Child abuse survivors urged to come forward
- Published
A victim of historical child abuse has urged other survivors to come forward and not "take their abuse to the grave."
Dave Sharp suffered years of physical and sexual abuse at St Ninian's residential school in Fife.
Mr Sharp helped found Safe, a group of child abuse survivors who are visiting Scottish cities to encourage others to share their stories.
The group are spending Thursday and Friday in Dundee.
As well as offering support to people in City Square, the group hosted a public event on Thursday evening at the Steeple Church.
Mr Sharp said: "There's an anger on the streets.
"There's a recognition that not enough is being done to look for and encourage survivors of historical sexual abuse to come forward.
"The message of this campaign is come forward, be brave, don't take your abuse to the grave."
Safe are working on the campaign with , a service offering counselling and support.
Mr Sharp said: "We work with them and we are survivors who have gone through the process.
"At some point the government, the politicians, the establishments, the institutions, need to understand this a national issue that's not going to go away."
'No faith'
Mr Sharp said the Dundee area had been "very dark as far as historical child abuse is concerned."
He said: "I came here about a month ago on a fact-finding mission.
"I visited a couple of homeless centres and I was shocked, but not surprised, to discover that so many people had never heard of the public inquiry and the "
Mr Sharp said that the group has carried out similar events in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
He said: "In the last six months we've had more than 600 people who have come forward with similar stories, a lot of people who can't and won't come forward because they've got no faith in the system.
"We want people to come and listen and learn, get an understanding.
"Let's all get together and let people speak, but more importantly, let the public come forward.
"The public have to understand and realise that without their help, we're not going to get anywhere here."