Molested As A Child, Man Mad His Abuser Is Disney Director

The director of “Powder,” a new Walt Disney film about a troubled teenager, is a convicted child molester who once videotaped himself having oral sex with a 12-year-old actor.

The film’s release this Friday in 1,200 U.S. theaters has prompted the molestation victim, Nathan Winters, now 20, to go public with his ordeal to protest Disney’s employment of filmmaker Victor Salva.

On Monday night, Winters and five friends picketed outside the industry screening of “Powder,” handing leaflets about Salva’s conviction to hundreds of grim-faced Hollywood executives leaving the theater.

Disney and the film’s producer argue that Salva has served his time.

Winters says he has been permanently scarred; his mother, Rebecca Winters, says he has been suicidal in recent months.

“I can’t believe it. It just makes me sick,” Winters said of Salva’s return to filmmaking. “I’m not going to stand by. He should not be allowed to live his life as if nothing happened.”

Salva confessed to having oral sex with Winters in 1987 while directing him in “Clownhouse,” a low-budget horror film about three boys terrorized by circus clowns. Salva, sentenced to three years in state prison, served 15 months and completed parole in 1992.