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As soon as James at ChildLine picked up the call from Emily, aged 11, he said: “I knew she was frightened. She told me she was alone in the house and worried about someone coming home. It took her a long time to tell me that it was her dad she was frightened of. All the time she was speaking, she said she was listening out for the jangle of his keys – hoping she had time to hide before he came through the door..."
"I told her my name, and asked if she felt OK about talking to me. I said that ChildLine wanted her to be safe and that we wanted to help her. She then told me that she had never spoken to anyone before about the fact that after her mother left, her dad had started hitting her.
At first, it was a couple of hard slaps that she couldn’t explain. But it soon got worse. By the time she rang ChildLine she’d worked out that the later her dad got home, the longer he’d have been drinking. She told James: "It's been hard because we don’t have as much money and Dad was tired all the time".
James told Emily that what was happening to her was wrong, she shouldn’t be getting hit and it wasn’t her fault. Emily just started to sob, she said she must have done something wrong or why would he be hitting her. “I’ve only got my dad, and I love him he’s not a bad person really.”
James asked Emily asked what she hoped would happen. She said that until today she’d been scared that someone would take her away, but that morning, he’d locked her in the house. He wouldn’t let her go to school because he’d given her a black eye the night before. She had spent the whole day alone, and all she could think about was what he was going to do to her when he got home. When she realised that she couldn’t bear it any longer, she plucked up the courage to call. She just wanted to make it stop.
James told her that ChildLine could help her be safe tonight but that other people needed to be involved to make this happen. After discussing the next steps, Emily agreed to ChildLine calling social services. She was scared of what would happen next but did not want to the violence to continue.
Emily was OK about giving her address and ChildLine stayed on the phone while the police got to the house to break in and pick her up. At the same time a supervisor was speaking to the duty social work team and they were looking at getting someone to the local police station to meet with Emily.
Just a few days ago, Emily made another call to ChildLine. This time, she called from the safety of her Gran’s house where she now lives. She just wanted to say she is safe and happy now.
Copyright © 2006 NSPCC - All rights reserved. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Weston House, 42
Curtain Road, London EC2A 3NH. Incorporated by Royal Charter. Registered charity number 216401. NSPCC, charity registered in Scotland, charity number SC037717.