Teri: I was abused as a child

Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher has spoken for the first time about being abused as a child at the hands of her uncle.

In a heart-rending interview the 41-year-old actress told how she even considered killing herself after she was molested by Richard Hayes Stone from the age of five.

She eventually overcame her fear and helped convict her perverted relative after another of his victims committed suicide.

Miss Hatcher revealed her dark secret in an interview with Vanity Fair, saying it ruined her relationships with men, leaving her unable to have a normal sex life.

She said: 'I remember him making me touch him and feeling like I don't want to do this at all. I was completely horrified.

'I haven't tried to kill myself but I've certainly thought about it.

'The most horrible thing that has struck with me all my life is that he was doing things to me and he said, "Doesn't that feel good?", I said, "No it doesn't.''

'He said: 'Well some day you'll know what I'm talking about.''' The abuse finally ended when, aged around eight, she 'went ballisticafter her mother tried to invite him over for dinner to their home in Sunnyvale, California. Her mother never put her in his company again.

'My parents are really well intended and I think their way of dealing with things is denial and guilt. Nobody wanted to talk about it. But all I did was blame myself,' she added.

She sobbed as she recalled how, three and a half years ago she discovered Stone had been charged with sexually molesting a young neighbour Sarah Van Cleemput. Sarah shot herself in 2002 leaving a note saying 'Ask Dick'. After hearing that the case against Stone could be thrown out of court, Hatcher plucked up the courage to reveal his abuse of her. 'I was just blown over by this girl's pain,' she said.

Stone admitted child abuse and was jailed for 12 years.

Hatcher kept her involvement in the case, which never went to trial, a closely guarded secret, declining to include the experience in her forthcoming book Burnt Toast, in part because she worried it might harm her career.