‘Yes,’ Ann said. ‘The day it happened. It was a Saturday. I should have twigged there was something fishy going on. In retrospect I see that. As far as I was concerned she was going on a sleepover to Jessica’s, there were going to be a few other girls there, all normal but she was extra-excited that day, that week. I did notice it, I’m not imagining it. Anyway, there was no sleepover, she never went to Jessica’s. She arrived back here the following morning early and went straight to bed. I didn’t even see her going up the stairs. I was in the kitchen. But later on I heard her bawling and I went in to her. And she told me to get out and I did at first but I couldn’t stay out and I went back in. She was all curled up in the bed. So I sat down beside her and talked to her and eventually I persuaded her to tell me what was wrong but all she would say was that something bad had happened to her, and that it was her fault. And that was all she ever said, really, down all the years until her … until we lost her. That someone had hurt her and it was her fault. And I asked her, of course I did, if we would call the doctor, and the guards, and she said to call nobody, and that come hell or high water she wasn’t going to ever call the guards or let us ever tell anyone and that if I did tell anyone she would never talk to me again and she’d leave and run away and all sorts like that. And by then Sean had come in, he’d heard the commotion and he said it too at first, that she should report it, but then he went along with her, that we would keep it to ourselves what had happened. I wasn’t happy but I went along with it too, thinking, I suppose we both did, that we could talk her around later and that she would tell us, tell someone, who had hurt her. But she never did. If it was now, well, I would do everything differently. We know all about trauma and counselling and DNA now. But that was new then, new to us anyway. So I washed and cleaned her, I had to be careful not to hurt her any more than she was already …’

‘She was physically injured?’ I asked.

‘Bruised mainly, like she’d been held down. Her upper arms, her shoulders. All over her legs, thighs, belly. She’d been battered, my baby girl, everywhere except her beautiful face. But that was changed too. Pale as a corpse she was. It was like she’d been dosed with a lethal poison. Her eyes were dead, even though she was breathing.’