This inspirational story has now been adapted and made into an independent British movie - Big Boys Don't Cry Everyman Chelmsford will premiere a new feature film in aid of an Essex children's charity next month.

The home was made up of several dormitories where the children would sleep, with up to 12 beds in each building. Read More Related Articles Paul Connolly: Not Normal: The Uncensored Account of an Extraordinary True Life Story, 2018. ISBN 978-1-982908-71-3 On my first night I wet the bed and a nurse scrubbed me in bleach and said 'That's what we do to whoever wets the bed here'," he said. Big Boys Don’t Cry will be screening in the UK with special charity partners and is available on DVD from September 5. It is available to rent and buy on VOD from October 7.A third social worker, Hayden Davies, 79, who was convicted for buggering a teenage boy in 1981, faced 37 charges of indecent assault, rape and buggery, had proceedings dropped against him after the loss of evidence meant a fair trial was not possible.

To launch the release of Big Boys Don't Cry, Screenbound Pictures is hosting a screening of the film on Monday, September 5 to raise money for Great Baddow-based Kids Inspire. He was taken to St Leonard's Children's Home in Hornchurch where he suffered mental and physical abuse, and remembers men 'climbing the fire escape' to rape children. One of his trainers threatened his house-father over Paul's abuse and the harrowing torture stopped.

She will be joined by the author and inspiration behind the film, Paul Connolly, the chief executive and clinical director of Kids Inspire, Sue Bell OBE, Olivier award-winning actress and patron of the charity, Ruthie Henshall, and the film’s executive producer, Richard Hart. Life has been anything but normal and the demons will never go away, but Paul has learned to smile at them as many of the people that predicted the worst for him are now where they told this vulnerable little boy he would end up. Many others suffered various forms of abuse by the home’s staff and the housemaster, Bill Starling, was eventually jailed in 2001 for 14 years for the horrific crimes he committed.