Hey everyone, Looking for some advice here, and if anyone else has had a similar experience.
Long story short, my wife (and her sister) were both sexually abused as children for around a decade by their grandfather until he died (they remember it starting from as far as they remember back to when they were 11 & 12) When the abuse came to light (after he had died) instead of it bringing the family closer together it has ripped it apart further.
My sister in law has had a complete breakdown, has been sectioned and has turned to drink and drugs to cope, she has now lost her children and they are under the care of the local services, one of her children (daughter) is now in the care of my mother in law.
This is where is gets messy, my wife has said that my mother in law was in the same room, on the same sofa even, whilst she was being sexually abused - this happened hundreds of times, I have heard my mother in law starting to talk about her own abuse by her the grandad - but she has now denied saying this, she also talked about hearing abuse and the grandad apologising to my wife after he had abused her - but again is denying this now. From what I can work out, she knew of the abuse taking place, but turned a blind eye to it, as her very own sister accused him of sexual abuse when they were children and she was cast out as a trouble maker, the same label has now been attached to my wife now and she has been cast out of the family.
My mother in law is erratic, her behaviour is quite awful at the best of times, she gave both my wife and her sister drugs as children, she had inappropriate sexual relationships with men, even now she lives in a house bought and paid for by her married lover who pops round for favours at any time of the time and pays for all her bills and food etc, this man has also been accused of sexual abuse in the past, and it was in all the local papers, she is even "friends" with his wife and goes on holidays with them and looks after his wife at times.
My mother in law abandoned her own children twice growing up, she took drugs, punched through windows, attacked her own kids, the level of manipulation and emotional abuse is off the chart and has had so much negative impact on her own children (she has 4), she lives in a fantasists world and to those who don't know this, she pretends to be an upstanding member of the community so gets away with so much.
We have tried to contact social services and lodge our worries about the little girl now in her care, but I really don't know what else we can do?
[Content warning added to title by MNHQ]