Rugby:Former England rugby star Brian Moore has revealed he was sexually abused as a young boy by one of his teachers.
He also said he remained plagued by feelings of rejection after his mother, a single parent, gave him away for adoption when he was a baby.
The 47-year-old former Harlequins player, nicknamed Pitbull, claimed these childhood traumas made him ferociously competitive on the rugby field and had contributed to the breakdown of two marriages.
In his new autobiography, Beware of the Dog, Moore said the abuse began when he and three other boys, aged nine and 10, were lured into a tent and sexually abused by a teacher while on a field trip in Yorkshire.
The teacher, who has since died, continued to abuse the boys in the classroom storeroom, Moore said.
He said he was too ashamed to tell his adoptive parents, both Methodist lay preachers, because his churchgoing abuser was a friend of theirs.
Moore, who won 64 caps for England and now works as a solicitor, said: “If you have been abused, you feel tainted by association with the awfulness of the crime.”
Of his adoption, he said: “You believe it is done for the best of motives because if you think about it the other way, it’s so awful.”
Moore, the father of two small girls and now married to his third wife, added: “But fatherhood gives you another perspective.”
-PA