My third novel, The Abattoir of Dreams, was inspired by news that a high-profile figure had been named by a man in his forties as his abuser in a children’s home. Subsequently, the man said he’d made a mistake – no one leaning on him there, then– the whole case was dropped. This made my blood boil. This poor guy had obviously been through hell as a child, and all these years later, the authorities still slammed the door in his face.
There are so many cases of both historical and current child abuse. The case of the Haut de la Garenne children’s home on Jersey, brought to light a catalogue of abuse – sexual, physical and psychological, stretching back to the end of the second world war. Eight people have been prosecuted for 145 offences and seven men and women have been convicted. Many more alleged offenders, some now dead, have been identified by almost 200 former residents.
A forensics tent at the former Haut de la Garenne children’s home in St Martin, Jersey, in 2008. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
The investigation also found there was a culture of fear on Jersey. Residents were afraid to come forward with criticism or information because they were living so closely to those they were accusing. Bob Hill, a former member of the states assembly – Jersey’s parliament, said people had long been afraid to report the abuse because they did not trust that any allegations would be treated in confidence. Continue reading
Hi I’m Claire and my blog is A Knight’s Reads. I’m quite a new solo blogger as I only started my blog in February 2018. Saying that, before that I was a guest reviewer for the fabulous crimebookjunkie book blog. My main choice of read is crime fiction. I’ll read police procedurals, psychological thrillers, cozy crime, murder mysteries. I do dabble in other genres but crime fiction is my passion. Outside of reading, I’m a mum of two gorgeous boys and I work in the very exciting world of pension administration. I’ve been adopted by the great county of Yorkshire, having been brought up in the East Midlands.
I am a late bloom blogger, having been at this for just about two and a half years but at ‘life’ for considerably longer. I am a former Transport Manager currently looking for something new to entertain me until I retire and so my focus is all on books and blogging. I have two cats, love travel and love reading (obviously). Crime is my go to genre but I do experiment with the odd bit of chic-lit and the like. In a former life I was a qualified Track Judge and Timekeeper for athletics and once share a bag of jelly babies with Linford Christie (which goes to show just how old I am …)