A man spoke with News 12 about being sexually abused in a juvenile detention center over three decades ago.

City agencies are now facing over 400 lawsuits in regard to child sexual abuse.

The Levy Konigsberg law firm says it has filed about 425 lawsuits alleging guards, counselors and other staff members sexually abused underage detainees. Those detention centers include Spofford Juvenile Detention Center (renamed Bridges Juvenile Detention Center in 1999), Horizon Juvenile Center, Crossroad Juvenile Center and Rikers Island.

Eric Shepard, 46, says when he was 15 years old, a fight broke out outside of school. He says he was not involved, but simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It landed him about a week in the Spofford Juvenile Detention center. He says it was a place he says stole his childhood.

Shepard says his first night there, he asked the counselor if there was a way he'd be able to have a cigarette. He later explained that the counselor came back with a cigarette and sexually abused him. In the following days, he says it happened again, and that the abuse escalated.

"I knew that at any point in time, either him or anybody else could walk in there and do whatever they want to me." said Shepard.

For years, he says he bottled up the trauma, calling his situation unlucky. He says it wasn't until he heard another victim's 'similar story where he realized he wasn't alone.

"I cried. What I'm realizing now is that that's not a luck thing. We just got put in the hand of predators and there was nothing you can do about it at that time." said Shepard.

"The very adults there were entrusted with keeping our clients safe or the ones that were perpetrating this horrific sexual abuse." said Jerome Block, a partner at the Levy Konigsberg law firm, the company filing these suits.

Block says the Gender Motivated Violence Act that was passed in recent years by the City Council give survivors a two-year window, regardless of the statue of limitations, to come forward.

That window closes March 1, 2025.

The Administration for Children Services said in a statement:

“Sexual abuse and harassment is abhorrent and unacceptable. While all of these incidents long predate this administration, we take these allegations very seriously. It is our mission to provide the highest quality care to youth. We have taken significant steps to strengthen our ability to prevent any sexual abuse from occurring in our facilities. We are reviewing these filings with the Law Department.”

Shepard says he's no longer ashamed of what happened to him. He hopes his story inspires others - including his kids - to speak up and out against sexual abuse.