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	Sexual Abuse Victims Tell of Despair, Anger and Death Wish By Georgina Robinson Sydney Morning Herald March 4, 2011 http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sexual-abuse-victims-tell-of-despair-anger-and-death-wish-20110304-1bhdi.html Four victims who were serially sexually abused as 10- and 11-year-old boys by a church youth group leader told a Sydney court today how he had ruined their lives. One victim said he had attempted suicide at the age of 14 and had struggled all his life to contain a "simmering anger" that lay below the surface. Another said he had attempted suicide twice and had been admitted to hospital five times with severe depression. A third, now aged 42, whose mother read out his statement to the court, said he had struggled with the effects of the abuse for 30 years. "I felt betrayed by a young man I trusted and by an Anglican Church I respected," he said. Today, in the District Court, Sydney management consultant Simon Antony Jacobs, 58, of North Sydney, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the four as boys between 1977 and 1983 when he was an Anglican Church youth group leader in the 1980s. Jacobs pleaded guilty in December to raping and indecently assaulting two other boys who were in his care while he was a leader in the Church of England Anglican Boys Society, or CEBS. Those charges - one count of buggery and three counts of committing an indecent act - related to offences he committed while he supervised the boys. Michael Farrar, barrister for the accused, said his client had led a "blameless life" since the offences were committed "some 30 odd years ago". Jacobs went on to enjoy a long career in management consultancy, working most recently for Forum Asia Pacific in its Sydney office. He was taken into custody today ahead of sentencing on March 23. Contact: ge.robinson@smh.com.au
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