The psychiatrist who sexually abused Kathryn was later convicted of multiple offences
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Kathryn attempted suicide because of the abuse she suffered at home.
The medical professional who should have helped her, sexually abused her.
Kathryn’s parents divorced when she was six years old. A few years later, her father remarried and at first, Kathryn thought her stepmother was ‘wonderful’. She would visit and play games and Kathryn remembers that it felt ‘quite special’.
She initially lived with her mother and visited her father at weekends, but then her mother also got married again. She was going to start a new family and she told Kathryn to go and live with her father.
When Kathryn moved in with her father permanently, life became very unpleasant for her.
Kathryn describes how she was treated differently from other members of the family. Her clothes and plates were left out of the household washing. She was excluded from family meals and often had to resort to eating in the middle of the night.
Her new siblings were encouraged to bully her. Her stepmother and step grandmother dressed in scanty clothing and encouraged her to do the same. On one occasion, one of them held her down and kissed her against her will.
Kathryn describes feeling in a constant state of fear and tension. She dreaded going home from school. She once tried to call Childline but could not get through.
When she was 16, she took an overdose of pills and was admitted to hospital. The staff were not kind to her, and told her she should be ashamed of herself.
Kathryn saw a male psychiatrist who told her she had been a ‘very naughty girl’ and would have to be ‘a good girl’ before he would let her leave the hospital. He then asked her ‘weird questions’ about boyfriends and what she did with them. She remembers a nurse being present who ‘watched and smirked’.
The next day Kathryn was taken back to see the same doctor. He told her to get undressed but she refused. Kathryn struggled and resisted as the doctor and nurse tried to undress her. The attempt stopped when someone else opened the door.
No one in the hospital asked Kathryn why she had taken the overdose. When she went home her stepmother and step grandmother continued treating her badly.
The psychiatrist was later convicted and imprisoned for sexually abusing more than a dozen of his patients.
Kathryn’s education was seriously affected by her childhood experiences. Her mental health has suffered and she still has nightmares.
The abuse ended when she left her father’s home to be with the man she later married.