More than 50 years after he was abused at a British boarding school, Peter O'Brian confronts his past

It was an awful secret that Peter O'Brian decided long ago would stay buried in his past. But then, one night several years ago, he switched on the television at home and discovered, to his amazement, the past had caught up with him. 

It was an evening in September, 2011, when O'Brian -- who is chair of the board of directors for TVOntario -- found himself watching a documentary on his own channel called  Chosen, about sexual abuse at a well-known English boarding school called Caldicott. 

It was especially well known to O'Brian. The school was next door to his old boarding school, and he'd played rugby there as a student. 

In an article he wrote for Saturday's  Globe and Mail, O'Brian describes sitting in front of his television, unable to move, falling short of breath as he listened to a description of the very teacher who had sexually abused him 54 years earlier. The teacher's name was Hugh Henry.

 

Chosen Trailler from True Vision on Vimeo.

For more than half a century, O'Brian -- a producer known for his award-winning Canadian films including My American Cousin and The Grey Fox -- stayed quiet about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his rugby coach. At first he thought that no one would believe him. Later he feared it would hurt his family and damage his friendships.  

"In keeping this to myself," O'Brian tells As it Happens co-host Carol Off in a feature interview. "I kind of thought, well, it's just between him and me, and eventually one of us will pass on and it will all be over."

"But it turns out there were lots of other boys, and that was quite a shock."

After watching the documentary, and then later learning that two of the teachers involved in abuses at the school were finally facing charges, O'Brian resolved to speak up about his own past, and testify against the accused. 

O'Brian (pictured at right) describes being groomed by Henry, his rugby coach, over a period of months. Eventually small favours "turned into at one point hands-on. And then hands went to places they weren't supposed to go."

"I came back to school the following term and found myself in a room.... the very first night I woke up with his tongue in my mouth. And then he would come there, I never knew when."

A teacher named Peter Wright was sentenced last year to eight years in prison. In part, because of O'Brian's testimony, Hugh Henry pleaded guilty to 13 counts of indecent assault of a minor, but committed suicide two days before he was due to be sentenced.