Tallie says reading her social care records was ‘like a second round of abuse’
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Tallie was sexually abused by her adoptive father as a small child overseas, and then in the UK.
She has been horrified to discover details of how her case was dealt with by the authorities, and is fighting for justice.
Tallie was born overseas. Her family was very poor and when she was four years old, they arranged for her to be adopted by a wealthy couple. She knows that many people thought she was fortunate, but in reality her adoptive father, Dewey, sexually abused her.
Tallie’s adoptive mother had relatives in England, and when Tallie was about 10, the family settled permanently in the UK.
Dewey continued sexually abusing her; this included rape. He also physically abused her and drank heavily.
Tallie says that at first she had not understood the abuse, but as she became older she realised how wrong it was. She reported the abuse to her adoptive mother, who dragged her into the living room and put her hands inside Tallie’s trousers, in front of Dewey.
Tallie says the mother was checking to see if she was a virgin. After this, she called Tallie a liar, and the abuse continued.
When she was about 12, Tallie began calling the telephone counselling service, Childline. She made several calls, and then following the death of her adoptive mother, she says ‘I plucked up the courage to tell them everything’.
Three days later, the police and social services arrived and Tallie was taken into care. By this time she was in her mid teens. She spent the rest of her childhood in residential and foster care.
As an adult, she realised she knew nothing of what had happened to Dewey as a result of her disclosure. She contacted the police and the social services department involved with her case.
Tallie was devastated to be told by the police that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to proceed with the case, as there were no other allegations against Dewey. She says ‘That does not invalidate what happened to me … I felt despondent and rejected’.
She wanted to know what evidence was gathered regarding her case, and whether she was medically examined. She has asked for the case to be re-examined and a police officer has been assigned to do this.
Tallie also requested access to her medical records and social care records. When she read the latter, she says ‘I have never felt so failed in all my life … it was like a kangaroo court; they called me a liar’. She adds ‘I feel incensed every time I read it’.
Tallie describes continuing insensitive treatment from professionals as she tries to discover more details about how her case was dealt with. She recently called social services to chase up a response to her complaint, and was distressed and angry that they seemed incredulous that she was complaining about a ‘historic matter’.
She says they made no effort to explain the process to her, and showed no appreciation that ‘I had 24 years of anguish and trauma that was not acknowledged or recognised’.
Tallie is deeply concerned that the process of looking into her complaint is not simply a paper exercise, but leads to changes and improvements in practice.
She says ‘I was denied any sense of justice’. She hopes that by challenging the way her case was handled by professionals, she can now achieve this for herself and make things better for others victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.