'Brookes destroyed my life': Man forced to have sex with cow tells of abuse trauma
A traumatised man who was forced to have sex with a cow as a child has told of how the horrific abuse destroyed his adult life.
His victim impact statement was read out in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday at the sentence hearing of Allan Kenneth Brookes.
In September, Brookes, 55, was found guilty of a string of child sex offences to the same victim, but also pleaded guilty to a bestiality charge.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the judge of the long-lasting effects of the abuse on all facets of his life, and his horror when Brookes' arrest was reported in the local media and people assumed he was the victim.
"I received phone calls from work colleagues questioning me and people were mooing like a cow due to the nature of the charges," he said.
The victim did not return to work after that.
"I was now unemployed and terrified of leaving the house", he told the court.
The victim told of how the abuse turned him from a happy child into a "panic attack-prone loner who would leave class and hide in the bushes".
As an adult, he said the abuse had destroyed his relationships, financial success, education, sexual functioning and mental health and pushed him into alcohol addiction.
His partner, who read the statement on his behalf, broke down as she described his detachment from their young son.
"I don't feel comfortable holding him, giving him cuddles or saying 'I love you'," she read.
"Allan Brookes destroyed my life."
Brookes' sentence hearing will continue on February 20.
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