Magician abused me at my eighth birthday party, Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson reveals

 
Miranda Bryant15 November 2013
WEST END FINAL

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Actress Emma Thompson has told how she was abused by a children’s magician at her eighth birthday party.

The double Oscar-winner said the “old man” took her behind a door and asked her if she wanted a sweet before sticking his tongue in her mouth.

Thompson, 54, said that after the incident she felt guilty because she thought it was her “fault”.

Speaking out to highlight the dangers children face today with social media, she said: “My parents brought him to the house for my party. He was an old man with grey hair. And he took me behind a door and said, ‘Would you like a sweetie?’

“I said, ‘Oh, yes please,’ but I had a funny feeling. He gave me the sweet and said, ‘Will you give me a kiss?’ and I said yes. So I went up to kiss him on the cheek and he planted his mouth on mine, stuck his tongue in my mouth and wiggled it about. I thought it was my fault — children always think it’s their fault.”

She said she feels so strongly about the pressures of growing up that she has written a “handbook” on sex and emotion for her daughter Gaia, 13.

She told the Daily Mirror: “There are so many more pressures. The sort of sexual questions being put to young kids is horrifying to me, but that’s what’s out there — boys and girls watching pornography, boys showing girls hardcore porn on their iPhones.

“I’m in a constant state of anxiety but I know these kids have to negotiate these thickets by themselves.

“We can only help by listening, being aware, by not turning away and by not saying, ‘Oh, that’s all so disgusting I can’t even think about it’.”

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