SHOCKING figures have revealed 86 per cent of rape or sexual abuse victims know their attacker, according to a Gravesend charity.

Family Matters, Wrotham Road, Gravesend, which helps people living across south east London and Kent, offered counselling to 433 clients between April last year and March this year.

Only 14 per cent of people helped identified their abuser as a stranger or an official, such as a doctor.

The majority of people the charity sees come forward to deal with abuse which happened in the past.

Charity boss Malcolm Gilbert said: "Many have never told anyone until they speak to us."

Mr Gilbert wants to challenge a perception of abusers being predatory paedophiles, care home managers or priests.

The figures show family friends and neighbours were identified as the most common source of abuser.

Fathers closely followed as the second-highest source.

Clients also identified stepfathers, uncles, brothers, partners, grandparents, cousins and mothers as the abuser.

Only a third of people who were raped identified their attacker as a stranger.

Of people seeking help, 20 per cent are under-19s and around a fifth of the clients are men.

Mr Gilbert said: "Men can suffer particular issues around sexuality and maleness as the majority of abusers are men.

"The message we are trying to get across is despite media coverage to the contrary 86 per cent of the abusers identified to us by our clients are known to the survivor.

"It is our belief this denial is part of a social avoidance as it is more palatable to believe others' are abusing our children and not us."

He added: "About 80 per cent of our clients are adults dealing with historical abuse which they only now feel able to speak about.

"If anybody is suffering or has suffered from abuse they are more than welcome to contact us."

Family Matters took more than 4,000 calls and worked with 30 children in schools on issues of self-harm and self-esteem from April last year to March this year.



About the charity

Family Matters, set up in 1990, helps people living in Greenwich, Bromley, Bexley, parts of Lewisham and all of Kent down to Ashford.

Ninety-four of the people seen by Family Matters identifed family friends and neighbours as their abuser.

Grandparents were identified by 29 clients and 21 said cousins abused them.

Eighty-nine said fathers and 56 said stepfathers were responsible.

Forty-four identified uncles, 38 said brothers and 30 said boyfriends and partners.

Mothers were identified by 16 clients and other family members were identified by the remaining nine clients.

The charity's helpline number is 01474 537392.

To learn more about the charity, visit familymattersuk.org