That special trust between doctor, patient, and parent has been broken in Lewes.
This week a grand jury in Sussex County handed up an unprecedented indictment against Earl Bradley. The pediatrician was indicted on 471 criminal counts for allegations of sexually assaulting and raping more than 100 of his young patients.
But in addition to the criminal case, there is a focus on helping those families.
That's the mission of SOAR, Survivors of Abuse in Recovery. It is the go-to agency in Delaware for therapy and counseling for victims of sexual abuse.
"It's really important to realize this is a crime that has victimized all of us, it has victimized our entire community," SOAR'S Executive Director Valerie Marek said.
Given the scope of the Bradley case, SOAR's resources are now stretched. Its 35 therapists are taking on more cases, more sessions non-profit SOAR must pay for. SOAR has added an office in Newark, and moved to an office with more space in Lewes in an effort to meet the new and sudden demands for its services. Their intake calls have doubled.
"When you're dealing with victims who are very young you're not just taking in one person for therapy services, you're working with their whole extended family," Marek said.
"My heart goes out to those people who had to look at photos for countless hours and try to identify victims and notify their families," Marek said. "In many ways, people have been vicariously traumatized, and I have a lot of compassion for parents in particular."
The help SOAR offers is something a 54 year old woman we'll call "Marie" wishes she had as a child. She came to SOAR just a few years ago.
"When I was 8 years old through the age of 11, I was sexually abused by a family member," Marie said. "Unfortunately at that time there was no resources or help available, and I kept everything inside."
Marie hopes parents will seek services for their children, and themselves, now. So they don't shelve the effects of abuse into adulthood the way she did.
"It's not the parent's fault or the children's fault no matter how old they were," Marie said. "There's a sense of community out there and you'll need to rely on others, don't lose your hope,"
Marek says the Bradley case has also had an indirect impact on SOAR's workload. She says sometimes when a sexual abuse case makes headlines, it encourages people to come forward even if their abuse occurred years ago.
SOAR's fundraiser this year is now more important than ever. On the evening of April 23 the organization is hosting an "Age of Aquarius" night at Wilmington's Blue Ball Barn Museum with casino games, dinner, and an auction.
For more on this story watch WHYY's "First" Friday at 5:30.
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My name is Keith Smith. I was abducted, beaten and raped by a stranger. It wasn't a neighbor, a coach, a relative, a family friend or teacher. It was a recidivist pedophile predator who spent time in prison for previous sex crimes; an animal hunting for victims in the quiet suburbs of Lincoln, Rhode Island.
I was able to identify the guy and the car he was driving. He was arrested and indicted but never went to trial. His trial never took place because he was brutally beaten to death in Providence before his court date. 34 years later, no one has ever been charged with the crime.
In the time between the night of my assault and the night he was murdered, I lived in fear. I was afraid he was still around town. Afraid he was looking for me. Afraid he would track me down and kill me. The fear didn’t go away when he was murdered. Although he was no longer a threat, the simple life and innocence of a 14-year-old boy was gone forever. Carefree childhood thoughts replaced with the unrelenting realization that my world wasn’t a safe place. My peace shattered by a horrific criminal act of sexual violence.
Over the past 34 years, I’ve been haunted by horrible, recurring memories of what he did to me. He visits me in my sleep. There have been dreams–nightmares actually–dozens of them, sweat inducing, yelling-in-my-sleep nightmares filled with images and emotions as real as they were when it actually happened. It doesn’t get easier over time. Long dead, he still visits me, silently sneaking up from out of nowhere when I least expect it. From the grave, he sits by my side on the couch every time the evening news reports a child abduction or sex crime. I don’t watch America’s Most Wanted or Law and Order SVU, because the stories are a catalyst, triggering long suppressed emotions, feelings, memories, fear and horror. Real life horror stories rip painful suppressed memories out from where they hide, from that recessed place in my brain that stores dark, dangerous, horrible memories. It happened when William Bonin confessed to abducting, raping and murdering 14 boys in California; when Jesse Timmendequas raped and murdered Megan Kanka in New Jersey; when Ben Ownby, missing for four days, and Shawn Hornbeck, missing for four years, were recovered in Missouri.
Despite what happened that night and the constant reminders that continue to haunt me years later, I wouldn’t change what happened. The animal that attacked me was a serial predator, a violent pedophile trolling my neighborhood in Lincoln, Rhode Island looking for young boys. He beat me, raped me, and I stayed alive. I lived to see him arrested, indicted and murdered. It might not have turned out this way if he had grabbed one of my friends or another kid from my neighborhood. Perhaps he’d still be alive. Perhaps there would be dozens of more victims and perhaps he would have progressed to the point of silencing his victims by murdering them.
Out of fear, shame and guilt, I’ve been silent for over three decades, sharing my story with very few people. No more. The silence has to end. What happened to me wasn't my fault. The fear, the shame, the guilt have to go. It’s time to stop keeping this secret from the people closest to me, people I care about, people I love, my long-time friends and my family. It’s time to speak out to raise public awareness of male sexual assault, to let other survivors know that they’re not alone and to help survivors of rape and violent crime understand that the emotion, fear and memories that may still haunt them are not uncommon to those of us who have shared a similar experience.
My novel, Men in My Town, was inspired by these actual events. Men in My Town is available now at http://www.Amazon.com
For those who suffer in silence, I hope my story brings some comfort, strength, peace and hope.
For additional information, please visit the Men in My Town blog at http://www.meninmytown.wordpress.com