Sorrell says when it comes to reporting sexual abuse ‘children should not be left to decide’
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Sorrell thinks that when she told responsible adults she had been sexually abused, there should have been a duty for them to report it.
At the time she said she didn’t want them to, because she was scared of the repercussions.
Sorrell was raised in the Jehovah's Witness religion by her mother and stepfather. From the moment her stepfather married her mother, he did not allow her any privacy around the house. For example, she was not allowed to lock the bathroom door.
She says ‘This was explained as “normal” by my stepfather even when I objected as I grew older’.
She adds that her stepfather constantly walked round the house with no clothes on.
If Sorrell’s stepfather decided she needed punishment, he would spank her on her bare bottom. ‘This continued throughout my childhood, I cannot recall when it stopped, however it would still be used as a threat well into my teens’ Sorrell relates.
When Sorrell was a young teenager, her mother worked and her stepfather started sexually abusing her. He made her try on scanty underwear while he touched her and talked about body parts, telling her ‘how good it was to show off my [her] body’. He lay on top of her, and sometimes he kissed her on the lips.
Once, when she questioned this behaviour, he tried to justify it by saying that her mother was worried that Sorrell did not seem to be interested in being feminine.
When Sorrell was 16, she told some school friends that she was being sexually abused. At least one of them must have told a member of staff. She relates ‘The teacher spoke with me and asked if I wanted to report it, I was afraid of repercussions from my stepfather and in my family’s religion and therefore said no’.
The teacher gave Sorrell a telephone number for a child abuse support line, and Sorrell called this a few times. One of her friends told her parents, and they told Sorrell she could come and stay in their house if she wanted.
When Sorrell was in her early 20s, she began telling her mother about the abuse. But, Sorrell says, ‘She reacted as if she didn't really want to know so I stopped the conversation and she asked no further questions’.
Then another friend who was a Jehovah's Witness in the same congregation as Sorrell told one of the Elders. He questioned Sorrell and suggested taking her allegation further ‘as a congregation matter’.
Because Sorrell was still living with her stepfather, she didn’t want this. When she told the Elder, she recalls ‘He reacted angrily and said I can't go around throwing accusations of child abuse’.
Sorrell continues ‘I felt powerless at the time to do anything about the situation, even though I felt it was wrong’.
Sorrell’s mental health has been adversely affected since she was abused. She has suffered with depression, felt suicidal and taken an overdose. Her ability to work has been affected.
More than 40 years after the abuse ended, she began having therapy that she has funded herself. She says this ‘has helped a lot to reduce and manage the suicidal and negative feelings about myself’.
When she was about 18 she did seek assistance from NHS services. Some of this assistance was helpful, but some was too ‘generic’ to give her the support she needed. She says ‘If I did not have private therapy I am sure … I would have at best been hospitalised and at worse been successful in a suicide attempt’.
Sorrell feels strongly after her experiences that there should be mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. She says ‘Leaving it to children to decide what should be done is dangerous in both the short and long term’.