One of the victims of jailed child sex abuser John Roger Oyston today spoke out about the five years of shame and degradation that ruined his life.

"David" (not his real name) called for tougher sentences for paedophiles.

He told the Evening Press of the sentence handed out to Oyston, a former York chemist: "I don't think 18 months in prison is worth five years of my life."

David, now 32, said he decided to come forward after reading in the Evening Press that Oyston had just been struck off his professional body's register.

The 55-year-old former chemist, of Burton Stone Lane, Clifton, was jailed for three years in February last year, but like all prisoners with sentences under four years, he can expect release after he has served half.

He pleaded guilty to nine offences of indecent assault against David and a tenth against another boy, now grown up.

His chemist's shop has been under new management for more than a year.

David's story is a harrowing account of the lifelong effects that being abused as a child can have on the victims.

David said he had been left emotionally shattered by his five years of abuse between the ages of nine and 14.

Still shy and withdrawn, he has had to battle through a drink problem and struggle to control a violent temper.

The abuse began when he was nine. Oyston gained his parents' confidence as a family friend, then invited him for a weekend away. For the next five years he abused him regularly, on trips, in Oyston's home, and even at David's own home in York.

David says after the abuse came to an end he managed to put his experiences behind him for the best part of 20 years. But the memories and the shame all flared up again when Oyston's trial began in 1997.

He split from his parents, who refused to believe what happened, and it drove a rift between him and his wife that almost led to them separating.

It was only the fact she was pregnant that kept them together.

David, who still lives in York, said: "It's shattered my life, the shame of it. My confidence has gone. Nobody believed it, not even my parents. I've had to have counselling since this came out last year.

"My wife was in a state of shock. It was as though it was me that was on trial as much as he was.

"At one point my wife and I nearly split. I almost made two suicide attempts. It was the birth of my daughter that kept us together and that kept me alive.

"I didn't know if it was going to be a boy or a girl and I could not bear the thought it would not have a father."

He said today that the punishment for paedophiles was not tough enough - and that Oyston should have been locked away for far longer than the three years he was given.

David said: "I hate paedophiles. I just wish more people would come forward so he would get a longer sentence, or that we could bully the government in future into giving paedophiles longer sentences or chemical castration."

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