Hull is a 'paradise' to man who fled sexual abuse in Brazil's favelas to rebuild his life

Sexual abuse survivor Will Lisil can scarcely believe the difference between his own childhood in Brazil and that of his son in Yorkshire.

The Hull businessman has waived his right to anonymity to speak about experiences that he says occurred in São Paulo’s deadly slums more than 20 years ago.

He tells The Yorkshire Post how he was groomed into abuse but fled to make a life for himself in England – and why opening up about his past to his boy Kevin was the right decision.

Will, now 38, says: “I was only five at the time. And there were some adults convincing kids to come and get some gifts.

“Only a sweet, for example, was something luxurious for those kids,” he says.

“Shoes, clothes, toys, sweets, ice cream, those things for kids, are really difficult to say no, but we didn’t realise that after some time, that it wasn’t only gifts – there was something behind that. And as an adult now I can realise that was what in Europe we call grooming.

“After some time, they start convincing kids to get more things or money, involving in them in sex abuse, and that’s when the problem starts. Because after that, they can’t go back and leave the system – now I call it a system as an adult but at the time, I couldn’t understand that.

“They would say, ‘Look, we are going to kill your family’. It’s like that: direct to the point.”

Death threats could be taken seriously because in the very poor areas of Brazil such as the favelas (slums) violence is rife, amounting to what Will describes as a “civil war”. Consequently children “never know when they will die and they live like that until now, in 2022. It’s unbelievable,” says Will.

Men sexually abused Will between the ages of five and 16, he says, and the lasting trauma has only recently led to a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, following a suicide attempt and subsequent psychiatric care during the first lockdown period.

Nonetheless, he continues to campaign for action against what he describes as a market of systematic sexual abuse perpetrated by predatory men in Brazil, which he says has international reach online.

Will has been inspired by Damares Alves, Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights of Brazil and is considering a future move into politics himself one day.

From the age of 11, Will started to learn coding to work for a career in computer programming and web design and now runs his own online business, MW3.biz, from his house in Hull.

“That is something that saved my life because I could come to Europe after some time and just run away from that scam, because you can’t say no, they know where you live. They know where your family is and they kill your family or they kill you. And you can’t just try to find help, like at school or psychologist or something – they will find out. They are really dangerous.”

He may have escaped the clutches of his abusers, but getting to the UK was an arduous journey.

At 16, for work purposes he moved to central Brazil, some 600 or more miles from the abusers, and later came over to Europe.

He tried to settle in various countries including Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Portugal but came to Hull in October 2015.

Will’s son Kevin, who is 11 today, was born in Lisbon but the family suffered following the 2008 financial crash.

“We moved to the UK to start from zero because in Portugal in 2008 and 2009, there was an economic crisis and everything was destroyed.”

Will had a company but lost thousands of pounds,10 members of staff and his house, he says.

“Then I came to London with just one bag of luggage. I lost everything and I started from there again.”

A family friend from Hull recommended the city and he loved it, despite its sometimes negative portrayal in parts of the media.

“The ‘worst place in the UK’ was actually paradise for me,” he says.

In the run-up to Children’s Mental Health Week (CMHW) last month, Will publicly discussed his decision to inform his son about the abuse that he suffered when young in Brazil, saying:

“Kevin was learning about sex in school and I felt it was the right time to tell him.”

After hearing his father’s story, Kevin began to experience night terrors.

Will reflects on his decision, saying: “He was in shock. He was depressed for some time. (But) what he says is ‘This was actually good. Because now I feel that I have the power to protect myself and say no. If I didn’t know about these things, I could be a victim in the future’.”

In a campaign for CMHW, Kevin last month said: “I’d think about what happened to my dad and have nightmares about it. I felt like someone could do something bad to me because I’m a kid too. I felt sad for a while knowing that things like that happen. But if hearing about it made me that upset, I can’t imagine what it’s like for children who actually go through it.

“I’m lucky that I can speak to my parents, but so many kids can’t do that. We should have proper help at school. Someone we can count on to talk about the struggles in our head if we can’t talk to our parents. And they should teach us about mental health issues. No one should feel like they are alone like my dad had to.”

Two years ago, Will’s mental health took a sharp decline.

“I tried to kill myself. And now you (may) be shocked because if a person could go through life from zero to here, why kill yourself? I don’t know. I was depressed. It started suddenly. I could never imagine I would have this problem.”

Will had a stay in hospital and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

“This is an effect of childhood trauma. Because when those things happened to me, I was numb. Emotionally, I wasn’t developing from five to 16,” he says.

Currently in a better frame of mind, Will and Kevin work together on MW3.biz, which helps artists around the world promote their work.

But they also use their profile – a singer and gamer known as Kevin Keew, the youngster is something of a viral internet sensation, with almost 800,000 Instagram followers and whose image has been projected in Times Square, New York City – to raise awareness of abuse against boys from their beloved home of Hull.

“Where I live, I can say it’s a paradise. People don’t believe it but I have a big playground in front of my house and a football field,” says Will.

“My son can just walk on the streets and go to the school by himself. And so, for me, it’s paradise.”

Help and information for people who have experienced sexual abuse can be found online. The Survivors Trust is one organisation and operates a helpline on 08088 010818.