A man who says he was the victim of sexual abuse by his Miami-Dade neighbor more than 40 years ago is speaking out after an arrest was made in the case earlier this month.
Thomas Wyatt, 65, was extradited from Georgia and booked into the Miami-Dade jail on Sept. 10 to face two counts of sexual battery on a minor, records showed.
One of Wyatt's accusers, Gentry Fry, is speaking out, saying he's battled obesity, homelessness and thoughts of suicide but won't let the childhood trauma define him.
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“You can be your own hero," Fry said. "I shouldn’t be here, sitting here, because I should’ve died. My story will come out more, but I was homeless for many years on and off. I weighed over 450 pounds for the better part of a decade. And during that time, drinking."
Fry, now 49 and a Youtuber and writer, said he was 8 years old when he was sexually abused in the late 1970s by Wyatt, his neighbor in southwest Miami-Dade.
"He molested me, and lured me to his house, with the promise of model airplanes. And I look under the bed and I didn’t find, I found something else under the bed," Fry said. "And I believe I was drugged, and some things happened, some of which I don’t remember.”
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Fry said he decided to speak out after finding an online review about Wyatt, a psychiatrist in a small town in Georgia, that alleged Wyatt had been inappropriate with a child.
Fry and two friends, also alleged victims, took their stories to police this year. An arrest warrant detailed a separate victim's account of being taken to Wyatt's house several times in the late 1970s and sexually abused.
"If this person is still hurting kids then we want him to stop," Fry said.
Wyatt was being held without bond Thursday, jail records showed. NBC 6 has reached out to his attorney for comment but haven't heard back.
