“Ladies and gentlemen,” she began, surprising herself with how clear and even strong her voice sounded, not at all the way she was feeling, “thank you for listening to what I have to say today. As Mr. Lock has already told you, it’s unusual for someone in my position to speak up for the person who’s caused them harm, but this is what I am going to do.

“I will admit to you that for quite a long time after the fire, when I was hospitalized and suffering terrible pain, I wished nothing but ill to the person who’d started it. I’m sure I felt much the same as anyone would after almost losing their life as they knew it and their home, and whose family had been caused so much distress. When I was told he’d been arrested I wanted him to pay in the severest of ways for what he’d done. And yes, there was a part of me that wanted to set fire to him, so he would experience the agony and devastation of full-thickness burns for himself.”

She cleared her throat and touched a hand lightly to her mouth. “You’ve already heard about the restorative justice process from Dan Collier, and it probably won’t surprise you to hear that my family and I would have been utterly repelled by the suggestion of engaging with our attacker, had it been presented to us at any other time than it was. In fact, I believe we would have remained completely resistant to it had I not been given letters written to me by Archie Colbrook, explaining who he is and how he came to try to burn down our house.”

She hadn’t expected those words to cause a small murmur in the room, so she paused, trying to gauge what it meant, until Gordon Lock nodded for her to continue.

“As I read about Archie in his own words, I gained an insight into a world that I knew very little of, although we hear about it on the news, of course. It just doesn’t usually have much to do with our own existence. His is the kind of world where poverty and corruption are realities, not just news stories, and where it’s hard for children to flourish even with two parents. Archie has only a mother who loves him very much, as he does her.