A man has bravely waived his right to anonymity to open up about the sexual abuse he endured at the hands of his uncle, with the trauma “almost killing him”. Jake Porter, aged 30, spoke about the awful abuse that he went through when he was just seven years old.
Daniel Orme, his uncle, was found guilty of rape of a child under the age of 13 at the end of April after a five day trial at Liverpool Crown Court. The victim courageously told his experiences to the court on July 2, reading his impact statement from behind a screen.
Orme, 37, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of three counts of rape of a child under the age of 13, one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and one count of indecency with a child.
Jake told the Liverpool Echo: “He used to take me upstairs to his bedroom, after we’d play video games he would do these horrific things to me. He used to make me do things to him.”
Jake says the abuse caused him to be a “nightmare” at home, explaining how much of an impact it had on his life. After a year in care, Jake ran away from home and started selling class A drugs. He was arrested and spent eight months in a young offenders institute.
He said: “I made mistakes when I was younger and that’s it, I put it down to the abuse and the knock on effect it had on me. It was mad. I just wanted to get away from Liverpool, get away from home, so I ran away.
“I started selling drugs for someone, something I shouldn’t have been doing at that age. They were class A drugs. I didn’t know what I was doing.
“I had no morals, I just didn’t know what was going on. I was in fight mode and I hate being around my family so much. I did stuff I shouldn’t have done. I did my time and I have never ever gone back to that since, I never would. It’s not me.”
After his release, Jake went back to Liverpool where he met his girlfriend at the time and had a child of his own.
He added: “I had a son at 19. I just turned 19 and had my little boy who’s now 11. That’s when it started hitting me hard what had actually happened to me. When I had my own son I just couldn’t believe how anyone could do that to me or any other child.
“It made me sick to my stomach. When me and his mum split up my life just fell apart. I couldn’t comprehend what had happened to me and that’s when the self-harm started.”
Jake shared that he would often self-harm, and has scars on both his arms and face, as well as permanent damage to his face. The 30-year-old spent years trying to come to terms with what he went through and blaming himself. He was encouraged to go to the police after opening up to a friend, but the breaking point was when he saw a photo.
He explained: “It was about three or four years ago, what had happened had been playing on my mind for a while so I spoke to my best friend about it. I bottled it up for so long and I spoke to my best friend about it.
“I didn’t go into detail but I said my uncle used to make me do things to him and I just broke down. My friend told me to go to the police but I just didn’t want to. About a year-and-a-half went past and I saw him in a photo with my mum and I just broke down.
“I saw him on this picture with my mum at a family event and I was sat there on my own and I was battling it every day. What he did to me was on my mind, it was killing me. In the end that was how it came out.”
Jake now has a stable relationsip with his parents, and lives between his own home in Wavertree and his parents’ home in Halewood. He previously worked as a landscaper, but is taking time off to process what has happened.
“With life right now, I just take each day as it comes, each day I try and get better,” he said. “I thought after this it would be a big weight lifted off my shoulders, I feel a bit of relief but I am just broken.”