Former Blues midfielder and current academy coach Kieron Dyer has revealed he was sexually abused by a great-uncle as a child.

Dyer was aged 11 or 12 when the incident took place after he was left alone with his great-uncle Kenny when staying at his grandmother’s house in Ipswich.

“Kenny had slipped his hand down my trousers while I was asleep and he was fondling me,” Dyer told MailOnline. “I froze. I was petrified. I didn't know what to do. Kenny must have sensed that I'd woken up because he started shushing me and trying to reassure me.

“He kept asking me to let him finish what he was doing. It was like he was in a trance. He said he'd buy me loads of chocolate. He pulled my trousers all the way down to my ankles. I knew he was doing something terribly wrong but I was frozen. I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I couldn't do anything.”

Dyer, who speaks candidly and in depth in the interview which can be found in full here, says the incident has had an impact on his entire life.

“I don't want to use what happened to me as an excuse for the mistakes I made. In my life and football career, I made monumental errors. But I had a choice. I knew what was right and wrong and you can pick what's right and what's wrong.

“But with the abuse, it's probably the only thing where I didn't have a choice. There was nothing I could do about that one moment in time and it formed my life.”

Dyer’s autobiography Old Too Soon, Smart Too Late, written with journalist Oliver Holt, which is available for pre-order here, is published on February 22nd and is being serialised in the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

The former England international, who now coaches Town’s U16s, is staging a launch party at Portman Road a week on Friday - which is sold out - in aid of local child abuse charity Fresh Start, New Beginnings.

Photo: TWTD

runningout added 02:18 - Feb 11 Can't imagine how you get through after hell like that. Takes some doing. Think we realised Kieron was a strong one when he made it as a regular first team player with Town.. Respect
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bobble added 05:04 - Feb 11 is there a person out there who hasnt been abused ? hopefully things will improve in the future...
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Mark added 11:13 - Feb 11 Huge respect to Kieron for speaking out and helping others. He can be proud of himself and feel glad that his life is a real force for good.
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LWNR2013 added 13:12 - Feb 11 👍KD👍
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rfretwell added 17:57 - Feb 11 Odd comment Bobble. Of course there are loads.
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Marcus added 20:00 - Feb 11 I'm pleased Kieron has been open about this and it saddens me that it happened. Football has a lot of 'masculine' walls that make saying 'me too' very difficult. Nobody should fear saying that.
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toxtethblue added 13:21 - Feb 12 As a CBT therapist I work with victims of rape and sexual abuse, people with PTSD. Well done for speaking out Kieron, this will have helped so many more people than you can know feel less alone. It will also have helped people who feel a sense of shame following abuse, this is very common. A role model for so many revealing his own experience will help massively in this regard. Well done man.

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PortmanTerrorist added 13:29 - Feb 12 I know KD is hard on himself despite this horrendous experience, but having met him in recent times he should sincerely be proud of the man he is today. Admitting this publicly just confirms that.
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