Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick says he was sexually abused by farm workers between the ages of 5 and 10
Supervet Professor Noel Fitzpatrick has revealed he was sexually assaulted by a male worker on his family farm.
In his upcoming memoir, Beyond Supervet, the TV vet says in a chapter titled “Frankness,” the alleged abuser was his occasional babysitter when his parents went out.
He says the abuse began when he was just five years old and continued until he was 10.
Mr Fitzpatrick told the Times how the farm hand’s “tobacco-stained hands positioned his head to do unspeakable things”.
And when Fitzpatrick found the courage to trust a local priest and tell him what had happened, the then eight-year-old was told he was going to hell.
‘[He said] that God would punish me and send me to hell, and that I was a wicked person who brought those words into God’s house,” the book says.
“His parting instructions were to say prayers of repentance and never speak of them again,” says Fitzpatrick in his book, due for release October 27.
Supervet Professor Noel Fitzpatrick has revealed he was sexually abused as a child by a male worker on his family farm
The vet told the Times the alleged abuse took place in the fields, on a tractor, in the family home and in a run-down cottage.
Mr Fitzpatrick told the Times: “I was an innocent corrupt.”
The star said he had never spoken out about the abuse before because he wanted to protect his late mother’s feelings.
After her death in February, he said he had “nothing to lose” now.
He added: “Everyone involved is dead. I don’t blame them. That’s not how I live.’
Elsewhere in the book, the TV vet reveals how he was mercilessly bullied, teased and beaten at school.
He writes: “In secondary school, I couldn’t read or write as well as my peers. The other boys knew about math and girls, but neither was a mystery to me. As a result, I became obsessed with learning to the exclusion of everything else.
“Perhaps inevitably, I was bullied mercilessly every day, beaten up physically and mentally. My only friend was a pirate who was chained to the wall in a cowshed on our farm in Ballyfin, County Laois, Republic of Ireland. To everyone else he was just the farm dog, but to me he was my favorite companion.”
He reveals how he worked as a waiter, gardener and male model in college in Ireland and America, adding: “I studied every hour I could and my love life was slow to blossom – I didn’t have a girlfriend, until I was in my 20s.’
He writes about his money worries: “I ran out of money and changed banks three times. I felt that if I just worked hard enough, with integrity and determination, I could make my dream a reality. Eventually I was able to build my current practice and convert a collection of old farm buildings in Surrey into Fitzpatrick Referrals.
“There was always everything at stake and I was often stressed to the point of desperation, but I kept going.
“The price of my dreams has been significant, both financially and personally. I was more likely to be married to the dogs and cats of “Strangers” than to a woman (as one friend put it). Not that my customers seem like strangers to me, and neither do the animals – they’re like family.”
Fitzpatrick also opens up about the loss of both of his parents.
His beloved mother Rita died in February at the age of 92 and his father – a farmer – died in 2008.
In the book he says of his father: “He only saw me operate once. In the late 1990’s he watched me fuse a dog’s broken wrist, a pancarpal arthrodesis.
“I didn’t have any proper tools then – just a wood drill on a long electrical cord to remove gristle from bone, and a mechanic’s hand drill with a bit to drill holes in the bone for screws, both covered with sterile cloth curtains. I performed this operation in a wooden gardener’s hut.
“I always hoped that one day daddy would say he was proud of me. He never did. I could see he was a little impressed – and would no doubt be talking about it to anyone who would listen when he got back to Ballyfin. But he never said the words “Well done” to me. I don’t blame him. He was a man of his generation and upbringing.
“His reticence is perhaps one of the reasons I feel inadequate every day of my life. I’m plagued by low self-esteem. But I know that I’ve made many thousands of friends in my life – the greatest blessing of being The Supervet.”
For confidential 24/7 UK support call Samaritans on 116 123 or visit a local Samaritans office, see www.samaritans.org for details
Beyond Supervet: How Animals Make Us The Best We Can Be Be by Professor Noel Fitzpatrick, published by Trapeze on 27 October, £22. © Noel Fitzpatrick 2022. To order a copy for £19.80 (offer valid until 22/10/22; UK P&P free on orders over £20), visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call Supervet on 020 3176 2937 : Noel Fitzpatrick on All4.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11341267/Supervet-Noel-Fitzpatrick-says-sexually-abused-age-5-10-farm-labourer.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick says he was sexually abused by farm workers between the ages of 5 and 10
