When I met parents of youngster at centre of Huw Edwards scandal they were consumed by fear and injustice
AS a newspaper reporter I’ve sat down with hundreds of families who have trusted me to tell their stories.
But when I was politely ushered into the living room of a smart terraced home a fortnight ago, there was an unmistakable terror I had never seen before.
It was immediately obvious the down-to-earth, proud couple who shared a sofa opposite me were consumed by fear.
Worse still, they were overwhelmed by a sense of injustice.
It was a panic about their child which shook their family to its core. Worse still, they were overwhelmed by a sense of injustice.
Why, they exclaimed, did no one seem to want to listen to their plight?
They were not out to get anyone, they made it very clear.
They were very kind. As soon as they sat down, the couple fussed over me and offered me a Coca-Cola.
The mum was nervous and clearly deeply really loves her child.
She was quick to praise their intelligence.
Her voice cracked with sorrow as she talked of happier times, of school days, when the bright child had dreams of becoming a solicitor.
But their hopes had been shattered, they told me.
In calm and measured tones they explained how their beloved child had fallen into the grip of every parent’s worst nightmare — a drug habit already having devastating consequences to the young person’s mental and physical health.
They said that without urgent intervention, who knows what could happen?
Make no mistake, this was a terrified mother who needed help.
Her child was attacked in a drug squabble, they had been threatened at knifepoint and the youngster, in turn, had grown increasingly violent as addicts and dealers replaced the parents at the centre of their life.
The mum told me her heart froze in her chest when she learned crack was the drug they were using.
She found out who had been giving them money which they were using to buy drugs.
A family member told her: “He’s old, He has grey hair.”
They would go on to learn, they explained, his identity — a man they sat down each night to watch on the television news in that same living room.
As the youngster’s drug addiction worsened, they moved out and lived in various hotels with mystery money, the family say.
The mum told me she would desperately try to check on her child — but in return she was met by a string of abuse from the youngster, she claims.
The situation worsened as months went by, said the mum, with no end in sight.
In a desperate attempt to get somebody of authority to intervene, they went to their local police.
Why, she exclaimed, did no one want to listen to their plight.
Mum of youngster
Some have questioned the parent’s story after a Met probe swiftly found no evidence of criminality and the youngster said it was “rubbish”.
But the family always stressed they only went to the police in a bid to stop money being sent to their child.
Everything else was irrelevant, they say.
The issue involved a young, vulnerable teenager and a man in a position of power.
Their local police force told them in April there was nothing they could do.
They then turned to report it to the BBC.
As we now know, they failed to even speak to the presenter.
They were a panic-stricken couple beating down the doors of a succession of authorities in desperation, chronically fearing for their child’s life.
With all options exhausted, the avid Sun readers turned to us.
From first contact I was unswerving in my belief.
This is a story about a stepfather who was so worried for the woman he had loved for 18 years that he charged into a BBC building demanding it to “end today”.
This is about a mother who would never have spoken out unless she was at breaking point.
The violence caused by the drugs was increasingly getting worse.
She couldn’t sleep because she was so worried about the safety of her child — and herself.
She watched her beautiful child slowly become someone that she did not recognise.
She told me that it was like the person she knew had been replaced by an evil twin.
She showed me a picture of her child before — happy, carefree — and a recent photo showing them looking lost and trapped in a cycle of drug abuse. A person in pain.
The intervention by The Sun was their last resort.
The last hope for a broken woman who had lost a stone-and a-half in the last year, someone who needed help.
A hard-working stepfather who couldn’t sit by and take seeing the family who has always been so close being destroyed.
He was so worried the love of his life, a doting mother, would end up dead
Two lives needed to be saved — the child’s and the mother’s.
Yesterday their hopes remain steadfast they can find a way through this unimaginable crisis.