Former child stars sexual abuse in Hollywood

When he was five years old, Nathan Forrest Winters dreamt of being a star. By 11 he had the leading role in a film called Clownhouse.

It was a low-budget horror film directed by Victor Salva and financed by Francis Ford Coppola. Behind the scenes, something truly disturbing was happening.

"Some of the cast and crew came to my mum and said 'Nathan and Victor's interaction on set is not ok, there's something going on'," Winters, 39, told Sky News.

The former child star said Salva had been grooming him since he was six after he befriended Winters' mother who made film props.

He said: "His grooming process was developing my love and trust. Developing my parents' trust.

"Essentially he became a close friend of the family and it turned from 'How about I take Nathan for a few hours tonight, give you guys a break' into full weekends at his house."

Winters said Salva invited him to stay at his apartment, where they watched Disney's The Jungle Book together.

"He started talking about Mowgli's loin cloth so that he could make me one," he said.

"He got two bandanas and tied them together and made this loin cloth and as he's tying them, he's fondling me. And that's my first memory of when the abuse started.

"It progressed over the next five years... For him, everything was sexual. He videotaped all of it, it was full-blown.