stretch1000 London Faces and Voices
stranger #239
Sarah favourite all time record
River
Emeli Sande
Leas Gardens Chalkwell Essex.
All Sarah wanted was the authorities to do their jobs properly. She believed in the democratic process and justice. When Sarah and her family moved into their new flat in East London after a long wait, she was really happy. Unfortunately, they weren't there a year. Her flat was by the London docks an area devasted by German bombers during The Blitz. The indominable spirit of the people of the East End and the surrounding areas who were bombed night after night but never gave in. This gave the people of Britain the foundations to respond to the evil ideology's of the Nazis.
Sarah family have lived in East London for generations and she has had to call on her own courage in the face of adversity. When one of her children complained about a neighbour who had abused them, she just fell into a dark confused abyss. She felt suffocated by the pain. The guilt she felt literally swallowed her up. She had to support her boys and she needed justice and she went down every avenue to ensure it was done.
The man was a neighbour and worked locally. He was known to everyone on the estate and he volunteered for local events. Sarah would sometimes cook him dinners and she would invite him in for tea and have a chat. Basically, he worked his evil in plain sight. Unbeknown to the local community he had twenty four previous convictions and had been in prison on three separate occasions for child sex offences, he had also changed his name. And there he was living within a community overlooking a school and it's playground. The police who were very supportive. After his arrest they said he wouldn't get bail, she remembers 'two big coppers' standing over her boys telling them there was no way he would be bailed. But incredibly to Sarah and the police he was bailed, a man on bail for child abuse is arrested for child abuse and is bailed. He was back in the community and his flat looked right into Sarah's. Sarah wanted him moved but the Council's response was to ask her to move. After making it her home with the generosity of her grandad who had just paid out for new carpets the Council wanted her to move.
She sat in the McDonald's opposite Forest Gate police station and through tears she signed the paperwork back over to the Council. She then went into the police station for another meeting. She moved into her mums flat with all her children. Later on, her mum would have to move into a bigger property. Everything Sarah believed in was being torn down and it was happening in quick time. And all through this she is trying to support her boys and keep them going.
The man was going to plead not guilty which would have meant her boys having to give evidence in court. She couldn't handle that. Sarah couldn't see her boys being dragged through court. The police couldn't detain him the courts had seen to that and the Council had basically made her homeless. She went to confront him, she was exhausted and frightened. The institutions she believed in had let her and her boys down. The people on the estate were now vulnerable.
She knocked on the door and she went in. Sarah just stood in his flat and froze she said nothing. He was talking and then he smirked then walked towards her. It was the last thing he did, and as he advanced, she stabbed him eight times. She remembers fleeing his flat with him still standing. He was later found dead in the hallway of the flats.
Sarah gave herself into the police along with the weapon.
She didn't want legal help she understood what had happened and was now thinking she was looking at life in prison and a life without her boys this was of course the complete opposite of what she wanted. Years later she was interviews by a national newspaper reported Sarah had said 'This is what anyone mother would have done'. She never said that or believed it but it made a good headline. The result of her actions just made things worse and separated her from her boys. Sarah contemplated killing herself, she wasn't thinking properly. Her life was in a dark turmoil and she could see no way out.
Sarah went to the Old Bailey got sentenced to three and a half years for manslaughter.
But due to complaints her sentence had to be reviewed and after it was looked into it was doubled to seven years. If only they had looked into the man, a convicted paedophile, he was a danger to society and put him back in prison to await his trial. You have to wonder if the people responsible for releasing him would have allowed him back on the streets if those streets were where they lived and if they shopped in the shop that he worked in?
Sarah now wants to help others not make the same mistake she did. She wants authority's to be better equipped to understand the issues people face in these situations. And for the judicial system to be better equipped to support the victims. The evil predators who know how to work the system the system has to know how to deal with them.
Sarah loves her children and she knows things will never be the same again for them. She has to keep going and she knows it is a lifetime of struggle for her and her family. She doesn't want to be writing about her experiences and trying to educate the very system that let her down. She wants to be living a normal life, but she is now obsessed in giving people a better understanding of what she went through. She wants to see children kept safe, no matter where they are from or where they live.
www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63636409
© All rights reserved please do not use on any other websites or blogs without my explicit permission.
stranger #239
Sarah favourite all time record
River
Emeli Sande
Leas Gardens Chalkwell Essex.
All Sarah wanted was the authorities to do their jobs properly. She believed in the democratic process and justice. When Sarah and her family moved into their new flat in East London after a long wait, she was really happy. Unfortunately, they weren't there a year. Her flat was by the London docks an area devasted by German bombers during The Blitz. The indominable spirit of the people of the East End and the surrounding areas who were bombed night after night but never gave in. This gave the people of Britain the foundations to respond to the evil ideology's of the Nazis.
Sarah family have lived in East London for generations and she has had to call on her own courage in the face of adversity. When one of her children complained about a neighbour who had abused them, she just fell into a dark confused abyss. She felt suffocated by the pain. The guilt she felt literally swallowed her up. She had to support her boys and she needed justice and she went down every avenue to ensure it was done.
The man was a neighbour and worked locally. He was known to everyone on the estate and he volunteered for local events. Sarah would sometimes cook him dinners and she would invite him in for tea and have a chat. Basically, he worked his evil in plain sight. Unbeknown to the local community he had twenty four previous convictions and had been in prison on three separate occasions for child sex offences, he had also changed his name. And there he was living within a community overlooking a school and it's playground. The police who were very supportive. After his arrest they said he wouldn't get bail, she remembers 'two big coppers' standing over her boys telling them there was no way he would be bailed. But incredibly to Sarah and the police he was bailed, a man on bail for child abuse is arrested for child abuse and is bailed. He was back in the community and his flat looked right into Sarah's. Sarah wanted him moved but the Council's response was to ask her to move. After making it her home with the generosity of her grandad who had just paid out for new carpets the Council wanted her to move.
She sat in the McDonald's opposite Forest Gate police station and through tears she signed the paperwork back over to the Council. She then went into the police station for another meeting. She moved into her mums flat with all her children. Later on, her mum would have to move into a bigger property. Everything Sarah believed in was being torn down and it was happening in quick time. And all through this she is trying to support her boys and keep them going.
The man was going to plead not guilty which would have meant her boys having to give evidence in court. She couldn't handle that. Sarah couldn't see her boys being dragged through court. The police couldn't detain him the courts had seen to that and the Council had basically made her homeless. She went to confront him, she was exhausted and frightened. The institutions she believed in had let her and her boys down. The people on the estate were now vulnerable.
She knocked on the door and she went in. Sarah just stood in his flat and froze she said nothing. He was talking and then he smirked then walked towards her. It was the last thing he did, and as he advanced, she stabbed him eight times. She remembers fleeing his flat with him still standing. He was later found dead in the hallway of the flats.
Sarah gave herself into the police along with the weapon.
She didn't want legal help she understood what had happened and was now thinking she was looking at life in prison and a life without her boys this was of course the complete opposite of what she wanted. Years later she was interviews by a national newspaper reported Sarah had said 'This is what anyone mother would have done'. She never said that or believed it but it made a good headline. The result of her actions just made things worse and separated her from her boys. Sarah contemplated killing herself, she wasn't thinking properly. Her life was in a dark turmoil and she could see no way out.
Sarah went to the Old Bailey got sentenced to three and a half years for manslaughter.
But due to complaints her sentence had to be reviewed and after it was looked into it was doubled to seven years. If only they had looked into the man, a convicted paedophile, he was a danger to society and put him back in prison to await his trial. You have to wonder if the people responsible for releasing him would have allowed him back on the streets if those streets were where they lived and if they shopped in the shop that he worked in?
Sarah now wants to help others not make the same mistake she did. She wants authority's to be better equipped to understand the issues people face in these situations. And for the judicial system to be better equipped to support the victims. The evil predators who know how to work the system the system has to know how to deal with them.
Sarah loves her children and she knows things will never be the same again for them. She has to keep going and she knows it is a lifetime of struggle for her and her family. She doesn't want to be writing about her experiences and trying to educate the very system that let her down. She wants to be living a normal life, but she is now obsessed in giving people a better understanding of what she went through. She wants to see children kept safe, no matter where they are from or where they live.
www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63636409
© All rights reserved please do not use on any other websites or blogs without my explicit permission.