EVERY day thousands of people are victims of torture.

A new centre for victims has opened in Salford, counselling survivors who have been relocated in Bolton, Wigan and other areas of Greater Manchester.

It is the only one of its kind in the region and is run by human rights organisation The Medical Foundation, providing care and rehabilitation for torture victims from around the world.

John (not his real name) has been receiving counselling at the centre. He is a 32-year-old pastor from Nigeria who was tortured by his captors for 15 days. He told reporter Karen Stephen his harrowing story

I HAVE always believed in God and since I was 11 years old I knew I wanted to preach his word. That's when I made up my mind to become a pastor.

I was well known in the place I worked and would organise various festivals at the church.

The first one I held was in a field in April 2002 and we gave out food and clothes to the people. So many came along and it was a wonderful time.

Then suddenly a group of men came in a truck and started to wreck everything and frightened everyone there.

They were supporters of the Islam faith and warned me not to hold any kind of Christian festival again.

I went to the police station but the police just told me I shouldn't break the rules, that I should do what these people said.

But I ignored it and organised another festival in June and this time the bishop came. But the same thing happened again and I received another warning.

Now I listened. On November 10 of 2002 I had just delivered a sermon to my churchgoers and was leaving the church to return home.

I was with my wife who was three months pregnant. Suddenly a truck with around a dozen men screeched up and they all jumped out and surrounded me.

One of them hit me on the back of my head with an iron claw and the others bundled me into the back of the truck. That was the last time I saw my wife.

We travelled in the truck for hours until we came to what looked like a cattle shed. You must understand that I felt disorientated -- my head was bleeding and very sore -- I really didn't know where I was.

They dragged me into the shed and stripped me. I was terrified, I knew whatever it was they were going to do to me was going to be very bad.

One of them got a meat hook -- like the ones that string up cattle in an abattoir -- and pulled one end of it through the end of my penis. The pain was terrible and I almost passed out but everytime I blacked out they would hit me to bring me round.

Then they tied a rope to the other end of the meat hook, pulled it tightly and tied it to one of the beams in the roof of the shed.

Then they started to beat and kick me, first all together then they would take turns, laughing as they did it.

This went on for 15 days. I was kept in the same position, tied to the meat hook, and lying in cow dung and my own excrement. I tried many times to remove the meat hook but the pain was too bad. Then, one day -- I think it was early morning because it was just coming light -- God spoke to me and told me to get out. The voice said 'go, just go, get out now'.

Somehow I managed to find the strength to pull the meat hook out and crawl from the shed into the bush.

I was naked and bleeding and very weak but I crawled for three or four hours until I was found by a couple who took me straight to a doctor.

He treated my injuries as best he could and, after I told him my story, he advised me to leave Nigeria.

He put me in touch with a Canadian reverend with the Red Cross. He found me a safe house but after three months they were threatened and I knew I had to leave.

I managed to get to England and stayed in an Immigration Service detention centre in London before coming to the North-west in June 2003.

I applied for political asylum but was refused -- the reason was they believed I could get just as good medical treatment in Nigeria as I could here.

That may be the case, but I would be murdered if I went back. I am currently appealing against the decision.

I don't know what has happened to my wife or our unborn child. Someone told me recently that they found her wedding bracelet in a mass grave in Nigeria, but I still hope and pray she is alive.

My mental state is bad -- I am on anti depressants and cannot sleep. Today I have been awake for 48 hours.

The future? Well I want two things. Firstly I want to find my wife and child. Secondly I want to be the person I used to be. I don't want to be on anti depressants, I want to live my life again.

With my family.

FACTFILE

The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture is staffed by volunteers of specially trained local doctors and other health professionals

It is a human rights organisation and received no Home Office or Foreign Office money

Most of the clients are refugees or asylum seekers

North west office: The Angel, St Philip's Place, Off Chapel Street, Salford M3 6FA Tel 0161 839 8090