I’m Fine: A True Story of Trust, Betrayal and Criminal Exploitation

In 2024 a gay youth leader was jailed for 22 years. One of his victims tells why it took him two decades to call the police.

In 1996, at the age of 14, Richard Hallmet a man who changed his life. Two and half decades later, he called the police. As a result, the man was jailed for 22 years. This is the story of what came before the police: how a teenage boy who had been hounded at school because he was gay walked into a world where he thought he would be safe, but which he was too inexperienced to navigate. In his naivety, he thought what happened next was normal, or somehow his fault. In a vivid, compellingly readable account, Hall recreates with unnerving frankness - and with surprising bursts of humor - the year in his childhood when the attention of older admirers went to his head, with lasting consequences for the rest of his life.

I’m Fine is not just the intensely moving story of one mixed-up boy’s private hell. It also stands as a powerful warning about predators operating with the impunity conferred on them by ’community’ status.

Richard Hall was born in Kent and grew up in Swindon. He now lives in Malaysia with his husband and well-travelled cats. Having trained as a youth worker and participatory artist, he turned his creative attention to writing during a tough period of his life. After contributing to a lengthy investigation and court case relating to the abuse he suffered at a young age, he would now like to find ways to support other survivors.