Shock Jock John Laws has come under fire for scoffing in the face of a listener’s alleged sexual abuse story.

“Smile, be happy. No?” Laws said to an 80-year-old listener who called in to tell him of a couple of sexual assaults he’d endured as an adolescent.

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The caller, known only as Brian, disclosed how he spent his life in isolation, living in a caravan in the Queensland bush and avoiding human contact on his resupply missions into town, as a result of childhood abuse.

“But don’t be down all the time, don’t be a wet blanket all the time. Try and have a laugh,” Laws said on his morning radio show on 2SM on Thursday.

“Go to the pub and have a lemonade for god’s sake.

“God helps those who help themselves.”

On the show Brian said he was abused repeatedly at the age of 11 in Goondiwindi and at 14 he had left his family to work in Gympie when his male employer abused him when he was working on a cattle property.

“Did you scream?” Laws says, challenging Brian.

“Well I don’t think it was very funny, I can tell you,” Brian responded.

“Did you yell out “stop that you bastard”, did you lash out with your fists?” Laws said. “Didn’t you kick or yell or scream or hit.”

“No,” Brian responded.

“I’ve only had two people have a go at me, and I lashed out in no mean way, believe me,” Laws said.

Brian said he had reported the instances to the police in 1960, “just a few years later,” and 1970 but on both occasions nothing was done.

Under aggressive questioning from Laws about seeking help from his parents Brian broke down into tears. He was separated from his family at the time of the second attack.

“There was no such thing as family love, at all,” Brian said, crying. He then disclosed he’d never had a girlfriend “I couldn’t have anything to do with anything like that … It just turned me right off it altogether”.

Laws apologised for Brian’s plight, saying: “This has bothered you all these years? That’s awful. That’s awful.”

“Maybe you feel a little bit better having talked about it, do you? Do you?”

“Not really,” Brian responded.

Sexual abuse victim advocates Bravehearts is now counselling Brian.