Jane Basil the writer has left the building. Jane Basil the fighter is in charge now. She wishes to apologise for the fact that in her current guise she is unable to pick up the remnants and cut them into interesting shapes. She cannt carefully sew them together with small stitches, into an aesthetically pleasing design. She doesn’t remember how to crochet, knit and weave the words into a shape that fits.
She will drop the broken threads and the ragged tatters onto the page and leave them as they fall. They will lie there until they are covered up by fresh and orderly ones.
May they rest in peace.
Easter weekend was fun, with family and the park, with grandchildren and picnic, swings and roundabouts, laughter and rolling down hills.
Muddy jeans, sunshine and laughter.
Tuesday arrived as I knew it must. Tuesday 7th April, that long dreaded day. A necessary evil which became inevitable some two-and-a -half years ago. The day that my daughter walked into the police station and made her statement. She was 26 then. When she was ninteen years old, she had become the victim of a crime; a crime that carried through the whole summer.
It was a summer of waking each morning knowing that she was free to carry out her job of work without interfference, but when evening came she would be a slave again. The man who was her boss would carry out whatever unpleasant and sadistic acts on her body that he wished.
I have lived and re-lived that time over and over. When I found out what was happening I urged her to go to the police, but she refused, saying it was her own fault. He was an experienced predator, and had convinced her that it was all her own fault. If I went to the police, she would deny everything. I realise now that she was terriiified of repurcussions.
She finally got away from him, but it was too late. She was broken, and she began drinking heavily, getting into unhealthy relationships and avoiding her true friends. Her dabbling in drugs resulted in heroin addiction, and she carried her brother along with her.
And then a friend was falsely accused of rape, which brought the horrible experience back in force. This resulted in a terrifying five day drug binge, and when she came out of it she went to the police.
Due to budget cuts and suchlike, the case took two years to go to court, and when it did, the defendant became ill on the second day, and it was postponed for a further five months, until the 7th April, this year.
My daughter’s health and state of mind had deteriorated dramatically. The professionals around her were scratching their heads, wondering how she was managing to stay alive. She was so chaotic that it was impossible to help her. Every time an effort was made to section her under the mental health act, so that she could be safe and cared for she would pull herself together enough to convince two out of three doctors that she was not a risk to herself or others.
We managed to get her to the courtroom on the first day, and on the second day, when she was supposed to be cross-examined by the defence. But her mind was in such a terrible state by then that she refused to give evidence, because in her paranoid state she was convinced that there would be reprisals. She believes that this disgusting man has been causing all sorts of bad things to happen to her. She even believed that he had her boyfriend killed. He died of an overdose three months ago.
The case was stopped for the sake of my daughter’s wellbeing, and a not guilty plea had to be returned. If he had been found guilty, he would have appealed, on the grounds of an unfair trial.
The local newspaper placed a story on its Facebook page:
Croyde holiday camp manager cleared after alleged rape victim refuses to give evidence
By North Devon Journal | Posted: April 08, 2015
David Mason had always denied raping the autistic girl when she worked at the Ruda Holiday Camp at Croyde
A FORMER holiday camp manager has been cleared of raping a young waitress after she refused to carry on giving evidence against him.
David Mason had always denied raping the autistic girl when she worked at the Ruda Holiday Camp at Croyde in the 2000s and insisted she had agreed to regular sex sessions in his staff chalet.
He was found not guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court on the directions of Judge Jeremy Griggs after the prosecution offered no evidence,
Gareth Evans, for the prosecution, told the Judge he had decided to withdraw the case because the alleged victim did not want to give evidence.
At the second trial this week she refused to go back into the witness box and told police she did not want the case to continue.
Mr Mason, aged 55, of Grove Cottages, Bournemouth, Dorset, denied four charges of raping the girl when she was 19 and working in the catering department at Ruda, where he was the manager.
The prosecution alleged he rigged the staff rota to manipulate her into staying overnight at his chalet where he forced her to have sex up to 40 times during the summer.
They alleged she had submitted to his demands after he forced himself on her and that he also bit her on the legs and private parts during sex.
The case was stopped before Mr Mason was able to give his account but in police interviews he said she had instigated sex after he agreed to let her stay in his chalet.
He said she continued visiting and they enjoyed consensual sex on a number of other occasions throughout the summer season.
In offering no evidence Mr Evans told the judge: “I can tell you the complainant quite simply does not want the process to continue. She does not want to play any further part in proceedings.
“She had refused to do so and although the court has the power to summons her, it is the feeling of the officer in the case and the Crown Prosecution Service that would not be appropriate.”
Judge Griggs told the jury: “The witness does not wish to participate further in proceedings and in those circumstances, having satisfied myself that is the position, I ask you to enter not guilty verdicts.”
We returned from the trial with my daughter in a more healthy state of mind than she has been for a while, and that evening I managed to get her to the hospital, and she was admitted for an operation on her leg. She has a swelling the size of a saucer on her thigh, as well as a lot of contusion and bruising. It is her belief that the injuries were carried out by others while she was asleep. She is down for surgery today, as it had to be cancelled yesterday.
Since writing that last paragraph I have rung the hospital and discovered that she can’t have surgery today, as every time the staff came to take her uo to theatre she was outside the grounds “having a cigarette”, and when she was told she should wait on the ward she replied that she couldn’t hang around all day waiting for them to be ready for her, and anyway she had had a drink, so she was no longer nil by mouth.
She has been told that her name is now down for surgery tomorrow. She must stay on the ward, and if she doesn’t, they will turn her out, and she’ll have to find another hospital.
I could have written about the difficulties that this has caused for her brother, and the change in the law concerning a particular legal high, and a few other things, but I’m tired, and all I want to do is sleep, rather than spend tomorrow morning in a hospital ward trying to keep my poor, lost, 29 year old autistic, bipolar, drug addicted daughter under control.
Making it write 