To sympathise with the groomer is to fall prey

We should not feel sympathy for Tom Humphries. One expert says we need to realise nothing happened to him, that it’s entirely of his own design, reports Joyce Fegan

THE groomer doesn’t just manipulate their victim, but everyone around them.

They build relationships through the careful cultivation of trust. They use their status to protect themselves. Then, when they fall from grace, because they’re supposedly just like us, they elicit our sympathy.