My ex coached our children to say my new man had abused them sexually

Jo Barrell was just settling into a new relationship after a tricky split when the unimaginable happened. The police came to the door to say her children had accused her new man of sexual abuse. The allegations were unfounded but she describes how the experience shattered their lives

I left the father of my three small children five years ago. I’ve always considered myself a go-getting, strong character, an instinctive feminist who was in charge of her own life. But I slowly came to realise that I had chosen a man who was increasingly controlling, manipulative and unduly suspicious to the point that my life was hardly my own any more.

I knew the break-up would be tough, and that T’s character wasn’t the kind to cope well with it or make an amicable split easy, but I was so buoyed up by the thought of being free and independent again that I mentally glossed over all that in my determination to get out. If I had known what he would do to get revenge would I still have gone ahead? That’s a call I find impossible to make.

I found my clothes drawer open and my underwear thrown around my room. Horribly, some of it was bloodstained

When S offered to bathe all the children together while I made dinner, was it because he was an abuser?

The two eldest children are racked with misplaced guilt and shame at their part in the video

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from Children | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1yE17dl