Warning: This article contains details of child sexual abuse and suicide.
This week, Australians watched as Dr Staurt Kidd shared his harrowing experiences of sexual assault on ABC’s You Can’t Ask That.
It was difficult but important viewing, hearing the 60-year-old child sexual abuse survivor from the Blue Mountains speak of the abuse he and his little brother suffered, beginning from when he was just a toddler.
Tragically, it then emerged that Dr Kidd took his own life two months before his story went to air.
Now, earlier footage of Dr Kidd and his family appearing on the popular reality show Gogglebox has resurfaced, giving us an insight into the caring and funny husband and father who was lost too soon.
Videos from the 2015 Gogglebox series show the father-of-two laughing and telling jokes with his wife Janet, two sons Roger and Michael, and his daughter-in-law Elena.
Watch the Kidd family at a happier time on Gogglebox below. Post continues after video.
Top Comments
I had not kept up with the news. I love the ABC series "You cant ask that", so I sat down to binge on the episodes on iview. As a child sexual assault survivor myself I approached viewing this episode with a mixture of interest and trepidation. I was so impressed by the grace, the honesty and plainly apparent suffering of this brave man, the amazing strength that despite the demons and self loathing installed by the pattern of abuse, he had pushed on, performed as a Doctor and surgeon was miraculous to me.
What a wonderful role model, how incredibly wrong and tragic an innocent child, an intelligent compassionate man was so damaged by vile selfish paedofiles. The grooming process, the roping in of his younger brother, that fact that despite being an intelligent compassionate man, and decades of therapy in his heart the person he blamed most for his assault and abuse was himself.
I had to stop in the middle of the episode and google this man, learn more about him... I was even more impressed with the effortsthi man had made, what he had given back to otherin need... Then to see he had finally given up his fight to live, that those abusers finally took his life, that he was finally at peace, cut to my heart.
One of the greatest tradegies to me is how many people, victims of assault do not, can not, report to authorities (myself included). That reporting retraumatised, and if you donot have good evidence, do nothing to change anything other than damage your own life. I understand the need for proof of abuse, but so often what can a child do, especially years later when they realise how wrong everything is. When you have been groomed you feel like a active partcipant , guilty too, disgusted by yourself at what you are (though logically you know it is notntrue).
I was lucky, my abuser got sick and died. Then as you get older, you wonder about what child pornography materials were born from the abuse, if in a way if the abuse is ongoing. I did not have the added worry that my failure to report meant more children were suffering. But I still felt guilty. It still was a secret that ate at my soul, I still internalise the guilt. I wonder if he also abused his own children, if those children lost both their abuser and their father when he died. It still played a huge role in shaping who I am. I don't blame all my mental health problems on these events, but it is definitely part of the storm.
I too struggle daily with suicidal urges, blame myself for my problems, my failure to be functional. I feel such empathy and admiration for Dr Stuart Kidd and his family. I am glad he is no longer suffering. The world has lost a remarkable man.