Former England hooker Brian Moore revealed in a newspaper interview yesterday that he was sexually abused as a child by a teacher on an overnight field trip.
The abuse began when he was about nine or 10 years old and continued in school along with three other boys, Moore told the Daily Telegraph.
Now 47, the former Harlequins player said he never told his parents because his church-going abuser, who he did not name and has since died, was a friend of theirs — and because he felt ashamed.
“So difficult is the subject that, if you have been abused, you feel tainted by association with the awfulness of the crime,” Moore told the newspaper ahead of the publication of his new autobiography, Beware of the Dog.
Of his abuser, he said: “I felt cheated when I heard he had died. I wrote him a letter explaining the effects of what he did, but he died before I could send it.”
“What happened to me cannot have been an isolated incident. It had probably been going on for years,” he said.
Moore, who was capped 64 times for England, played in three World Cups and was part of the winning side in three Grand Slams, is now a commentator known for his brash style — an attitude he links back to his abuse.
“Anyone with similar issues will understand that it is possible to come across as bullish, argumentative, forceful, mouthy and yet be absolutely crippled emotionally. It’s a compensation mechanism,” he said.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
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