Somerset Survivors

One of the most difficult thing for an adult survivor of Childhood abuse to do is disclose what happened to him as a child, and the impact it has had on his life.

So having recently made that step to not only disclose but to make the formal complaint I want to share the journey.

Today I continue the Journey with you sharing some updates and considering the response of Avon & Somerset Constabulary to being requested to engage with me to further the investigation.

The Journey Continues

After my last Blog post I was contacted by Hampshire Police who acknowledged right away they had not reacted to my initial report with appropriate speed and communication.

To be fair I have to commend Hampshire in this, once the issue was brought to their attention it was resolved in short order with the officer assigned to the case contacting me, explaining the next steps and providing me with his contact details should I have any further questions.

So what were those next steps and where are we now?

Next Steps.

 

The next step is for me to be interviewed, in what was described as an evidential setting, and again tell the police what I remember.

While this may seem strange, as I told them what I remembered when I first made the complaint to them I can understand that they may want to ask some rather more probing questions, will have specific information requirements and of course need for the interview to be conducted formally for it to be admissible in court, not that I expect it to come to that!

However, I now live in Deepest Somerset, in the Avon and Somerset force area, so the process seems to be for Hampshire to contact Avon and Somerset constabulary and request them to undertake the interview for them.

And in the middle of March I was texted by an Avon & Somerset officer to let me know he would be contacting me to arrange said interview.

Action and Silence

Since then?

NOTHING, not a peep no contact or communication at all. Despite a gentle nudge by Hampshire Police early April there has been no subsequent contact from Avon & Somerset Police at all. Not even to let me know  that things have been delayed, which I would quite understand given the work load the police are under and the ‘non-recent’ nature of my case.

But as I have mentioned before the mental and physical health of survivors is often compromised and they are undoubtedly at higher risk of mental health issues such as self-harm and even suicide; and one of the big issues for many survivors is to be hyper vigilant for any possible threat.

This hyper vigilance will often surface as a tendency to fill the space where the survivor is not kept informed about what is happening, or when an expected event doesn’t take place, with the worst possible imaginings.

It is the mental equivalent of the old map makers labelling unknown regions with “There Be Dragons!”

This is why victim care procedures and publications, including those from Avon and Somerset police, use phrases such as “keep you informed about progress on your case”

In this case however it seems that Avon and Somerset have decided to go with “There Be Dragons!” and I have to wonder why?