LONDON - He was just 10 years old when he was abused by a paedophile teacher, Iain Wares, at a school in Scotland in the 1970s.
Decades later, Neil Douglas is still fighting for justice and helping other survivors do the same.
He has worked with South African advocacy group Women and Men Against Child Abuse to hold 87-year-old Wares to account.
Wares faces justice on two fronts.
He was found guilty of sexually and physically abusing a former pupil in South Africa while dozens more charges await him in the United Kingdom.
READ |Convicted paedophile Iain Wares back in court
In an exclusive interview with eNCA, Douglas detailed the abuse he endured when he was in primary school.
At the time, Wares was his class master and taught two or three subjects a day as well as sports.
“The abuse was daily and went through the entire year,"Douglas recalled".
It was worse when he realised that he was not Wares' only victim.
Some of these instances happened in class, when he called them up to mark their homework.
“His hand would start exploring…”
He said Wares' violence was evident, but nobody in the class could react.
“It was kind of an unwritten rule: We never watched, we never looked. It was heads down.[It could have been that] it was out of respect for the person who was being abused or [one would be] praying please don’t pick me next,”
At that age, he said he did not understand what was happening to him and that Wares masked his behaviour as though he was a ‘dad looking after you’
But somewhere along his experience, Douglas found the courage to speak out.
He said in 2022, the story made it to a radio segment, a moment he said brought him to tears.
“I just happened to be sitting with a sandwich and heard on the news, and that was the start of the snowball. I contacted the school; they encouraged me to go to the police. I ended up chatting with [broadcaster], discovering other survivors, and ultimately ending up in South Africa to see what's in connection with the local case there against him.”
It was during these times he said he learned about the stigma around South African men who were sexually abused but chose to remain silent because they feared being viewed as ‘damaged goods’
“I thought that my voice if it helps anyone else come forward and say I've been abused, then that's wonderful because they can then get the help that they need.”
Douglas said the abuse he witnessed not only weighed heavily on him as a child, where his academics were impacted, he withdrew from people, was an easy pick for bullies, but as he grew older as well.
“I recognise that I'm hyper-vigilant in some situations. I'm very wary about where I sit and who will sit beside me, who can touch me. I've changed careers a few times. I'm always trying to prove myself to be worth something. I've had a long time with complex PTSD, although that seems to have gone into abeyance at the moment.”
READ | Pre-sentencing for convicted paedophile Iain Wares
For Doughles, who is watching the case of Wares play out in a South African court has been frustrating.
But even so, he hopes that justice will take its course and that Wares ends up back in Scotland to answer to his other heinous crimes.
I'm still going to need some serious psychological support at some point to try and fix my broken mind but at least a paedophile would have been taken off the streets and there would be some validation for the survivors; their voices have been heard.
The defence and the state are expected to wrap up mitigation of sentence arguments in the case before the Wynberg Magistrate's Court in the Western Cape.
Scottish authorities are seeking his extradition.
That matter will be heard in court on Tuesday.