ABSTRACT
Chris Roberts takes a carefully preserved newspaper cutting from an envelope, unfolds it and shows it to me with a certain satisfaction. It is the story of the trial and sentencing of her former partner, Sean Francis. Even though no charges were brought against him for the sexual abuse of their then 3-year-old daughter, Chantelle, Chris gains some satisfaction that he is serving two years for threatening behaviour in a very different kind of case. When her partner was arrested by police for questioning about his alleged
sexual abuse of their child, Chris was taken to a women’s refuge, while her daughter went into temporary foster care. Returning to collect clothes, Chris found their house had been ransacked by neighbours and that what they could not destroy had been stolen. The ceilings had been deliberately damaged so that rain had flooded in. The neighbours said that they wanted to wreak their revenge on Francis. Chris finishes talking about him by saying: “I just cannot wait till he’s six feet under. I would go to his funeral just to make sure he was buried and that would be the only reason.” Rachel Bond’s husband, Tom, served 16 months of his 32-month sentence for
accessing hundreds of horrifying images of children on the internet, including images of torture and sexual violence. A few days after her husband was charged, Rachel went, as usual, to her church in the small town in which she lives. At the end of the service, she asked everyone to stay behind as she had an announcement to make. She told her fellow parishioners what had happened. Now, her husband has since been released from prison and she has welcomed him back into their home to remake their lives with their two children. She says:
I wanted us to be a family again but I think that I had it in my head from quite early on. I don’t think you know how you’re going to feel about things until it’s upon you really. It’s just, what do you believe about this person? Do you believe they
have done this awful thing? Absolutely, yes! I could have walked away, I could still walk away. Do I think that’s the
right thing to do and do I think that’s the right thing to do for me? I don’t think that’s the right thing to do for him. This is not in order of priority but do I think it’s not the right thing for Mark and Sarah [their children]?
