Eric Cullen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Eric Robertson Cullen 12 July 1965 |
| Died | 16 August 1996 (aged 31) East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1978–1996 |
Eric Robertson Cullen (12 July 1965 – 16 August 1996) was a Scottish actor, who was famous for his role as Wee Burney in BBC's Rab C. Nesbitt.[1] Cullen was born with achondroplasia—a type of dwarfism.[1][2]
He was born to a single mother and was adopted by a family from Hamilton. He was diagnosed with achondroplasia[1][2] at the age of seven.
Cullen began acting when he was at school. He started to find roles appearing in several theatre groups before appearing in several Scottish TV programmes in the 1980s, particularly A Kick Up the Eighties.[3] Cullen eventually found lasting fame playing the youngest son, Wee Burney, in the first three series of Rab C. Nesbitt.[3] However, he left the programme in December 1993; owing to personal problems[3] and citing ill health.[4]
Cullen was sexually abused by a violent paedophile ring from the age of thirteen,[citation needed] and since his condition meant that he looked much younger than he was, this abuse continued into his twenties. Once he became a successful actor, his abusers returned to extort money with menaces. As a result, he developed clinical depression and post traumatic stress disorder.[4]
Cullen was arrested in 1993 for possession of child pornography,[2][1] and the subsequent police investigation and press coverage resulted in clinical depression when he "finally cracked under a load which had become unbearable".[5] In 1995, Cullen was convicted of child pornography offences, and his own history of being sexually abused since the age of 13 was revealed. His nine-month prison sentence was reduced to three years' probation on appeal.[3] As soon as his prison sentence had been quashed on appeal, he began to be offered acting parts again, but he was still too ill with severe post traumatic stress disorder to resume work.
Once the court case was out of the way Cullen dedicated himself to campaigning against child pornography, and to trying to bring his abusers to justice.[6] Of the three men he named as his principal abusers one, Francis Currens, was jailed during Cullen's lifetime; one, Cullen's uncle Jack Williams, was jailed after his death (both of them for sexual offences including the repeated rape of young boys);[7] and as of summer 2006 one, whom Cullen named as the ringleader, has never been prosecuted.[2]
Only a day or two before his fatal heart attack, which followed on from surgery for a twisted bowel,[2] he had been asked to take up the role of Wee Burney again.[3] He was however in two minds as to whether to resume his acting career or become a clinical psychologist specialising in the treatment of abuse victims; he already had a BA in psychology, and had been accepted to begin a more advanced course in forensic psychology that autumn.[3]