It doesn’t change the past… but I can live with it now
Chairwoman vows to overhaul Scotland’s broken care service
For the past 10 years, care worker Tommy Harley has been an inspiration to countless teenagers he looks after in a residential unit, and to survivors of Scotland’s bygone care system that damaged so many children like him.
One of five children, Tommy was put into care after trying to retaliate to one of his father’s regular beatings. Tommy, 54, said: “Dad had been very drunk and, after administering the usual battering, he fell into a stupor. “Seeing my chance to teach him a lesson, I rolled up newspapers and pushed them up the legs of his trousers. I fully intended setting him on fire. It was a cry for help. Mum caught me before I lit the newspapers.” Tommy was sent to a children’s home where the young boy’s vulnerability made him a target for an abusive staff member. “I was nine and the abuse began almost immediately,” Tommy said. “The physical and sexual abuse and the psychological horror became a way of life.”
Finally, aged 16 – after years of abuse and unable to read or write – he was given £200, a donkey jacket and told to make his own way in the world.
Unable to hold down jobs or develop relationships, he turned to heroin. Homeless and at rock bottom 10 years ago, Tommy found his way to Jericho House in Greenock, a rehab unit for men, and his life changed forever.
Tommy said: “It took enormous strength to get clean. Once I did that I realised I had to change other things if I wanted to live the kind of life I saw others living. Jericho House supported me to learn to read and write, I went to college and trained to be a residential care worker. I’m doing the job I was born to do..”
Tommy also reunited with his family, including his mother, father and his two grown-up children. Before Tommy’s dad, Thomas, died five years ago aged 76, the two of them “made their peace” with each other. “I was able to be the son he never had and he became the father I never had for those last final years,” Tommy said. “It doesn’t change what happened, but I can live with it now.”
Tommy spends a great deal of his time working with abuse survivors through the Take Justice programme. He is also active with victims support Charity Wellbeing Scotland, and The Voice Within, which encourages people to speak out about their experiences through theatre.
His mentor, Margaret Diamond, who founded Jericho House, has never forgotten the first day she saw Tommy. She said: “I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone come in as damaged as Tommy was, and look at him now, an inspiration.”