Damaged: The Heartbreaking True Story of a Forgotten Child
The Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller. Although Jodie is only eight years old, she is violent, aggressive, and has already been through numerous foster families. Her last hope is Cathy Glass…Cathy, an experienced foster carer, is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months but Cathy decides to take her on to protect her from being placed in an institution.Jodie arrives, and her first act is to soil herself, and then wipe it on her face, grinning wickedly. Jodie meets Cathy's teenage children, and greets them with a sharp kick to the shins. That night, Cathy finds Jodie covered in blood, having cut her own wrist, and smeared the blood over her face.As Jodie begins to trust Cathy her behaviour improves. Over time, with childish honesty, she reveals details of her abuse at the hands of her parents and others. It becomes clear that Jodie's parents were involved in a sickening paedophile ring, with neighbours and Social Services not seeing what should have been obvious signs.It’s clear that Josie needs psychiatric therapy, but instead Social Services take Jodie away from her, and place her in a residential unit. Although the paedophile ring is investigated and brought to justice, Jodie’s future is still up in the air. Cathy promises that she will stand by her no matter what – her love for the abandoned Jodie is unbreakable.
Читать Damaged: The Heartbreaking True Story of a Forgotten Child онлайн беплатно
Certain details in this story, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.
HarperElement
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperElement 2006
Copyright © Cathy Glass 2006
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015 Cover images © Jessamyn Harris/Getty Images (child, posed by model); Shutterstock.com (background)
Cathy Glass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
This book is a work of non-fiction based on the recollections of Cathy Glass. The names of people, places, dates and the detail of events have been changed to protect the privacy of others. The author has warranted to the publishers that, except in such minor respects not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of this book are true.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins eBooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007236343
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2009 ISBN: 9780007279753
Version: 2016-08-17
Damaged
Hidden
Cut
The Saddest Girl in the World
Happy Kids
The Girl in the Mirror
I Miss Mummy
Mummy Told Me Not to Tell
My Dad’s a Policeman (a Quick Reads novel)
Run, Mummy, Run
The Night the Angels Came
Happy Adults
A Baby’s Cry
Happy Mealtimes for Kids
Another Forgotten Child
Please Don’t Take My Baby
Will You Love Me?
About Writing and How to Publish
Daddy’s Little Princess
The Child Bride
Saving Danny
Girl Alone
The Silent Cry
To my family for your continuing love, patience and understanding.
Contents
Chapter One: Emotional Blackmail
Chapter Two: The Road To Jodie
Chapter Four: A New Little Sister
Chapter Six: A Very Troubled Child
Chapter Eleven: Cooking And Cleaning
Chapter Fifteen: Past And Present
Chapter Sixteen: The Spider’s Web
Chapter Nineteen: Special Little Girl
Chapter Twenty-One: A New Year
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Fox And The Owl
Chapter Twenty-Three: Granddad
Chapter Twenty-Six: Links In The Chain
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Assessment
Chapter Thirty: Green Grass And Brown Cows
Chapter Thirty-Two: Overnight Stay
In Britain today, there are over 75,000 children in the care of their local authority. These are the lucky ones. Concealed behind this figure are countless others; defiled, abused and undiscovered by Social Services, often until it’s too late.
This book tells the true story of my relationship with one of these children, an eight-year-old girl called Jodie. I was her foster carer, and she was the most disturbed child I had ever looked after. I hope my story will provide an insight into the often hidden world of foster care and the Social Services.
Certain details, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the innocent.
The phone rang. It was Jill, my link worker from the fostering agency.
‘Cathy, it’s not two carers, but five,’ she said. ‘Five, since coming into care four months ago.’
‘Good heavens.’ I was astonished. ‘And she’s only eight? That must have taken some doing. What’s she been up to?’
‘I’m not sure yet. But Social Services want a pre-placement meeting, to be certain she doesn’t have another move. Are you still interested?’
‘I don’t know enough not to be. When?’
‘Tomorrow at ten.’
‘All right, see you there. What’s her name?’
‘Jodie. Thanks, Cathy. If you can’t do it, no one can.’
I warmed to the flattery; it was nice to be appreciated after all this time. Jill and I had been working together now for four years and had established a good relationship. As a link worker for Homefinders Fostering Agency, Jill was the bridge between the foster carers and social workers dealing with a particular case. She coordinated the needs of the Social Services with the foster carers, and provided support and help as it was needed. An inexperienced foster carer often needed a lot of back-up and explanations of the system from their link worker. As Jill and I had been working together for some time, and I was an experienced foster carer, we were used to each other and got on well. If Jill thought I was up to the task, then I was sure she meant it.
