I was raped by Dafydd y Dug as a 16 year old, he held me in a stranglehold whilst he buggered me against my will against the wall of the Theological Collage in Aberystwyth.
He was an evil pederast who got away with his crimes in the same way that Jimmy Seville did; by nobody believing a word against him because he was a nationalist rather than a national hero. I reported his assault to the police and they asked me if I had an erection whilst I was being assaulted, I innocently answered yes and because of that they claimed that I was a willing partner and that I could, myself, be charged with public indecency.
Dafydd y Dug is the main reason why I hate the term homophobia as a general term. I had a genuine reason for my phobia / fear, and dealing with that fear has been a long and painful process. My phobia is not a made up euphemism for general disagreement with the gay rights movement (with whom I tend to agree), but overcoming my genuine fear has been a bloody difficult process.
I'm sorry, but I will not be mourning the death of Dafydd y Dug.
" .....by nobody believing a word against him because he was a nationalist "
ReplyDeleteSeems an unlikely scenario. Police persecution of nationalists in Wales, using the slightest excuse, was blatantly obvious at the time.
I put my name to the accusation, put your name to your defence of Burns, if you are so certain of his innocence.
DeleteAnd, by the way, I do know a bit about Police Persecution of Nationalist at that time, I was arrested on Palm Sunday 1980!
DeleteWhy would anyone lie about something like that? It takes a lot of courage for a man to admit he's been raped.
ReplyDeleteI do hope that the police will follow up on this crime. If not, I will bring it to the attention of your police commissioner.
ReplyDeleteSuch criminal acts were a lot more common than generally reported. And, yes, the police often acted woefully and sometimes quite unlawfully.
The courage you have shown today will, hopefully, help countless others come to terms with some of the awful things that they too experienced during their formative years. I salute you, Sir.
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ReplyDeleteBurn's criminality was not "Welsh Nationalist" it was the sexual exploitation and the rape of a minor, I don't think that "political persuasion" should be part of the discussion. A pederast is a pederast and should be treated with the same condemnation if he is socialist, liberal, conservative, unionist or nationalist. Elwyn Jones rejected the national cause having suffered the same indignity as me, something I could never understand. In every "crowd" there will be a few bad bastards, but you don't define the 98% of decent folk by the 2% shits!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSince I started this blog in 2007 I have never deleted a comment that wasn't spam. But I have just deleted some Anonymous comments from this thread. This was a bloody difficult issue to share. I thought long and hard about writing it. Having written it I received a number of messages from nationalist friends asking me to delete it; I closed the blog for 24 hours in order to consider those requests, but decided against it. My name is on this post, I am discussing a very difficult experience in public' if you want to respond have the grace to understand that man on man rape, or any other form of sexual exploitation is not party political. I have deleted some posts that have tried to make anonymous attacks on the National cause, that I support, because I was abused.
ReplyDeletePeople using reports of rape for political purposes are no better than the police who ignored the complaints and are little better than the rapists themselves, who commit their crimes out of total disregard for the values or opinions of their victims
Dear Alwyn,
ReplyDeleteI am totally appalled to read of your shocking experience as a young man. And you are right, pedants are not politically minded when it comes to their perversions.
It is very brave of you to go public about this vile man whoever he was.
Kind Regards, Gail
Thanks Gail
DeleteThank you for your openness and honesty in this revelation. You deserve to be praised for tackling two difficult subjects - firstly what happened to you and secondly the truth about an over-praised man.
ReplyDeleteDiolch Bill your support is appreciated
DeleteI am not aware of much praise awarded to Dafydd y Dug during his lifetime.
ReplyDeleteHe spent much of his pre-graduate life behind walls and in cages for the protection of society, and much of his later life doped in self-administered sedation.
He was sexually abused from an early age and raped in Borstal where he was sent at the age of 10.
In 1972 he was jailed for 4 years for buggery. I believe his victim was 15 or 16 years old at the time.
Alwyn's ordeal must have happened after Dafydd's early release due to the intervention of a number of nationalist friends who kindly vouched for him and took him under their wings.
He did much to dislodge the bigotry surrounding gay issues in Aberystwyth in the mid-1970s, especially among Welsh language students where it was perhaps particularly entrenched. But he was also a predator, and as charismatic, humorous and persuasive as they come, as well as being physically powerful.
I suspect that he did wreck a number of young lives in that period. A number of his young acolytes left without completing their courses, never to be heard from again, but nothing was known, nothing was said.
He also exposed the hypocrisy of a cabal of anti-Welsh closet-gay academics who would turn any stone to block his readmission to the University. On many freedom issues he forced comfortable academics to stand up and be counted and would not be persuaded to let them do things in their cozy, time-honoured ways.
He was a magnet for many whose orientation or beliefs marginalised them from 'normal' society.
It is said that when a man dies a library burns down. Most things about Dafydd you will not find in any books. His ultimate wish was that there should be no life after death.
This is one of the most shocking things I've ever read! If the above comment is accurate, it shows that every abuser was a victim once. But why were his real self and his prison record not more widely known? I have to agree with the comment that it's unlikely to be because he was a nationalist, that the police wouldn't take complaints against him seriously. Probably, there was just a culture of disbelief and blaming the victim.It's beginning to look as if this continued up to the time of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, when male homosewhaxuality was illegal, both parties were treated as culpable. It wasn't even accepted in law that it was possible for a man or boy to be raped until 1993, although there was a concept of indecent assault or unconsensual buggery which sounds squalid but not horrific or even serious.
What we can't accept is that any positive achievement can weigh anything in the balance against this sort of behaviour. I think we can still take Leanne Wood and mainstream social democratic members of Plaid seriously. But more and more extremist groups such as the FWA are beginning to look as if they're made up of kooks and nutters. Perhaps I'm being unfair. I wouldn't judge the Lib Dems on Cyril Smith or even Jeremy Thorpe, but I've encountered so many grubby and inadequate characters who identify with nationalism, I'm beginning to despair.
I never hand any suspicions about this one though. Did most people know? Was it an open secret that everyone was complicit in?
Marianne Y Fenni
Alwyn, I hope you don't mind my asking this question. I am not being facetious. I'm just feeling a bit confused. Having re-read some of your comments on others' contributions, do you really mean that Elwyn Jones -Elwyn Jones of Llanelli who was at the Nuremberg Trials and wrote a book on Myra Hindley - was also raped by a nationalist? And did you mean that Dafydd y Dug was the guilty party in this case too?
ReplyDeleteMarianne Y Fenni
No! A completely different person Elwyn Jones of Ffestiniog and Deganwy 1946-2003:
Deletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/welsh/hi/newsid_2970000/newsid_2973400/2973473.stm
Dafydd y Dug whom I encountered as a student whilst studying at Coleg Harlech during the academic year 1971-72 was certainly an unsavoury characte. He was a low lifer who was overly fond of ale and sexual encounters with young men. He once tried to get me to lie on his behalf at Dolgellau Crown Court where he was before the bench for having viciously attacked a much younger man on the level crossing at Harlech. He wa snot in the least bit charismatic. He was a loud mouthed bully and a sexual incontinent..
ReplyDeleteDioch Dafydd
DeleteI don't suppose this will be any comfort to you or anyone else, but after reading your posts, I asked my former boyfriend, Dafydd ap Geler Thomas if he had ever met Dafydd y Dug and what he thought of him without indicating that I'd heard or read anything negative about him. My Dafydd said,''He was a total arsehole and he stole my hat!'' This is an incredibly trivial and untraumatic crime in comparative terms. But it's a tiny indication of his lack of respect for other people's rights.
ReplyDeleteWhen I enlightened my Dafydd about the reason for the question, he said,'' My provisional judgement is that he's guilty.''
Marianne, Y Fenni
I met Burns in Clwb Ifor Bach in 1986 - I only met him once. There was a group of us. Burns was boasting - he said about young fresh students - "I fin@*ger them and f@ck" I wanted to deck him but he I was dragged off by the bouncers. Nasty piece of work
ReplyDeleteI'm inclined to believe your story. I met Dafydd Burns when I was working in a small hotel in Harlech, just across the road from Coleg Harlech in 1970 if my memory serves me right. I quite liked the man, who I found to be both interesting and passionate about his politics. However, I was warned several times by student friends to be careful and keep a distance from the man. I couldn't quite reconcile these warnings with the man I knew who, although boisterous after a few pints, was quite an affable kind of person. We had a lock-in one night and after everyone had left, I cleaned up the bar and went to bed. On entering my room, I found Dafydd y Dug in my bed, propped up on his elbow and wearing only his underwear. I made it perfectly clear to the man that he should leave immediately, which he did without too much dissent. I've hardly thought about this incident in nearly fifty years, but on reflection I think the outcome would have been very different had I not been taller and heavier built than Burns. Further more, I was sober, he wasn't.
ReplyDeleteI admire the way that you're dealing with this horrible episode in your life - stay strong.
We had regular, but impromptu lock-ins which were, of course, very popular with students. On one occasion,
It's harrowing to see the glowing obituaries of Dafydd y Dug. and especially to think that they're probably not insincere. People like this often have immense charm and can come across as big personalities. Were there two sides to him or, as I would suspect is more likely, was the public image just an act? If the former, it's very sad, but in the latter case, it's chilling.
ReplyDeleteWe need to have a psychopath detection kit of a kind so we will be forewarned and forearmed,
Marianne Y Fenni
I MADE AN UNJUST COMMENT EARLIER TODAY AGAINST 'MISARABLE OLD FART' WHO ON HIS BLOG INFORMED OF HE BEING 'RAPED/BUGGERED' BY DAFYDD BURNS aka 'DAFYDD y DUG' aka 'THE DUKE'. MOST UNFORTUNATE OCCURRENCE AND I CAN SEE WHY 'MOB' DID NOT ATTEND HIS FUNERAL, I DID NOT EITHER BUT FOR POLITICAL REASONS AND THE FACT THAT I THOUGHT HIS PATRIOTISM HAD BECOME DROWNED IN 'ALCOHOL ABUSE' ALONG WITH A NUMBER OF 'PATRIOTIC FRINGE PATRIOTS' AND. INDEED, ONE OR TWO PLAID CYMRU PISS ARTISTES THAT IN LATTER YEARS HAVE ALL COME TO SEE RALI CILMERI AS THEIR PRE XMAS BOOZE TRIP! . I KNEW OF 'Y DUG's ' UNHEALTHY ATTITUDE TO SEX', NOT JUST INTERESTED IN THE MALE BUT ALSO FEMALES AND AS HE SAID HIMSELF 'HE WOULD F***K A RABBIT' IF IT STOPPED HOPPING FOR A MINUTE! WHATEVER, WHAT I TOOK ANNOYANCE WITH WAS THE 'ANONYMOUS' REMARKS OF A COMMENTATOR STATING THAT HE/SHE THOUGHT THE FWA BEING MADE UP OF KOOKS AND NUTTERS'' I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT THAT 'MOB' HAD MADE THIS STATEMENT TO WHOM I NOW APOLOGISE FOR MY EARLIER POSTING BUT, AS FAR AS 'ANONYMOUS' IS CONCERNED I CONSIDER THAT YOU NEED TO MAKE AN APOLOGY TO FORMER FWA MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS WHO ARE NOT HOMOSEXUALS, KOOKS OR NUTTERS BUT, AS OFTEN AS NOT, WERE DEDICATED PATRIOTS. AND AFTER ALL, THERE ARE A FEW 'KOOKS' AND 'NUTTERS' AS WELL AS PREDATORY HOMOSEXUALS ASSOCIATED WITH PLAID CYMRU AND CULTRAL NATIONALISM, ONE OF WHOM PLACED HIS HAND ON MY KNEE AND ATTEMPTED TO TOUCH ME UP! BUT, I QUICKLY TOLD HIM WHERE TO GO. IN 'THE DUKES' FAVOUR, AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED, HE NEVER WENT BEYOND PATRIOTIC PARTICIPATION IN OUR JOINT ACTIVITIES TOGETHER IN MAIN DURING THE ANTI - INVESTITURE I CAMPAIGNING. AS FOR HE AND THE FWA, HE NEVER WAS A MEMBER, I NEVER REALLY UNDERSTOOD WHY HE WAS ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL UNLESS THE STATE WERE GOING TO USE HIS ABHORRENT SEXUAL (much of which is now news to me?) BEHAVIOUR TO BESMIRCH THE REST OF US ON TRIAL? WHATEVER, I CANNOT EXCUSE WHAT HE DID TO 'MOB' AND OTHERS. THAT I WILL LEAVE TO HIS CLOSE DRINKING BUTTIES IN THESE LAST YEARS OF HIS LIFE? Gethin. PS: SUCH FELLOW 'ALCOHOLIC ABUSER' MIGHT BE THE ONE WHO HAS ASKED YOU TO DELETE YOUR POST? BUT DON'T AS IT STANDS AS A WARNING TO SUCH PREDATORS WH JOIN OUR MOVEMENTS PERHAPS FOR THE WRONG REASONS?
ReplyDeleteDespite being a miserable old fart I am too young to have known any members of the FWA during the time of the FWA's activity, I did get to know some of them later, in different fields, Glyn and Caio in particular, what struck me about them was how different they were to the Extremist Monsters / Idealistic Idiots portrayed in the press etc. Neither Glyn nor Caio were the oddballs described in the media, both of them were pillars of their communities and respected for their contribution outwith the national cause, which helped to normalize the concept of Welsh Nationalism. Glyn was one of the first stand-up comics in Wales (and a pioneer of the art in the UK); Caio was a well respected expert on Welsh horse breeding; by that service they gave the lie to the propaganda that the FWA / Welsh Nats were "kooks and nutters".
DeleteAs for your own post FWA contribution Gethin, Cofiwn is what introduced me to the history of Wales, having now read dry boring academic treaties on Welsh history, I might no longer agree with some of the "propaganda" introduced in the Cofiwn rallies, but if I had been invited on a "Welsh History Field Trip" I'd have said "no thanks" as a teenager, being an invitee to a protest about Welsh history being ignored pushed a former Joyful Young Burp's buttons! Cofiwn should be resurrected!