Top Abuse Therapist Quits Over 'Unfit' System

One of the few British therapists who specialises in helping male survivors of abuse has quit his role - claiming the system for supporting victims is "totally unfit for purpose".

Brian Mynott, who set up and runs the Real Dawn group in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, has told Sky News he is "fed up and sick of not being able to help the people who contact me".

A professional therapist and counsellor who has been helping people rebuild their lives for the past 15 years, Mr Mynott claimed the Government's reliance on "part-time, untrained volunteers" meant there are few people who are sufficiently qualified to deal with extreme cases of trauma.

His comments come as the police watchdog said forces were still failing too many young victims of sexual abuse , with only one in three cases being handled to a good standard.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary has warned senior officers "risk failing another generation of children" if they don't reassess their approach.

Mr Mynott, who was abused as a child in the 1950s, has written a letter to Home Secretary Theresa May explaining his dismay at having to start turning people away.

He is calling on the Government to invest in a professional system and said he would work "until my last breath" if there was more funding to help abuse survivors.

"I fear that as more and more victims come forward, there will be many of those victims that wished they had stayed silent," Mr Mynott added.

He said he feels deep guilt over his decision to step down, but said that it simply was not viable for his own health and wellbeing to continue.

"Child abuse costs the country billions of pounds per year, as society pays for the emotional and physical damage that abuse causes the victim," he explained.

"The only treatment the Government seems to freely fund is the prisons and armies of social workers and probation officers that try and control victims by threatening to lock them up instead of listening to them and supporting them within a professional system."

Mr Mynott is now in the process of winding down his group and will focus on training initiatives and other projects.