THE NIGHT MY SON WAS SAVED

Sin City - Cry little sister - Gerard McMann!

[via FoxyTunes / Gerard McMann]

THE NIGHT MY SON WAS SAVED


The night they found my son in Manchester is still raw in my mind even though it’s been four years now. It was about 8pm in the evening when I received a phone call saying that the police had found him. There had been a tip off by someone that my son was in a bungalow in Manchester. The Police acted on the tip off and managed to do a raid on the property and found my son inside. Apparently I was told that there were other children in the house besides my son. But I believe these children were over the age of sixteen and there were a brother and sister in the house too.

Raymond Colin Hawthorne was apparently a well-known Pimp in the Manchester area and was known for having children working and living with him. I believe my son was kept in a room in a bungalow in Manchester where he slept the nights on a mattress on the floor in a small room along with others. He was given drugs and alcohol to keep him subdued and threatened with death and also our lives were threatened to keep him there. Raymond Colin Hawthorne made suggestions to my son that if he tried to escape someone would find me.


When the police told me they had found him I was overjoyed for a split second that he was alive and safe. But then my heart sank I started to panic I didn’t know what condition he was in? Whether he was well? If they had fed, looked after him or what or even how abused my son was?

The police said they had to question him so I wasn’t aloud to go to see him yet and could I please wait for a phone call for when to set off the Manchester.

I was in Leeds so I had a long drive down the M62. I told my husband what they had said and I paced up and down the room smoked about 40 cigarettes waiting for the phone call. It was one of the worst nights of my life.
What was I going to say to him? What was he going to say to me? How do I react with him? My head was just a fuzzy mess I just wanted to hug him and tell him it would be ok and he was safe and we would get through this. It was something like you watch on a movie and even now I think back it seems to be surreal and I can see my self and it all happening in slow motion.

Eventually the phone call came about 1am in the Morning. It was a policeman on the phone who gave me directions to a Police Station in Manchester where they were holding my son.

I got in the Car I still don’t know why my Husband didn’t come with me or even say he would come for support. But he didn’t, I drove like a mad woman towards the M62. I think back now if the Police had pulled me for speeding I wouldn’t have been able to deny it and I wouldn’t have really wanted to explain it. I remember it was cold as I drove in the Dark past Bradford then headed for Huddersfield, Halifax towards Manchester. Its then you start to climb a big hill where there’s a sign telling you this is the highest road in Britain. There is a farm right slap bang in the middle of the M62 where I believe the farmer refused to leave when the road was being built. I don’t think he actually lives there because there were no lights on at the house just pitch black it was as black as coal up there on the road. I thought there would have been a lot more traffic on the road but then again it was now about half past one in the morning and I was still driving like a mad woman. Luckily I had a sat I nav to help me try to find this police station otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue where I was going.

I remember the sat nave took my down a long winding road and then on the left hand side there was a building which said police station. There was only one problem it was in pitch darkness. I pulled into the car park and got out of the car everything was dark the place looked empty. I started to panic and didn’t know what to do I was now alone in the dark in the middle of Manchester and trying to find my son. I had my mobile on me and telephoned the police I then had to explain to them my situation and was told to hold the line. A couple of minutes later I was told my son was at another police station at the other side of Manchester.


I am angry a little now that I was to do this on my own, no police woman or man was there to help me My son had just been found after a nationwide investigation and I his mother was alone in the dark and so scared. No one even offered to come with me I am full of anger because I should have been given some kind of support as to how to react around him, how to speak to him and some one to help me even breath properly.

Again I had to drive in the dark across the other side of Manchester to another police station where they had him. I arrived in the dark it looked like it wasn’t a very nice part of Manchester and had to drive into a car park. I slowly got out of the car and walked towards the door. There was a policeman on reception and I said I am here for my son, he then proceeded to take me to a room and told me to wait in here and someone would be with me shortly. It was a cold looking room and had no decoration what so ever just a table in the middle of the room one of those tables you used to get in school classrooms and two chairs either side.

I was left in that room again alone for about an hour I was pacing up and down up and down. Then all of a sudden the door opened and a policeman showed my son into the room I ran across the room and hugged him. He seemed very cold and distant he sat down on a chair and I sat in the chair opposite I just wanted to hug him love him and cry. But instead he said mum “ I am bi-sexual” I was in shock I had had my son missing for nearly a week and the first thing he says was mum I am bi-sexual. I tried to act normal and said that’s good love but I was screaming inside I was lost and I didn’t know how to get my son back from this dark world.

He then said “Do you like my new clothes, they bought me some new clothes, Took me to see the London Eye, Blackpool pleasure beach and swimming” I said yes they were lovely and then said to him why are you doing this love I know you have been through something really bad.

It was then my son decided to get up out of the chair and go towards the door he said he didn’t want to come home with me he didn’t love me and didn’t want to be with me. I couldn’t believe it I was in complete shock and didn’t know what to do the only way I can explain it is you feel like a chicken with your head cut off and running around in pain.

How was I supposed to get my son back I mean my real son this wasn’t him it was like some nightmare. The film the body snatchers comes to mind when I write this someone had taken my baby boy and swapped him they must have.

A policeman then came into the room to explain to be my son didn’t want to come home with me and I now had to leave. I walked out of that room scared again and felt like I had know one to help me and make me understand why. They said because he had told them to make me leave I had to go. I left the building and got into the car I looked towards the building and saw my son in a darkened room waving to me. I was told before I left my son would be taken back to Leeds and put into a temporary foster care until the problem was resolved.

I started the drive back to Leeds in the dark and cold alone again knowing that my son was now in a police car somewhere on the M62 also going back to Leeds and not home with me but to a home where I wasn’t aloud to know where. After driving about 20minutes I had to stop the car I couldn’t see properly because I was crying that much my vision was blurred. I stopped the car in a lay-by and I phoned a friend I told her what had happened and that I didn’t want to live anymore my son had rejected me I wanted to kill my self I didn’t want to live anymore.

I wanted to kill Nathan Eyre I wanted to kill Raymond Hawthorne I wanted to kill any man who had touched my baby in an inappropriate way. But I couldn’t obviously so I wanted to die. My friend told me not to do it she said if you do they have won everyone who had hurt you would have won and you would just be remembered as the mother whose child was abused that killed her self. I wanted to get out of the car and start walking down the M62 and hope I would be hit by something big and die straight away. I couldn’t stop crying I decided to have a cigarette and try to calm down and think to my self it would be alright. After about an hour I pulled my self together and carried on driving up the M62 towards LEEDS and home. I must have got back to LEEDS at about 5am in the morning I was cold, tired and lost I fell into bed exhausted and slept