Professional Documents
Culture Documents
in
The Home from Hell
Twiggy
Published by www.clickaread.com
Copyright © clickaread.com 2008
Nigel King asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
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Extracted by request from:
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PART ONE
The Home from Hell
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call ‘Mr Shush’. He was a charismatic man who dominated, and
deviously preyed upon, the children placed in his care. He was
also able to mesmerise the adult care staff with his charm and
generosity. He also manipulated many officials, who considered
him to be a saintly maverick figure, challenging tradition and
revolutionising the approach to childcare.
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bathroom on the first floor of the home; next to the clothing store
and laundry room where his wife sometimes worked. His 'modus
operadi' was to invite a selected number of boys, one at a time,
into the bathroom, whereupon he would lock the door and then
explain that it was his duty to inspect us for head lice. He would
then ask us to drop our trousers and underpants. He said he also
had to inspect us for other diseases, and would proceed to
massage your testicles and move his hand up and down the shaft
of your penis. This would not last very long and then he would
dismiss you. I remember my shame and feelings of guilt after he
did this to me.
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lucky ones, many of whom had suffered sexual, physical, or
emotional abuse, have managed to scrape a life together after
escaping The Home from Hell, only to live lives cursed with crime,
broken relationships, low self-esteem and disabled hearts that
have struggled to really love or trust anyone.
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sticking in my bottom. He would move about and murmur quietly in
the dark. I honestly can’t recall any pain, I am not even truly sure if
he actually buggered me, or if he just enjoyed rubbing up against
me. I was a child, and I guess I just blocked it out. I think the actual
trauma has been erased from my memory. The last time he was
able to abuse me was in his parent’s home during 1972. He and
his wife were taking me to Cornwall to start a new life with my
mother and her third husband, Robert.
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following day. Ironically, one such treat was a meal out with him in
the grand Merit Hall Hotel and Restaurant. This place later became
Mr Shush's ‘tycoon’ home. Raymond and I eventually took to
secretly masturbating each other and I think this affected my
sexual relationships with girls. I remember being paranoid that
people would think I was homosexual. This was another root
cause of my growing obsession with girls and sex. I wanted to
prove that I was not a ‘bummer’, and I later developed a reputation
as a ‘shagger’ who could get any girl he wanted. This reputation
followed me into my adult life and only ceased when I fell in love
with my wife Jane in 1989.
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frighten me away before I, like many before me, tried to confront
him about the past. I had gone to him in a desperate situation. I
had my son David with me, who was just a tiny baby, and I was
hoping to get financial help from him for me and my son to start a
new life. I left with some warm milk in the baby bottle that Nancy
gave me and nothing else.
Years later I was told that I had been reported as being out
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of control at school, generally very cheeky to teachers, and quite
often found playing truant from school, usually with Stuart O’Brien.
This was true, but I was not a criminal. I was just a confused, shy
and introverted ten year old abuse victim that desperately needed
protecting from my mother’s irrational and often emotionally
charged lifestyle. My mother had rescued us both from the
violence of my stepfather but her new life with her mother, and the
separation from my little brother Ray, was too much for me to cope
with. My mother had also suffered at her husband’s violent hands
and she was trying hard to re-build her life. My parents had failed
at both marriage and child rearing, but I was the one who paid the
price of their failure. I was given an unjust sentence without trial,
and taken away. This damaged me for life.
I finally left The Home from Hell some 5 years later, in 1973.
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The day I arrived at The Home from Hell was a day of terror
and enlightenment. I literally wet my pants when a boy told me he
was going to hit me. On that very first day, I smoked my first
cigarette, I saw another boy’s erect penis for the first time, and I
experienced what I would describe as a ‘possessions rape’; as I
sat on Mr Shush’s knee in the small staff room, I watched William
Tirem handing out all my toys and clothes to the other boys who
had come to meet me.
They told me to call them Jim and William, and they said
they were going to be like fathers to me. On that first day I was
made to shower naked in front of William. I remember lying in my
bed that first night, terrified and very lonely. I had realised that this
was not going to be a holiday and there were going to be no
games on the beach.
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and was regularly beaten up by the boys in the home. I believe
that Mr Shush is directly responsible for turning Colin into the adult
sex monster he later became.
The record player made me popular with the other boys and
it was used by most of them regularly. I eventually swapped it for
cigarettes and a dirty magazine. I hated my mother for lying to me,
and did not cherish anything she gave me. I remember writing the
words ‘fucking bitch’ on my leg with a biro pen. I despised her. She
like to project the image of a caring mother, but she was happy to
leave me behind again as she returned to her childless life. She
had abandoned my brother Ray and then she had abandoned me.
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and regimental. Every day began with a dorm leader, who was
usually an older boy, shouting at you to get out of your bed. We all
feared the dorm leaders because they were allowed to hit us and
humiliate us without being reprimanded by the adult staff. Standing
by your bed, half asleep, and quite often with an embarrassing
erection that was difficult to hide, you held on tight to your
toothbrush and towel in silence, while waiting to be ushered in
lines to the bathrooms, one dormitory at a time, in numerical order.
The bed making and cleaning up, before 7am breakfast, was done
with fanatical precision each day and the reward of points, given
by the adult staff on duty, for the tidiest rooms, were highly sought
after.
My life at The Home from Hell was mostly mundane and the
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time was broken only with outbursts of violence between boys, or
arguments with the staff. Some survivors have commented that
they experienced happiness and good care in the Home. Perhaps
they did. They were the lucky ones who did not attract the
inappropriate attention from Mr Shush. Many still hail him as a
hero. It’s true to say that he could be a kind and generous man.
However, I would say that this saintly persona was part of his
elaborate and successful grooming process. I accept that he did
not abuse all the boys who were entrusted to him, but, he did
abuse me, and he has been convicted of abusing others.
The older lads would give you a fag if you ran errands for
them. The practice of gifts for favours was quickly learned, and of
course also practiced with more sinister results, by Mr Shush. If he
came into the dorm and quietly abused you during the night, you
could expect some sort of gift or special treat the following day. He
never discussed the abuse with you. I usually got a signed chitty
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from him that allowed me ‘out on trust’, and I would quite often be
taken by staff for a spending spree in a Wroxham clothing shop. I
was one of the best dressed kids in the home.
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took a turn at kicking him in the groin and punching him in the face.
One of the lads with us set fire to his pubic hair with a lighter.
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headmaster. We were always caned as a response to our
mischief, no matter how trivial it was, because the teachers were
unable to keep us ‘on detention’ after school in case we missed
the van. I think most of the teachers viewed us as hardened
criminals and felt that they had more liberty when dishing out
corporal punishment. After all, our parents were hardly going to
complain to the school. They forgot that we were in care for
protection. They forgot that we were just children, like their own.
The Home from Hell van was occasionally late, and this
sometimes led to fights outside the school gates with the local
gangs and older lads from the school. Alvin and I would stand
back-to-back, each armed with a stick or a brick, and take on these
contenders regularly. If we got caught fighting we were in big
trouble at school and even worse trouble at The Home.
Conversely, if we did not fight we were beaten up. School was a
daily challenge of survival that was only enjoyable on the days we
managed to get a girl, literally, behind the bike sheds, for a ‘fanny-
feel’ or a ‘tit-squeeze’. In the van on the way home, we often
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compared smelly fingers to see who had touched the most girls.
Sticking your finger up your bum usually convinced the other lads
that you had been successful that day.
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your mouth. He would gently whisper “shush” with his finger over
his mouth and his breath would reek of alcohol.
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and the silence of night was often broken with the sound of a boy
whimpering under his bed sheets. There were regular outbursts of
shouting and name-calling amongst different groups. Trips to
outside school were a highlight of the week day for me. It was safe
ground between the horrors of abuse left behind and the daily
trauma of being targeted by parents, teachers and other children.
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boys, you had to have a bigger dick than the next lad in the
showers or you had to have stolen more things, shagged more
girls, and you had to be able to fight better than any new lad.
When I arrived at The Home I was a non-smoker, I did not
masturbate, and I had never been a violent person. My nickname
after a few hours of arrival was ‘Ponsonby’. I was a ‘Scouser’ with
a posh way of talking. When I left I was known as ‘Twiggy’
because I was so tall and skinny. All my sexual boundaries had
been removed and I had become morally corrupt, just like many of
my peers and carers. After initially spending my time there as a
victim, I learned how to victimise, and I was soon amongst the lads
who regularly bullied the weaker ones, especially the new boys.
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the old days. We both nervously disclosed to each other the details
of the abuse we had suffered as little boys. Sadly, a few months
later, Stuart was found hanging in his garden shed, apparently
another victim of suicide, just like so many other boys that had
shared The Home from Hell.
Available at www.lulu.com/2003153
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PART TW0
A few facts about The Home from Hell & Mr. Shush
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and 13 years, that is, for younger boys than most of those at The
Home from Hell.
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Shush opened a children's home with 12 staff to provide for up to
20 boys in the age range of 11 to 16 years. None of the nine care
staff, other than Shush and his future wife, had any previous
experience of residential work with children, and none of them had
any formal qualifications. One teacher had experience in remedial
teaching.
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Hotel in the 1970s but it reverted to its former name of Merit Hall
after acquisition by the Home and it was used principally as offices
but also to provide accommodation for some children and the
Shush family.
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dealings between Black senior, Shush and the company. However,
it seems reasonably clear that Black senior made a number of
subsequent loans to the company and substantially increased his
shareholding at the expense of Shush. By 1990, his secured loans
to the company amounted to £356,000 and there was an
unsecured loan to Shush of £20,000. More transfers of shares
followed and in 1991 Shush was paid off.
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The Home from Hell continued to trade thereafter with Black
senior holding 17,995 of the 19,405 issued shares (including 3,100
new shares issued on 16 October 1991). There were protracted
discussions with the banks in relation to their security for loans and
about re-structuring the company. Eventually, in 1995, re-
structuring was effected: the various properties were transferred to
a new company, The Home from Hell (Holdings) Ltd, whilst The
Home from Hell Community Ltd became the trading company,
carrying on the care and educational activities. There were
continuing registration difficulties, however, leading to voluntary
liquidation of the trading company in 1997. Black senior gave
evidence before the Tribunal in July 1997 but he died at the end of
the year.
According to Shush, his aim and that of the Home was for
the regime to provide an environment that was as close as
possible to that of a family: it was to be "stimulating and
responsive, a therapeutic environment". His idea was to provide a
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wide spectrum of establishments for youngsters and adolescents,
ranging from residential special schools to various types of homes
for children and on to halfway houses preparing young people for
independent living, with later after care support for the vulnerable.
Moreover, each unit had to be flexible in order to cater for
individual needs, with a variable balance between containment and
instruction for the same reason.
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other former residents gave "similar fact" evidence. He was
sentenced to six years' imprisonment on each of the counts of
which he was convicted, the sentences to run concurrently. Shush
denied the offences and maintained his denial when he gave oral
evidence to the Tribunal on 16 and 17 February 1998 but there
has not been any appeal.
www.brynalyn.co.uk
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