I entered a junior seminary in Yorkshire run by a religious order at the age of 13. Over a period of illness I was confined for two weeks to a room adjacent to a priest who acted as infirmarian.

He visited me twice a day for two weeks. He would lock the door, tell me to strip off and kneel on the edge of the bed. He kneeled in front of me to carry out “inspections” to see if everything was “working properly” after the invasive hospital endoscopic inspection. I now know that what he was doing is called “masturbation”. I was too embarrassed to watch at the time and looked straight ahead and I was unsuspecting – until one day something made me look down. I flinched in shock when I saw the sweat on his bald head, his red temples pumping blood and his eyes staring right into my eyes pleading for my complicity. The priest saw my reaction and immediately left, telling me to return to my dormitory.