The terrible story of the head of the Specials, Terry Hall, having been kidnapped by a pedophile at the age of 12

Specials leader Terry Hall revealed the devastating consequences after being kidnapped by a pedophile at the age of 12.

The singer, now 59, suffered from depression and addiction as he struggled to cope with the trauma of badual abuse.

The Ghost Town star was taken to France by a group of pedophiles and was mistreated for several days while he was a boy in the early 1970s.

As a result of his ordeal, the Coventry native began taking Valium to work and began not to go to school until he was 14 years old.

Speaking on Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theater podcast, he recalled, "At age 12, I was kidnapped by a network of pedophiles in France and this was a real revelation.

"And I can laugh at it now, but it changed something in my head and it's like I did not have to, so I started not listening to anyone anymore. "

Herring asked, "Is that part of the reason you left school earlier?"

Hall continued: "I was drugged at Valium for about a year and I did not go to school.

Herring added, "I did not realize it was as extreme as that."

Hall said: "I find it's easy enough to forgive and forget it's like, you know, to go back to my kidnapping, it's like if you could to let you gnaw, but then you know that it is pedophilia and that it is really a part of life.

"It's unfortunate, it happened, but you can not let it destroy your life, it's not good.

Herring said, "But how do you even start to overcome such a problem?"

"Valium … And then, I let myself go to David Esbad, which was a little insignificant, but it was as if, then I had a little bit of a relationship between the two. I started to discover girls and you forget that, it's too short. "

Herring lamented, "Well, it annoys Terry, I'm very upset."

But Hall says, "Oh no no no, you should not be angry, it's like I find it rewarding, sorry."

Herring said, "Well, people say that, for comedians, you have to suffer to be a great comedian, so you have to have suffered something so serious to achieve it."

Hall added, "It helps, I mean, I'm suffering from manic depression and avoiding all kinds of drugs for a long time, and then 10 years ago, I started taking lithium and d & # 39; 39 other products I always take, and it helps, sort of, it helps somehow. "

After leaving school very early, Terry held various jobs, including masonry and hairstyling, before joining a punk band called Squad.

He then joined The Coventry Automatics in 1977, which eventually took the name The Specials.

Hall then had two sons, Theo and Felix, with Jeanette Hall.