Kylie feels that her family was failed by social services after they fostered an abusive teenager
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Kylie and her sister were sexually abused by a teenage boy who was fostered by her parents.
She gave a written account of her experiences to the Truth Project.
Kylie was eight years old and her sister was a few years younger when the teenager came to live with the family.
About two or three months after he arrived, the foster brother began to sexually abuse the two girls. She explains ‘It would happen after he had been home to visit his dad, who was abusive to him’.
After some time, her sister told their parents that she didn’t like their foster brother coming in and touching her at night. The girls’ parents were very distressed by this; they contacted social services and the teenager was immediately removed.
Because the parents felt their girls had been through enough they took the decision not to have them medically examined. Kylie says that as a result, the family was ‘dropped’ by social services, and they were not offered any other support.
They later discovered that the boy had abused other young girls in a previous placement.
Kylie says she did not speak about the abuse she suffered until she was in her early teens, when she broke down and told her parents that she had been raped several times by the boy.
She has had counselling, but says the abuse ‘is still a big part of my life’. She and her family feel that they were very let down by social services.