Karl
Bill McLean (32)
Nothing I am seeing here has changed my original view one iota. Now that he's dead, these guys have nothing to gain in saying these things, in fact the shame and humiliation of what was done would continue to predicate against it, but the influence that kept them quiet in the past has been removed and the human condition likes a bit of catharsis. There will never be a uniform response from all of the young men he gathered around him. Some will choose to deny events even to themselves, some will simply not have been targetted in the same way as others. It is clear, however, at least to me, that Roebuck was a deeply disturbed man who engaged in some seriously inappropriate behaviour. He may have battled his "demons" but it doesn't look to me like he ever really acknowledged what he was doing was wrong or tried to battle very hard. The whole set-up with the house looks to me like a physical manifestation of the mental process that created it - a patina of respectable philanthropy to salve a conscience that at some level realised his actions were inexcuseable and suffered a huge amount of guilt and torment as a result. His inability to stop a few of these young men turning the tables and taking advantage of him in the end was probably as much his guilt and self loathing telling him he deserved it as it was the truth making the claims impossible to defend openly.