February 2003
Hitting Home - Daniel's story | |
|  | | "I felt like calling the police but the phone was in the room where it was happening" |
| | Twelve year old Daniel has witnessed his parents fighting for many years, but when the violence began he tried to ignore it |
| | | "I was upstairs in my bedroom when I heard shouting and banging. I heard my dad punching doors, kicking and throwing my mum around the front room. I got under my quilt cover, put my fingers in my ears and ignored it."
 He makes me angry. He just walks out like a chicken and runs away  | | Daniel |
At the time he remembers looking out of the window at people in the street; they ignored the racket and walked on by.
"I felt like calling the Police but the phone was in the room where it was happening so I couldn’t get to it."
"It’s been happening for a few years. Sometimes I’m out playing and I’ve come back to see my mum all hurt and my dad gone, he’s just run away. Sometimes he doesn’t come back for days. He makes me angry. He just walks out like a chicken and runs away".
 | | The BBC will consider effects of violence on everyone |
Daniel knew what was going on, but getting his mother to tell him took sometime. "I saw my mum coming out of my next-door neighbour’s house, I could see she was limping and had a black eye. Her arm looked hurt. I asked her if she was alright and she said ‘Yes’. My mum said it was a dog. She didn’t want to say my Dad had done it, but I knew my Dad had done it."
Talking about it with anyone was virtually impossible, especially when he started to get bullied at school. "I liked to keep it to myself because I didn’t really want anyone knowing about it. I could hear the bullies saying ’Oh, your dad’s a woman beater’ and couldn’t really listen to it. So I didn’t tell anyone"
Daniel and his mother are now in a refuge, safe from his father. He sees it as a fresh start for the both of them, and he's already noticed a real change in his mother.
"My mum is a lot happier now and she’s put on weight. She gets to go out more than she used to because my dad never let her out. Things are better now" | | | |
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