John Laws reveals boyhood encounter with paedophile as he defends interview with sex abuse victim ‘Brian’

STILL under fire for his interview with a sex abuse victim, broadcaster John Laws has revealed his own boyhood run-in with a paedophile in a public toilet.

Portrait of John Laws. Supplied

STILL under fire for his seemingly callous on-air interview with a sex abuse victim, broadcaster John Laws has revealed he had his own run-in with a paedophile as a boy.

Speaking to The Australian, the controversial radio host said he had “empathy and sympathy for people who have suffered, and great disdain for ­paedophiles”.

Laws revealed that he had an upsetting experience when he was either 11 or 12 years old.

“I was a child. It was in a public lavatory at Mosman Oval. I didn’t know the person. I was disturbed. I took off. I ran. But I made it very clear that I didn’t appreciate it. I would have shouted and yelled,” he said.

Earlier this month, Laws was slammed for an interview he conducted with a 79-year-old man identified as Brian, who was reduced to tears after the radio shock jock criticised him for not fighting back or reporting the abuse he had suffered as a boy during the 1940s.

The interview led to calls for Laws to be sacked, but the broadcaster was unrepentant when speaking to The Australian, characterising his approach as “tough love”.

“I don’t believe I was cruel to (Brian). I don’t resile from what I said to him. He said he hates everybody in the world. I told him he should go down to the club and learn to communicate with people.”

Laws’ suggestion that Brian cheer himself up with a lemonade at the pub was cricitised as insensitive by abuse survivors’ advocates.

In The Australian interview, Laws also defended his performance in a subsequent interview with Bravehearts CEO Hetty Johnson.

Laws said callers to 2SM after the Johnson interview were of the opinion that the abuse campaigner “behaved like a thorough bitch”.

“It’s a word that I’m not inclined to use but listeners were using (it),” Laws said.