After Oprah: Molestation Victim Shares His Story With Oprah And News Channel 3

For Brian Neil, this is what dreams are made of: a chance to meet and talk with Oprah Winfrey.

His heart-wrenching story of sexual abuse at the hands of his own father was the price he paid for admission.

“When we were growing up, the abuse was happening,? Neil said. ?I was 8-years-old. I remember it vividly.”

Thirty years later, the memories haunt Brian.

He said his father, who was a well-respected and popular evangelical minister, was the devil at home, molesting three of his four children, all under the age of 13.

Brian remembers him sneaking into his room in the middle of the night and forcing him to engage in sexual acts.

At one point, his father demanded the unspeakable.

“He actually forced my sister and I to perform sex together on my parents? bed which was a horrible thing,? he recalled. ?For thirty years, I couldn’t speak to my sister.”

Carrying the weight of his terrible family secret was a heavy burden for him.

He knew his father, a man of God, was living a lie and knew no one outside of the family suspected a thing.

“We had everything. We had nice homes, nice cars. We lived in a wonderful neighborhood where people saw us as being the perfect family,? Brian said. ?For me, my early recognition of childhood was somewhat sad because I had everything, but inside I was in pain.”

The sexual abuse ended in 1978 when Brian’s mother caught her husband having sex with their 13-year-old daughter.

Police arrested him, and he admitted the sexual abuse.

He went to prison for four years, but life did not get easier for Brian and his family.

Parishioners did not believe the allegations against their minister and many of them turned against the family, and so did the state.

“The state (California) denied us therapy and help,? he said. ?We were on our own at that point.”

Brian’s mom took the four kids and moved to a small town to try to heal. They didn’t have a lot of money, and they had little security.

Brian went on with his life burying his secret past the best he could into adulthood, but constantly reminded of the shame he felt.

“You carry this emotional scar permanently (alone), because if you share it, you expose yourself to being vulnerable.”

Fast forward thirty years.

Brian tells his story of abuse, without shame, on national television.

He gained the strength to talk about his pain after joining a group called Male Survivor, a national organization aimed at helping men deal with the abuse they endured as children.

Brian wants others who suffered sexual abuse to come forward.

“I’m hoping millions of men from around the world feel the courage and strength to face these demons and get help and go look for resources.”

Brian has not spoken to his father in thirty years. He’s out of prison living in Northern California.

Brian and his sister, estranged for so many years, have now made peace with the past, and they are a family again.

Coming up later this month, be sure to watch my special series, “It Happens To Boys.” A confessed child molester claims to have had sex with more than 300 boys. I’ll have his story, and also talk with a man molested by his priest. I’ll also take you on a raid with our county’s SAFE team and show you how they track sex offenders and keep them in check.