A VOICE FOR THE SURVIVORS
A WOMAN who was sexually abused as a child has spoken about her experiences as she takes on a role to ensure victims and survivors’ voices are heard during The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse today announces that two Welsh victims and survivors of child sex abuse will join the Victim and Survivors’ Consultative Panel.
May Baxter-Thornton, who was raised in Aberdare, and Emma Lewis, from Swansea, will join the panel. Both have relinquished their legal rights to anonymity to talk about their experiences and both are using their experiences to ensure other victims are heard during the inquiry, which was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, to uncover the truth about child abuse in the UK.
May Baxter-Thornton was abused as a child. She can’t remember the exact age, but believes it was when she was around five years old.
She moved to Sunderland in 1997 to attend university and gained a degree in photography and video.
While a student she contacted a charity to make a video documentary about women living in a women’s refuge. From there, she was offered work, and she ended up working with them for around 16 years, supporting women and children fleeing domestic violence.
May was 27 before she told anyone about the abuse.
“There are people who just never tell anyone and they take it to their graves,” the 42-year-old said.
Now living in Newport, she moved back to Wales in 2015 and was interviewed for a role on the panel in June before being appointed.
Speaking about her decision to apply for a place on the panel, May said: “I think it’s a way of my having a voice but also to make people realise that you can actually go on and have careers, you can make a life for yourself even though it might feel like, right now, that you can’t for whatever reason.
“Childhood abuse impacts every aspect of your life, whether that’s your education, your communication with people, relationships, confidence. It can knock every part of your life.
“I can use my own experiences and the experience of my working with people as well to benefit victims and survivors so that when the inquiry does make any recommendations or come to any conclusions I know I’ve played a part in ensuring that victims and survivors are heard.”
Through their new role on the Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel, May and Emma will advise the inquiry on how best to reach and listen to victims and survivors in Wales.
Emma, from Swansea, grew up in care and has dedicated the last 20 years to helping young people make a smooth transition out of care. She was sexually abused aged six, and didn’t tell anyone until she was 12.
Emma, 37, said: “It is a privilege to be asked to champion the interests of Welsh victims and survivors to the inquiry.
“I want my role on the Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel to really count and to ensure that children in Wales are better protected in the future.”
The inquiry is using a novel way of gathering accounts from those who may
have suffered at the hands of child sexual abuse.
The Truth Project gives individuals who experienced sexual abuse as a child the chance to privately describe what happened to them and how institutions failed to protect them. They are also welcome to make suggestions about what can be done to prevent the same abuse occurring in the future.
Anonymised information gathered in Truth Project sessions will be used to shape the inquiry’s recommendations to the government about how institutions can better protect children.
May added: “With regards to the Truth Project, that is a really strong and important piece of work around getting people’s experiences, reallife experiences, of people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse to input into the inquiry.
“They can tell their story in a safe environment. It’s a way for them to get their voices heard. Their experiences will be anonymised.
“What we’re trying to get across with this project is ‘this project will believe you’.”
The inquiry first opened in Wales in November 2016 and since then has met with victims, survivors, and experts in Swansea, Newport, Cardiff and Caernarfon.
Inquiry chair Professor Alexis Jay said: “May and Emma have demonstrated a proven commitment to reaching and supporting victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in Wales.
“The Welsh perspective May and Emma offer will provide a vital contribution to the work of the Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel.”
For more information visit www. iicsa.org.uk/truthproject