I had thought my Dulwich days were well behind me and that I’d never again have to think about the antisemitic taunts I suffered from Nigel Farage at school. Then at some point in the late 2000s, a friend sent me a YouTube video of the then Ukip leader haranguing EU commissioners.

The instant I saw Farage, my blood froze. All I could think of was his 13-year-old self sidling up to me, growling the words “Hitler was right” and other odious remarks (“To the gas chambers”, “Gas them – ssssssssss”) which he now refers to, rather quaintly, as banter. The verb “trigger” is perhaps overused, but it’s the only word I can think of to describe the stomach-churning emotions I felt in that moment I laid eyes on him again on YouTube.

As Farage became an increasingly ubiquitous figure on the public stage, I would tell friends and strangers alike of my experience of him at school. It was alarming to me that all people seemed to see was Farage the entertainer, the nonconformist political figure, overflowing with bonhomie – a straight-talking man of the people, holding up his pint glass.

One of my friends with whom I shared my recollections of that darker side of Farage urged me to speak out about my experience in 2013 and put me in touch with the Channel 4 journalist Michael Crick, who was then compiling his report of Farage’s alleged racism at school.

I felt deeply ambivalent. I didn’t want to expose what happened to me on national TV, and I wondered if it was even fair to do........

© The Guardian