Harrowing portrait of a young girl's brutal abuse at the hands of
her stepfather.After an evaluation by social services determining
neglect, Elliott (a pseudonym) and her brother were taken away from
their heavy-drinking father and unfaithful mother to be placed in
foster care. Limited to seeing her children on supervised visits,
their mother continued an affair with Richard, a moody, shifty
teenager who swiftly assumed the role of stepfather; he was 18 when
the author was returned to her parent's custody. Elliott's beloved
brother lucked out and was left to be adopted by a respectable
family; her mother bragged about manipulating authorities with a
bribe stipulating that the couple "only wanted the girl" back.
Stepfather Richard, prone to angry rages, hated Elliott on sight
and insisted she and the rest of the family (he and her mother
eventually had four sons) keep the house spotless, or corporal
punishment would follow. The abuse quickly ballooned to
catastrophic proportions. Richard spat in her food, viciously beat
her, tried to drown her, suffocated her and threatened her with
kitchen knives. The author's mother, clearly aware of the
situation, never objected, fearing for her own personal safety.
Attempts to run away at age six were met with increased tyranny,
psychological torture and humiliation that continued well into
Elliott's adolescence, a physical state that only seemed to amplify
her stepfather's relentless sexual exploitation. Readers will
breathlessly whip through Elliott's explicit, page-turning
chronicle, rooting for her to reach some sort of asylum. But even
as a young adult with a boyfriend and children of her own, she
would see many more years of maltreatment, including the violent
backlash from other members of the family after she leaked her
story to police. Though Elliott's stepfather was eventually
sentenced to 15 years in prison, questions remain as to how someone
carries on with life after such an atrocity has left the scars of
abuse deeply embedded in both mind and body.Shockingly graphic,
disturbingly powerful. (Kirkus Reviews)
An inspirational true story of a 4 year old girl who fell into the
power of a man whose evil knew no bounds. She encountered
terrifying mental and physical torture from her psychopathic
stepfather for a period of 17 years until she managed to break
free, her spirit still unbroken Jane Elliott fell into the hands of
her sadistic and brutal stepfather when she was 4 years old. Her
story is both inspiring and horrifying. Kept a virtual prisoner in
a fortress-like house and treated to daily and ritual abuse, Jane
nonetheless managed to lose herself in a fantasy world which would
keep her spirit alive. Equally as horrifying as the physical abuse
Jane suffered, were the mental games her tormentor played - getting
his kicks from seeing Jane humiliated, confused, crushed and
defeated at every turn. Her family and neighbourhood were all
terrified of Jane's stepfather so no-one held out a rescuing hand.
So Jane had to help herself. When she was 21 she ran away with her
baby daughter and boyfriend to start a new life in hiding. Several
years on she found the courage to go to the police. A court case
followed where Jane bravely stood up against the unrepentant
aggressor she so feared. He was jailed for 17 years. Jane's family
took his side.
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