A 60-year-old prize-winning bodybuilder recalled how brutal childhood beatings he endured in Bermuda forced him to escape to England after deciding he wasn?t going to be pushed around anymore.

David Ingham endured beating at the hands of his father, the infamous ?Scuttle? Ingham, whom he called the ?hardest white man on the Island?. The teenager left Bermuda at the age of 17 to escape the beatings and while in England started to take bodybuilding more seriously. He used the beatings as a motivating tool.

?After the war Bermuda was still a macho world,? Mr. David Ingham recalled yesterday.

?When I come back now it has totally changed. I grew up in Paget. My father built a house there. We had 200 pigs. I used to get up at 4 a.m. My father would get a pig?s tail and stretch it between bricks and beat me with it.?

Mr. Ingham remembers the Police were afraid to come into the family?s yard because his father kept large dogs at the property.

?I came from a very, very hard upbringing by a very hard old Bermuda man,? he said.

?I was regarded as an unusual person. I just left and set about it (bodybuilding). But my roots are still there. It was an unbelievable privilege to live in the dark side. Bodybuilding is from the dark side. I have lived an incredible life. It made me into a person I wanted to be. I changed myself with force of will.?

Born in England by a mother who attended Oxford University, Mr. Ingham returned to England where he has lived for the past 43 years.

While in Bermuda he worked on a bicycle paper route, attended the Bermuda Technical Institute and even worked in a quarry.

He has now written a short unpublished story about his early Bermuda experiences titled ?We came down from St. David?s?.

?My Old Man used to smile when he was tight and beat me when he was drunk, then sleep it off in a room where he used to hang up sides of pork for the flies to buzz around,? Mr Ingham wrote.

?You never knew he was there until it was too late. The backside of his big hand would come out of nowhere!?

Mr Ingham said his father swore and beat his childhood happiness out of him to a point where he escaped to England to make what he could of his life, including physical self improvement.

?I was an artistic child, but was determined to fight back, so I transformed myself from a fat boy to a bodybuilder, taking part in competitions from the age of 22.?

Life in England has been good for Mr. Ingham, who started a health and fitness company called Omega Age with his wife Charmian who is a professional speech and voice coach. His bodybuilding success was recently highlighted in the Kingston Guardian after he defeated men 20 years his junior to claim third place in a prestigious over-40s Mr. Britain bodybuilding contest last month.

?I suppose that I have always been an extreme person and have taken everything I do right to the limit including my education, my involvement in business and of course, bodybuilding,? said Mr Ingham.

?Accordingly, I would prefer to leave the unhappiness and depravations of my childhood behind me. Indeed, with the exception of my great friendships with Winston Lightbourne, whom I still correspond with regularly, my childhood has now been successfully erased from my memory.?

Mr. Lightbourne, who is a mechanic, explained yesterday he introduced Mr. Ingham to bodybuilding when he came over to tinker with his moped.

?I used to do power-lifts and bench presses,? said Mr Lightbourne.

?He would see my weights and that was how he got into it. I had them in the back yard near the Paget Post Office.

?I know he was rather disgruntled when he left (Bermuda). I think it is important for people to have good childhoods. It leaves you with a smile on your face.?

Mr. Lightbourne remembers Mr. Ingham?s father as a ?rough and tumble guy,? but said his friend never spoke much about life at home.

?David is delightful. We have always stayed in contact,? he said.

?We all have our crosses to bear. But if you are a good friend you try to be there for your buddy.?