By Sarah Mills

A survivor’s story: Peter Whitmore victim speaks nearly 10 years after assault

Jan 25, 2016 | 6:47 AM

What happened to him in the summer of 2006 is not an easy story to tell but Zachary Miller is ready to tell it.

At just 10 years old, he was repeatedly raped and beaten by one of Canada’s most notorious pedophiles, Peter Whitmore. It happened over two days. He, along with another boy, were kidnapped and held hostages in an abandoned farmhouse near Whitewood.

Now 20, Miller recently went to court to have the publication ban on his name lifted.

He works with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCCP) in Winnipeg who helped he and the family get over the horror of what they had to endure. But Miller admits you never get over something like that, you learn to survive.

“You’ll always have nightmares. It’s going to be part of you. It’ll always be there no matter what and you can learn to accept it and not blame yourself for what happened, even though some days it feels like it is all your fault, but it is not.”

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Miller says the centre, through it’s programming, gave him the tools to survive.

“I relive it every day. There is not a single part of the day that goes away that I don’t forget. It is going to be a part of me for the rest of my life, but I don’t see myself as a victim of this – I am a survivor of sexual assault.”

And while he has been through trauma in one lifetime most of us cannot begin to imagine, in a sense he remains the same.

“This happened to me. I’m never going to forget it. It’s going to be a part of me day in and day out, but I learned to accept it for what happened. I learned not to blame myself for what happened.”

 Email smills@cjme.com
 Twitter @smillsSK