THE impact of childhood sexual abuse is like a web, spawning from a single point in time and weaving its way outwards across the expanse of the victim’s life.

The words of one victim, from Colchester, cut through the deathly silence of a hushed courtroom last month.

Perhaps he, through prosecution barrister Jamie Sawyer, described the impact better.

“He was like a shackle around my ankle,” he said.

In the 1980s, this victim was just 14-years-old when he was hitchhiking in an Essex village, hoping to catch a ride to Chelmsford as he had no money for a bus fare.

Unfortunately for him, Keith Tait – now a disgraced former headteacher and town councillor – was the one to pick him up.

Tait went on to groom the boy, even winning favour with the victim’s mother.

All the while, Tait carried out repeated acts of sexual abuse against his victim.

“The pretence he used – that he understood me and had more time for me than my parents – was wicked,” said the victim in a harrowing victim impact statement.

“It left me doubting an already strained relationship with them.

“His insidious and calculated way of winning over my mother damaged my relationship with her for the rest of her life.

“It was something I was too ashamed to talk about; too guilty, but also too disgusted. I was a child, and children don’t think like adults do.

“I somehow drew the conclusion - or as children do, I simply believed - she was in some way complicit. She could or should have been more thorough.

“But Tait’s silver tongue charmed her, as did his so-called respectability – his get-out-of-jail-free card.”

The victim never repaired the damaged relationship with his mother and she died in the 1990s, estranged from her son.

“My greatest regret, and one that has never left me, is the failure to breach the chasm between us,” he said.

“The relationship with my father was also badly dented.

“I saw his inability to realise what was going on as a sign of indifference.

“He was stunned when he was contacted by the police about this case. When I spoke to him, some time later, and told him what had been going on, he was shocked.”

He added: “If there is one positive thing that might come from this awful affair, it is that perhaps we may be able to patch up our relationship, after 35 years of it being wrenched almost completely apart by Tait.”

The victim said Tait had “taken a child and made him old”.

Unable to deal with the psychological impact of the abuse, he turned to hard drugs and distanced himself from his friends.

“Looking back at the time of my life sickens me; there are few memories I have which are not tainted by his presence,” he said.

“He lied and lied and lied, just to get what he wanted.

“I should have known better. I can’t believe I didn’t. But I was a confused child, and he just managed to amplify that confusion in order to prey on it.”

In his late teens and 20s, he struggled to find and form relationships. He found himself unable to cope with “any degree” of sexual intimacy.

“It was when it was heading towards something more serious that I essentially found myself impotent,” he said.

“I know this was a direct result of Tait’s behaviour, because it was at around these periods his abuse began to force itself into my mind more and more.”

The victim said police contacted him twice over concerns raised about Tait, but he was initially wary about giving evidence against his abuser.

He said on the first occasion he told police: “Any positive feelings I may potentially gain by seeing justice done are outweighed by the effect that my mental health may suffer in the process.

“I am aware that Keith Tait has a wife and that he also has a son, it could now damage theirs and probably other lives.”

But he said he eventually felt “duty bound to press on, no matter how much it hurt”.

“It is almost three years since the police contacted me for the second time," he said.

“As I understand it this investigation has had more than its fair share of complications.

“But again, his devious arrogance would not allow him to admit a thing.

“Instead, he wove an ever more complex web of deceit into which any number of people and, no doubt, huge amounts of money were caught up in as the quest for the truth continued.

“Every email and every phone call I received brought this child molester back into my mind. Between 2019 and 2022 he was virtually a fixture.”

Following a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, Tait, now aged 77, was convicted of five counts of indecent assault.

Cases reaching trial is often little comfort to the victims of sexual abuse and this is when the true test of their mental fortitude begins.

Their childhoods, motivations, memories and relationships are picked apart in front of 12 strangers, lawyers and a public gallery.

“The trial itself was an incredibly difficult process,” said the victim.

“Not only because, as usual, Tait lied and lied and lied, but he lied to everybody in the court room in one of the most despicable ways.

“One of the most sickening parts was not having my childhood disassembled and picked apart on his behalf, or having to speak about very private matters, and having to go through minute details of parts of the abuse – a very difficult thing to do – but his behaviour when the court had risen.

“It is no secret to anybody else who remained in the court that the physical difficulties he displayed through the trial seemed to improve dramatically.

“One of the most striking and hurtful images I shall take from this trial is Mr Tait’s walking stick left resting on the desk of the press bench.”

Tait, of North Mill Place, Halstead, was sentenced to six and a half years imprisonment.

His victim, who is granted lifelong anonymity by law, has already served what feels like a life sentence.

He said: “He has manipulated, hurt me, abused me and damaged me and my relationships – not least with my family – profoundly.

“He is a malign, thoroughly unpleasant, self-seeking and despicable pervert, hiding behind his good standing in society to damage me almost irreparably.

“Without his self-seeking, perverted intervention in my childhood I have no doubt my subsequent life would have been a better and happier one in all manner of ways.”