This is very personal to me and I've made a new profile just to post this. I always read and contribute to Nairaland
I was sexually abused in Nigeria by my mother's employee between the ages of 4 and 6
I left the country shortly after and this has always played on my mind and affected me in many ways
I told my mother when I was around 10 and I understood what happened but she didn't believe me
I am now returning to Nigeria and I feel I must contact this person to tell him the piece of my mind, even if there is no way to prosecute him. He is now some sort of celebrity in the sense that he can be easily found on google with his picture, interview about his lovely family, beautiful wife etc. He actually has a very clean cut image as he is blind and I imagine no one will ever believe he abused a little girl - my own mother did not (you know the mentality of 'He couldn't even see you, how could he have touched you? that poor quiet guy')

If you think that will help you to get peace with that event (sorry I can't find any appropriate word, but I do understand what you feel) you should go for it and tell him your feelings. Maybe he will apologize, maybe not; maybe he'll say you're lying, maybe he'll recognize what he did. You cannot know. But if you try, at least you can stop thinking "what if I had told him?" and get peace. It was arealdy brave of you to tell it to your mother, but she failed to protect you so nothing was your fault. Good luck with that, I really hope you could get some peace with that.

I think you need to first, "forgive" him.

Meeting him would be a good idea, but for what purpose?ok, you really can't prosecute him for a crime that happened 10 or more years ago. Meet him, tell him you remember what happened X years ago, how you've lived with the memory and most importantly,ask him why he did it. Make it an open, peaceful discussion. You might end up convincing him to seek help. . . If it happens that he is a closet paedophile.

Thanks for your replies. @Ify and Sweety you're right to forgive is the first step and just by writing out my experience on this forum that alone has helped. I won't give up on going to see him but I will start by saying I have forgiven him and I'm not there to fight him. I will prepare myself for the discussion to go either way.

^way to go, girl. Forgiveness is healing on its own.

All the best.