Hugh Heggie was just 14 years old when an older church youth group leader began grooming him.
The youth group in Victoria, where he grew up, had been a safe place. Then one evening, the leader — a man in his 20s — offered him alcohol and suggested the pair go to the drive-in cinema.
Mr Heggie declined the offer but said the conversation then turned.
Two days later, the man asked him to go to the drive-in again, and this time he relented and asked his mother for permission.
Now aged 76, Mr Heggie is a former doctor and the former Northern Territory administrator — the NT's equivalent of a state governor — who became a household name during the COVID pandemic as the NT's chief health officer.
More than 60 years after his experience with the youth group leader, he is telling his story publicly for the first time.
On that day, Mr Heggie said the church leader picked him up and kept offering him alcohol.
"I realised he was trying to get me intoxicated, so I pretended to drink," he said.
Halfway through the film, Mr Heggie alleged the man put his hand on his leg.
"When his hand went too far, I got out of the car and said, 'You either take me home now or…
