John grew up in poverty in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1960s. Fatherless, and with a family in chaos, John fell prey to the predatory clutches of a neighbour, setting off a cycle of sexual abuse that eventually led to being sold as a teenage prostitute.Against all odds, John put himself through college and became a lawyer. But there was no escaping his past. One day, a man arrived in desperate need of representation and failed to recognise John as the boy he'd once abused. Now John ha...

Unforgivable is the shocking real-life story of suffering and survival from child abuse victim Collette Elliott."I brought you into this world and I can take you out with one click of my fingers."What if Baby P or Daniel Pelka had lived to tell their tale?Collette Elliott once had a similar story. She slipped through the net and only just survived.Her childhood was a place of filth and terror. Her prostitute mother abused and neglec...

'It is my dearest hope that this book will allow me to reach out to others in pain and give them hope, for they too can choose to be a survivor.'Izzy Hammond's deaf and partially blind parents attracted sympathy from the outside world, but no one knew of the horrific abuse their daughter was subjected to inside the family home.In Someone To Watch Over Me, Izzy is now able to reveal how the vicious childhood abuse she suffered, first at the hands of her fat...

Deserted by his mother and abandoned by his father at just three months old, Jerry Coyne was sent to live in a Catholic children's home run by nuns of the order of the Sisters of Nazareth. Life soon settled into a rhythm and then, one day, the beatings started. Harsh, vicious punishments became part of everyday life for the bemused little boy as the nuns attempted to beat the Devil out of him. Jerry began to hide behind bad behaviour and at the age of 12, his defiance resulted in him being...

'The satanic sex ring takes place around a quarry, near your friend's house. As well as your family there are four others, so far that we know of, involved.'When her dad was arrested and imprisoned for violently abusing his 15 children, Esther thought her life could begin at last.She couldn't have been more wrong. Another man was ready to take advantage of this vulnerable girl. Social services stepped in again, but this time they made things much, much worse . . .

I have held my silence until now. This is the first time i have told the whole story of the abuse i suffered at the hands of my alcoholic step father.You may this true and honest account distrubing and upsetting but this was my life as a child

He beat them, he abused them, and he tortured them. He broke their dreams. But they came back stronger.‘Terrie and Paul are two of the bravest people I have ever met. I have only shared the briefest glimpse into the true horrors this brother and sister have endured, but I rarely come across cases this bad. After the unspeakable abuse and shocking betrayals, two incredible human beings came through – to inspire us all.’Sara Payne OBE, co-founder of Phoenix SurvivorsTe...

A young girl at the mercy of her abusive stepfather and the religious community that protects him - Bad Things in the Night is a moving true story of pain and triumph.As a child Beth was imprisoned within a Jehovah's Witness family, kept away from her mother, forbidden from wearing a school skirt above her knees by day, abused by her stepfather at night. Years later, when she summons the courage to report her stepfather to the police for the first time, she is forced to re...

AS SEEN ON 60 MINUTESThis compelling memoir of family secrets, murder, sexual assault and domestic violence is also the gripping story of Renee's constant struggle to accept the truth and her true identity, and, ultimately, to forge a life on her own terms.From the outside, Renee McBryde had a fairly typical childhood - school, working mum, swimming lessons with loving grandparents. But waiting for her was a secret so awful that it...

'If you say anything to your mother, I'll tell her it was your brother. And then he'll be locked away in prison forever because of you.'Zara's stepfather, Hassan, mercilessly bullied her brother and sister. But at just seven years old Zara knew she could never tell anyone about what Hassan was doing to her.For the next nine years, she kept the terrible secret, until eventually she found the courage to fight back. But was she too late to save the people she loved?

The moving true story of a little girl with Asperger syndrome, controlled and abused by the one person she called her friend.Taylor had always struggled to make friends – she felt ‘different’. Taylor never knew her father and her mother wasn’t around much. She just didn’t understand people, and was alone and scared most of the time.That was until, aged just 11, an older married man called Tom befriended her. She loved having someone who would talk to her, listen to her, a p...

'Over and over again he warned me he’d kill me if I told anyone. I was completely isolated.He made sure of that.’Mary was a shy ten-year-old when her new dad, Sean, came into her life. From the very beginning he seemed to pay her special attention - praise for good behaviour, compliments about her clothes, help with school work. Mary trusted him. Then he started touching her. When she was twelve, he raped her.Sean continued to abuse Mary for twenty years and...