EXCLUSIVE: Bravest stuntman in the world reveals horrifying reason for his reckless stunts

An adventurous child, he admits he always loved anything bike related. He says: "I broke out of the home once, found an old Silver Cross pram and whizzed down the hill on it. I got my first bike, a Chopper, when I was eleven.

It gave me such a sense of freedom - it felt like magic, like flying."

Teenage stunt rider John Taylor defies death and the law, to make a breathtaking 80ft leap across a broken bridge over the river Blackwater on his motorbike. He had no crash helmet, no protective gear and no straw bales to soften his landing. Maldon, Essex.

25th October 1982.(Image: Mirrorpix)

He graduated to a Grifter bike, persuading his mates to lie on the floor so he could jump over them. But it was seeing motorbike stuntman Evel Knievel attempt to jump 13 buses at Wembley Stadium in 1975 which inspired him to be a stuntman - hoping he could then use his profile to tackle the horrors he had endured while in care.

He says: "I was in the home for two years. When the abuse happened I felt nobody would listen; there was never anywhere to go with it.

But when I was eleven or 12 I saw Evel Kineval on the telly and realised he commanded respect - people listened to him. I thought, 'I want them to listen to me the way they listen to him - and they'll get a shock about what I have to say'."

By 1982, aged 18 and working in a carpet shop, he bought his first motorbike, a Suzuki 250 RM - completing his first jump later that year at a local community show. He says: "That bike cost me ?2,000 and it was on HP.

I loved it. It was a jump over a block of fire of about 30 feet. Then a week later I did another jump over about 50ft of fire.

There was no health and safety. I remember seeing someone being pushed in a wheelchair across my path as I came into land!"

Stunt rider John Taylor is catapulted off his bike before a death-defying world record attempt. He was due to have ridden more than 300 feet through a tunnel of fire on his Yamaha motorbike.

But he was thrown off in a spectacular 60mph crash as he made a trial run, and broke his collar bone. Netherley, Liverpool, Merseyside.

14th June 1987.(Image: Mirrorpix)

John, a grandfather of 21, says jumping made him feel confident, adding: "The idea was to get popular by doing different jumps. The ultimate aim was to do the biggest jump in the world[5] over buses, attract attention and then tell my story." His high risk behaviour helped him cope with his memories of being abused by John Christian, an odd job man who worked at the convent.

Christian was jailed for 11 years in 1998 for sexually abusing young boys over two decades.

But John's daredevil stunts - which helped him deal with his anger - came at a cost. In one practice session he landed heavily, ending up in hospital after breaking bones in both wrists and his ankle.

He says: "Nobody was teaching me - it was all trial and error. I was using a short ramp and I was going fast and suddenly I was faced with 200 feet of fresh air.

It was a bad accident. If you look at photos of me after the crash you can see it in my eyes." But, months later, he landed a world record breaking jump, involving a 125 feet wall of fire - adding to his growing national recognition.

John's 80ft leap(Image: Mirrorpix)

Then he completed a spectacular jump over three sets of high rise derelict flats, which caught the attention of the world - taking off from one block, flying over another and landing on a third. He says: "I was initially scoping out another jump I had in mind across the lanes of the M62, but somehow I turned off the motorway, got lost and came across these high rise flats.

I remember thinking 'this is perfect'.

"I spotted these three blocks where I could take off from one, jump over a second and land on a third - although the third was thirty feet lower than the others." A first attempt was cancelled by police - without council permission it was deemed illegal. But on a grey autumn day in 1985 John, together with a group of friends as support, went ahead with a second attempt.

Just 21, he feared he may not survive the stunt, saying: "I was on a mission and I didn't want to let myself down." He landed, but the force of the impact onto solid concrete took a brutal toll on his body and he suffered multiple injuries. A parapet around the top of the roof saved him from falling off.

John is bravely sharing his story to help other children(Image: Colin Lane/Reach PLC)

He was hospitalised but survived, signing himself out after a matter of days and resting at home 'to get ready again' to resume his stunts.

In 1987 he did a 300 feet ride through a tunnel of fire, but was injured in practice. He suffered a further back injury after another jump on a beach in 1999.

Over the course of his career he has broken multiple bones - some twice - including those in his ankles, ribs, collarbone and breast bone and back. By the early 2000s he realised his coveted bus jump would elude him and he concentrated on bringing up his family.

He had also finally found the strength to report his abuser to the police and was in court to see him jailed.

But the lack of accountability of other adults in his care background who, he says, knew of Christian's predatory behaviour, remained a source of pain. He says: "If a child is abused there is no legal duty on staff to report that. It was like that six decades ago and it's the same now and that bothers me.

I can't sit by and do nothing. If we had this law people couldn't turn a blind eye."

"People still remember what I did on my bike - and now they know why," says John(Image: Supplied)

A passionate advocate for Mandate Now, a pressure group campaigning to introduce mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by staff in locations such as schools, sports and faith-based groups, he says: "I even rode from Liverpool to London to deliver a letter to then PM Rishi Sunak[6] to demand a law change, but received no reply."

And when the idea of the documentary was put to him he jumped at the chance. He says: "People still remember what I did on my bike - and now they know why." Having won the backing of Liberal Democrat MPs, the documentary is scheduled to be screened to a cross party group of MPs in March, with a view to it going on general release later this year.

If he could say anything now to his teenage self, who put everything on the line to try and see justice done, he says: "I'd say carry on.

Just carry on."

*The Bravest Stuntman In The World was produced through Eight Trick Pony Productions.

The company is now seeking a broadcast partner for the documentary