Little Prisoners: A tragic story of siblings trapped in a world of abuse and suffering

Little Prisoners: A tragic story of siblings trapped in a world of abuse and suffering
Casey Watson

From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a harrowing and moving memoir about two innocent and frightened ‘unfosterable’ children who do not know what it means to be loved.This is the third book in the series.The shock that strikes Casey and her family when Ashton and Olivia arrive is immeasurable. Two dirty, frightened little waifs stand before them, huge eyes staring around their new surroundings. Ashton – 9, Olivia – 6, have the same urchin look; hair running wild with head lice, filthy nails and skin covered in scabs. And the smell is horrific. The eldest two children of a group of five siblings, Casey had only been told they were coming two days earlier. But it was an emergency, temporary placement, and they were only due to stay a couple of weeks…Casey is desperate to help these poor, lost children, who have been taken away from their family because they were considered at risk, but before she can even start to understand the horrific things that have happened in the past, she has to teach them the most basic of behaviours. Ashton and Olivia have no barriers and no sense of what’s right and wrong – her challenges begin with the toilet and eating habits.The weeks roll into months and the months roll on, but bit by bit the children are starting to feel like they truly belong to a family, for the first time. With this new found security and love, gradually they start to reveal what really happened to them and their siblings at home, and slowly Casey can help them start to rebuild their young lives.Includes a sample chapter of Too Hurt To Stay.

Sunday Times Bestselling Author

Casey Watson

Little Prisoners

A Tragic Story of Siblings Trapped in a World of Abuse and Suffering

Copyright

This book is a work of non-fiction based on the author’s experiences.

In order to protect privacy, names, identifying characteristics, dialogue and details have been changed or reconstructed.

HarperElement

An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

and HarperElement are trademarks of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

First published by HarperElement 2012

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© Casey Watson 2012

Casey Watson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

LITTLE PRISONERS. © Casey Watson 2012. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN: 9780007436606

Ebook Edition © APRIL 2012 ISBN: 9780007436613

Version 2016-11-25

Dedication

To my wonderful and supportive family

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1

My husband, Mike, always bagged the window seat on planes,…

Chapter 2

Fighting the need to gag, I ushered everyone inside, pasting…

Chapter 3

When Mike and I returned to the living room the…

Chapter 4

It felt like the middle of the night when I…

Chapter 5

‘We come bearing gifts!’

Chapter 6

The type of fostering Mike and I had originally been…

Chapter 7

Finding out they were ‘in care’ upset the children dreadfully,…

Chapter 8

It was a Saturday afternoon, towards the end of September,…

Chapter 9

If I was frustrated by a lack of action on…

Chapter 10

The main finding Anna wanted to share with me concerned…