh start”, he described it.
The man said that he had no intention of ever exposing what Brown had done to him, and that it was not until other men came forward that he realised the extent of what he had done to other boys.
But when police visited him at his new home in England, he decided to talk.
Within weeks, he was asked to travel to Aberdeen again to take part in an ID parade.
“It was the first time I had seen Mr Brown in some time, but I recognised him in a second,” he said.
“When I got outside, I broke down.”
Brown’s victim said yesterday’s verdict brought him some peace of mind, but that it could never change what had happened to him.
“I would run from the physical abuse at home, and Mr Brown said he would help me,” he said.
“I never knew my real father, so he became like a father to me.
“It’s hard to describe what he did to me to someone who has never experience it.
“I would never wish what he did to me on my worst enemy – it’s ruined everything.”
