At night I had to listen to my mum’s boyfriend raping her

MUM’S boyfriend Phil came to live with us. He made me go without food if I didn’t eat my dinner.

He would make me have cold showers if I wasn’t in on time to have my bath, and punish me if I asked him for anything in public. If I tried to lie he’d punish me more by hitting me.

When I had bruises from him hitting me or throwing objects at me, he’d make me wear jumpers to school to hide them. If he couldn’t hide the wounds, he sent me in with a note for the teacher with a lie about what happened. But the worst part, was what he did to mum.

He was violent to her on a daily basis. He would push her around and hit her in front of me. If he was angry he would strangle her. When he wasn’t happy he locked her in her bedroom so she couldn’t come out and so I couldn’t see her. At night I heard him raping her.

He told me if I told anyone what home life was like, he would cut my mum’s throat. In the nine years he lived with us, I tried to kill myself 13 times. It’s bizarre to say that the happiest day of my life was the day my mum was nearly murdered, but it meant that the abuse was over, we had escaped and he was gone. He was arrested and convicted. It’s been five years since the abuse ended and I still feel positive every day. My advice to anyone reading this that might be going through something similar is stay strong and speak to someone if you feel it’s safe. *Names changed to protect identity.