The person carrying out the abuse may be someone who seems to be very nice in lots of ways. This can make it very hard to accept that they are capable of sexual abuse. I know this sounds really stupid now. But I thought that someone who abused people was horrible ALL the time. I didn't think they were nice too, like helping you with your homework or buying you new clothes, normal stuff, so it took a while for the penny to drop.
Some abusers choose to believe that there is nothing wrong in what they are doing.
They may claim that those they abuse encourage them. This can cause people who are being abused a lot of confusing feelings, such as that they are to blame if they didn't tell the abuser not to do it, or if they didn't tell anyone. Many abusers rely on the age, inexperience and fear of people they abuse to be able to carry on with it. It all started after Dad died. I bottled up my feelings inside because Mum was really gutted.