"It started when I was about 8 and my and I sister went to
stay with my aunt and uncle. My sister, aunt and cousins went out,
but I didn’t feel well so I stayed behind. My uncle said he had a
game that would make me feel better. He said it was a special game
that we could play with my cousin’s Barbie doll. In the game,
Barbie got married and then went on her Honeymoon – he said on a
Honeymoon people do special things and he could show me what they
were, but I mustn’t tell anyone because I’d get into serious
trouble.
He took Barbie’s clothes off and I don’t really remember what he
did next. He said he could show me how to play this game, that it
would make him happy. It’s really hard to talk about what happened
next. Then he made me promise I wouldn’t tell anyone, he said
people wouldn’t understand and would get angry with me. Then he
gave me some sweets. After that, whenever I went to visit something
would happen.
In the beginning he was quite nice to me and although I didn’t
want it to happen, I didn’t want to upset him. I’d pretend it
wasn’t happening.
Then I began to get scared of him, he’d get angry. It got harder
to pretend it wasn’t happening and I thought about it a lot, I felt
really sad. My mum asked if anything was wrong but I couldn’t tell
her – he said she would be angry with me and that anyway no one
would believe me. I felt so upset and scared and trapped – I
couldn’t tell anyone and couldn’t stop it.
I started to cut myself. I told my friend at school, she said
she’d seen a programme when a girl rang Childline. She helped me
find the number and let me use her mum’s phone.
They talked to me, that made me feel better. My friend told her
mum, she told my mum. Mum was really upset but not angry – she said
she was sad it had happened. That it wasn’t my fault. She spoke to
the police. A policewoman and social worker came to see me, they
were really nice. They asked me to tell them what had happened – it
took me a long time. It wasn’t like on The Bill or anything, it was
in a really ordinary room, not in a police station. They arrested
my uncle.
We don’t see my aunt now or my cousins because they are upset
that mum spoke to the police. Mum says its better that we did, that
it’s better it stopped and that we’re safe. I feel a lot better
now."
For help, contact
Childline: 0800 1111.