AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Elloise Farrow-Smith
When Robbie Gambley was a boy, he dreamed of cars. Driving them, fixing them, owning them.
His abuser used that passion, turning a boy’s dream into a predator’s advantage, and life into a nightmare for Mr Gambley.
After he was abused by his school teacher, Mr Gambley lost his way to drugs and alcohol and the dream of being a mechanic disappeared in a haze of guilt and shame.
For 25 years, Mr Gambley hid the truth of what his male school science teacher did to him.
His young life became ruled by excessive expressions of masculinity, in a bid to erase the memory of his abuser.
Throughout the late 1970s and early 80s, Mr Gambley drank heavily, used drugs, and rode motorbikes with reckless abandon. He reflects upon this as his death wish, a way to end the pain.
“I lived with this by myself and it had a massive effect,” he said.
“I never married, I haven’t got children, that’s a great sadness to me now.”
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