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Eric Cullen
Born Eric Robertson Cullen
July 12, 1965(1965-07-12)
Scotland
Died August 16, 1996 (aged 31)
East Kilbride, Scotland

Eric Robertson Cullen (July 12, 1965 — August 16, 1996) was a Scottish actor with achondroplasia, a type of dwarfism. Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Events 1384 - The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China, Emperor Dong hears a case of a couple who tore paper money bills while fighting Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) East Kilbride is a large suburban town in the South Lanarkshire council area of Scotland. Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. Events 1384 - The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China, Emperor Dong hears a case of a couple who tore paper money bills while fighting Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Achondroplasia is a type of Autosomal dominant Genetic disorder that is a common cause of Dwarfism. He was most famous for his role as Wee Burney in Rab C Nesbitt. Rab C Nesbitt is a Scottish Sitcom that originally ran from 1988 to 1999. He was born to a single mother and was adopted by a family from Hamilton. Hamilton is a town in South Lanarkshire, in the west- Central Lowlands of Scotland. He was diagnosed with achondroplasia at the age of seven.

Cullen was sexually abused by a violent paedophile ring as a teenager, and since his condition meant that he looked much younger than he was, this abuse continued into his twenties. Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual acts by one person upon another Once he became a successful actor, his abusers returned to extort money with menaces. As a result he developed severe clinical depression. Major depressive disorder, also known as major depression, unipolar depression, unipolar disorder, clinical depression, or simply depression When he was arrested in 1993 for possession of child pornography the media outcry following his arrest effectively ended his acting career. Child pornography refers to material depicting Children being in a state of undress engaged in erotic poses or sexual activity Although the prosecution accepted that Cullen was storing the material under the duress of his abusers, he was nevertheless sent to prison, although he was released after fifteen days pending his subsequent successful appeal against sentence.

Cullen died in 1996 from complications following surgery to correct a bowel abnormality.

Although many Scottish newspapers assumed that Cullen was a paedophile himself, and in fact continued to hound him throughout his life and even after death, he was treated for nineteen months by psychiatrist Dr Prem Misra, one of the UK's leading experts on child abusers and abuse survivors, and Dr Misra has stated publicly that Eric Cullen showed no trace of any perversion whatsoever, and that he is absolutely certain that he was only ever a victim of abuse and not an abuser himself. Cullen worked with children all his adult life, including a spell as a primary school teacher, and the police could find no child with even the slightest complaint against him.

Once the court case was out of the way Cullen dedicated himself to campaigning against child pornography, and to trying to bring his abusers to justice. Of the three men he named as his principal abusers one, Francis Currens, was jailed during Cullen's lifetime; one, Cullen's uncle Jack Williams, was jailed after his death (both of them for a catalogue of offences including the repeated rape of young boys); and as at summer 2006 one, whom Cullen named as the ringleader, has never been prosecuted - or even seriously investigated.

Cullen's arrest in 1993, followed by a long drawn-out police investigation and the persecution by the press, destabilized the mental defences which he had used to cope with the abuse, and he suffered two acute mental breakdowns, and was suicidal for many months. As soon as his prison sentence had been quashed on appeal, he began to be offered acting parts again, but he was still too ill with severe Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome to resume work at that stage.

Only a day or two before his fatal heart attack, which followed on from surgery for a twisted bowel, he had been asked to take up the role of Wee Burney again. Myocardial infarction ( MI or AMI for acute myocardial infarction) also known as a heart attack, occurs when the blood supply He was however in two minds as to whether to resume his acting career or become a Clinical Psychologist specialising in the treatment of abuse victims; he already had a BA in psychology, and had been accepted to begin a more advanced course in Forensic Psychology that autumn.

At his funeral, the people of Hamilton packed a large church to overflowing and lined the streets for a hundred yards, as if he were royalty, and even the funeral director wept to see him die "so young, and so much loved. "

Acting career

References

External links

A Kick Up the Eighties was a 1981-1984 BBC Sketch show starring Robbie Coltrane, Tracey Ullman, Richard Stilgoe, Miriam Margolyes Scotch and Wry was a Scottish Comedy Sketch show which was broadcast on BBC ONE Scotland and starred Rikki Fulton. Rab C Nesbitt is a Scottish Sitcom that originally ran from 1988 to 1999.
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