Story of Tom Lawrence

December 22, 2004

Reports of sexual abuse of children is becoming an all to common news item in the Canadian media, but the story of Tom Lawrence shows just how devastating that effects of abuse can be.

Tom was a 10 year old boy in 1967 when he first met Father Barry Glendinning, a Roman Catholic priest assigned to the staff of the prestigious St. Peter’s Seminary. Tom’s mother, a widow, was struggling to raise five children following the death of her husband and she looked to the Catholic Church for both spiritual and material assistance. This help came in the form of Father Glendinning.

Glendinning initially took the Lawrence children for ice cream and day trips. This progressed to overnight camping and visits to his residence at St. Peter’s Seminary. With most of his siblings being older and female, young Tom got special attention from Glendinning and soon he was the only Lawrence child being taken on these outings.

Behind the scenes the charity of Father Glendinning was more sinister. As with the Swales boys and numerous other victims, sexual abuse was Glendinning’s true motive. For a period of almost three years Glendinning sexually abused young Tom. The abuse included fondling, body painting, mutual masturbation, oral sex, simulated intercourse and group activity with other young boys. Tom was exposed to alcohol, tobacco and pornography. In 1969 the Lawrences relocated to Byron and Glendinning faded from the scene. When Glendinning was exposed, arrested and charged in 1974, owing to the lack of an in-depth investigation, Tom was never identified.

Tom’s adolescent and early adulthood is the textbook story of the effects of sexual abuse. Tom had grave difficulties in dealing with the memories of the abuse. He became resentful to authority figures. He quit school in Grade 9. He continued the tobacco and alcohol use that Glendinning had introduced him to. From these gateway substances he turned to marijuana, LSD and other hard drugs. He became a juvenile prostitute and lived on the street for years. The most devastating effect of the abuse was yet to be discovered.

In 1983 at the age of 26, Tom was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder which affects a person’s ability to distinguish between real and unreal experiences. According to the U.S. Surgeon General current research concludes that schizophrenia is caused by a genetic vulnerability coupled with environmental and psychosocial stressors (the diathesis stress model). Tom’s traumatic years of sexual abuse and the resulting extensive drug use and street-life were the stressors which brought on this serious mental illness. Research has also established that Marijuana and LSD use, Tom’s two drugs of choice, increase the dopamine levels in the body, which has been directly identified as the chemical behind schizophrenia.

Now at the age of 47 Tom is still struggling to live with his illness and his memories of the abuse and aftermath. Over the years he has occasionally required admission to hospital to deal with his schizophrenia and as of today he is on a daily regime of medication. He is disabled by the effects of the illness and receives a Provincial disability pension. Who would have ever suspected that entrusting one’s child to a priest could have resulted in what happened to Tom Lawrence.