In an astonishing case that is set to make legal history a middle-aged man who alleges his father’s behaviour when he was a child has affected his ability to have an affair is suing him for over £100,000.

Talking to BTN’s Arts and Science correspondent John Marshall, 48, from Woking in Surrey said yesterday:

“I have been trying to have an affair now for over 18 months but just can’t seem to see women purely as sex objects. Successful affairs, so I am told, are often very short and extremely intense. They rely on each person’s ability to see the other simply as a sexual plaything, in that way no deep emotions take place and the marriages of both parties can survive into old age”.

Marshall continued: “My father has had numerous affairs throughout his life. He left home when I was 11 after a brief liaison with Lesley Judd, one time presenter of children’s TV Show Blue Peter. My mother had a breakdown so consequently I only saw the negative effects of sexual impropriety. He never stayed around long enough to teach me the art of having ‘no strings attached sex’. I personally believe I am missing out very much. I arrange to meet like minded women on the internet but I have never been able to ‘clinch the deal’ as it were”

“Last weekend I took myself down to Exeter to meet a 35 year old nurse, who I shall call Jenny. We had planned an afternoon of high jinx and soft bondage. When I arrived she was dressed up in stockings and suspenders and one thing led to another. Before I knew what was happening I was discussing her teenage daughter’s dyslexia and the detrimental effect that was having on her self esteem. Then we talked about her mother who was showing early signs of dementia and the pro’s and con’s of elderly care homes. I spent half an hour sorting out her tax returns for chrissake. To be honest it took the passion out of the situation. How could I ask a women, who not 10 minutes earlier had told me about her sister’s laparoscopy, whether or not she took it up the Jack Daniels?.

“I did everything I could to reignite the afternoon. Even when I tried to imagine Sue Barker (*) on all fours thoughts came into my head about a double fault she made at the US Open back in 1977 which ruined her chances of a second successive Grand Slam. Jenny put her jeans on and we went out for a Devon cream tea”.

Nicola Watson, a Sexual therapist at the London School of Counselling and Psychotherapy told our reporter: “Many people, men and women, get to their 40’s and start to contemplate having extra marital sex. The children are often well into their teenage years and not as visible as they once were. The all consuming sense of responsibility most parents have when their offspring are toddlers has gone and people start pondering on the fact that physically their best days are behind them”

Watson continued: “At this point individuals often start surfing adult chat rooms as a means of getting some excitement into their otherwise dull and monotonous lives. The internet has been responsible for many online affairs and these often progress into real life encounters. For anyone to be able to participate in what Freud called ‘ egocentric quickies’ they need to objectify the other person to such an extent that no genuine emotions evolve. This allows for the possibilty of multi-partner sex which for some, myself included, is very exciting indeed”

“Mr Marshall maintains that in leaving the family unit while he was still so young, his father prevented him from developing the ability to have ’sex for sex sake’. With only his mother and two older sisters as role models John was deprived access to traditional male activities such as gesticulating wildly at the television when Baywatch came on or talking openly about ‘what they’d like to do to Carol Vorderman given half the chance’. John has learnt to see woman as real people with real emotions which has unfortunately left him unable to treat them as sex toys. His father has a lot to answer for”

The writ asks Gordon Marshall to pay him £100,000 plus interest.

John’s father had vowed to teach his son the art of demeaning women but ‘always seemed to have better things to do’.

“That was Dad all over” Mr Marshall said, “Full of empty promises”

The case continues.

(*) Sue Barker, 1977 Wimbledon semi finalist and now presenter of BBC’s ‘Question of Sport’. Known for her love of ‘doggy sex’

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