THE man had kept his secret for more than 70 years. But in November, 1994, when Father Brendan Smyth dominated headlines, he picked up the phone and called the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (RCC).
Now in his 80s, he was one of hundreds of people who called the centre during that time, according to Ms Grace O'Malley, of the RCC. He said he had been abused by a priest as a child and had never told anybody.
The centre had an average of four calls a month on clerical sex abuse. That month they took 68. The number of first time callers rose from 180 a month to 372. The figures were part of a study into the effects of media coverage on attitudes and behaviour. The centre saw a marked increase in the number of calls from older people.
At a separate lecture, Dr David Finkelhor, leading expert on the effects of sex abuse in childhood, said it was difficult to pinpoint one particular side effect in later life. "Sexual problems, abuse of alcohol and other psychiatric disorders are also true of other childhood traumas.
The main factor which reduced the risk of psychiatric illness in adulthood was when the person had a confidante or best friend to talk to. A secure marriage was the next most important and then came a good relationship with your mother.
Dr Finkelhor said there were two schools of thought on the effects. One was that the abused person loses self esteem and this affects all aspects of his or her life. The other was that the person seals themselves off from emotional involvement.
Those men who were most likely to abuse, having been abused themselves, were those who could not resolve the conflict of male values, he said. "Males are not supposed to be victims, to seek help or to talk about being hurt.
Dr Finkelhor said it was possible for therapists to induce a mistaken or inaccurate memory of sex abuse. They needed to be cautious about making a link where there was none.
On an optimistic note, he said future victims may be more able to deal with their problems with the higher profile of sex abuse in the media and public debate. Today's adult who was abused as a child "grew up during a time of great ignorance and secrecy" of the problem.