Social workers said Sienna had a ‘big imagination’ when she tried to talk to them about abuse
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Sienna was sexually abused and raped by a neighbour when she was very young.
The perpetrator ensured she stayed silent by threatening to get her into trouble with her violent stepfather.
Sienna says that her family was known to social services when she and her sister were growing up in the 1980s and 1990s. Their stepfather often beat them severely with belts and other implements, and their mother would encourage this.
When she was about five years old, a next-door neighbour, Mitchell, began taking Sienna and her sister out on day trips, and buying them sweets and treats. This led to him inappropriately touching her.
She describes an incident about a year later when Mitchell made the girls take off their clothes and then photographed them. When Sienna was six years old, he raped her.
Mitchell knew how frightened Sienna was of her stepfather, and during the three years that he sexually abused her, he warned her not to tell her parents what was happening or she would be in trouble.
She remembers that her behaviour changed at primary school, and that teachers occasionally asked her what was wrong. But she would reply that she couldn’t say, and it was not pursued any further.
Sienna recalls that one day she and her sister ran away from home and ended up at their school. She told the teachers she did not want to go home but they called her parents who came to pick her up, accompanied by Mitchell.
Around this time, her stepfather said to Sienna about Mitchell ‘He won't touch you again, but this is the end of the story’. After this she had no more contact with Mitchell, who died a few years later. No action was ever taken against him, and her stepfather continued to physically abuse her.
Sienna says she did not feel able to report the sexual abuse but she confided in a teacher at her secondary school about her violent stepfather. She believes this teacher tried her best to help. She contacted children’s services but she was always questioned in front of her parents, who explained away any bruises she had. She feels she was viewed as a misbehaving child, and was told she had a ‘big imagination’. However, her sister was removed from the family home.
Sienna says her experiences left her feeling worthless, and she made several suicide attempts during her teenage years. She left home when she was 16, and for a time lived on the streets and was abused and sexually exploited by several men.
Sienna feels she was let down by all the adults she came into contact with, apart from the teacher who tried to help. She is distrusting of social services and other authorities.
When she had a child, she says that at first she struggled to bond with him and show affection, but feels she is coping better now because she is determined to have a healthy relationship with him.
Sienna hopes that sharing her experiences with the Truth Project will help services to learn vital lessons to give children a voice.