Responsible Child

[covetingthepreciousthings]

Couldn't see a thread, anyone watching?

BBC2 now, based on a true story.

How could the stepfather have been allowed back in a house with children in it?

Well, precisely. I had a quick read and that part was apparently true too.

In the real case were social services held to account for removing the children from the in need list when the step father came back home and bought the axe with him?!

That was a very tough watch. Utterly heartbreaking. Poor kids - failed by everyone.
Incredible performance by the young boy.

So sad. The scene where he spent the money on his siblings got me It's mad the stepdad was allowed back home.

That was heart rending. Poor kids, both of them even if the older one was over 18. Trying to imagine my dc standing in court and being put through processes like that.

Do multi-agency meetings really ask the child in front of parents / step parents if everything is ok at home??

It was so harrowing, crying my eyes out. I felt an intense hatred against the mother for not protecting her boys. I remember my brother and I as young as 6/7 wishing our abusive step father was dead, that we should shoot him when he was asleep!

It's not often TV brings me to tears. But this did tonight. So very sad.
And an amazing acting performance by the young lad.

Do multi-agency meetings really ask the child in front of parents / step parents if everything is ok at home??*

Yes I wondered that!

Heartbreaking. MadE me angry and sad at the same time

That was just devastating. That poor boy. He desperately didn't want to be the boy that killed his stepfather. That scene in the detention centre was harrowing.

I think if he'd sat down with his Stepfather in that fishing scene he wouldn't have killed him. It was one of those lost moments.

Bloody sad. It made me cry.

Children totally let down by every adult and agency and living with immense trauma - left with no options. Even his life at school was pure hell. I felt frustrated that in the trial the defence didn't seem to bring all of their suffering and abuse out. Afterall when he arrived at his Mum's he said he couldn't take living with his Dad anymore. So what kind of hell could that have been to make him to choose to live with that evil step father. I also felt angry with the Mum for not protecting her kids - and I know thats unfair when a woman lives under coercive control. But it was tragic.

I want more allowance to be made for the circumstances in which the children had been living.

I was wondering how bad the dad must have been for him to go back and be with his stepfather. Did the oldest boy have the same dad?

I wonder what happened to the 2 youngest children too? All let down by the adults who supposedly cared for them

The mother referred to another child that had been taken into care during her initial conversation with the Social Worker.

You could see the Mum was trying a little bit when the stepfather was out of the house. I felt very angry at her in the court though.

Was she just severely medicated? Nothing was registering with her.

She's not simple in that lounge scene she's learned to keep the peace
I remembered that case at first the mother was questioned and I had so much sympathy for the mother who snapped, then her sons were arrested and I felt so much anger for the woman who would let her sons and daughter endure all of that.

I remembered that case at first the mother was questioned and I had so much sympathy for the mother who snapped,

Was it the case that originally it seemed as though she had committed the crime ? Then it came out it was the sons.

I might be thinking of another case though, there was another one similar where in an abusive household someone had snapped.

Sorry I think I might be getting mixed up with the Sally Challen case, as she has two sons.

I didn't realise it was based on a true story. It's tragic that so many young lives are ruined by abusive upbringings.

I didn't understand why Nathan or the mother didn't give evidence.

Surely this is a Burning Bed defence?

I didn't understand why Nathan or the mother didn't give evidence.

Presumably Nathan’s defence team advised him it was in his best interests not to. It was probably hard to deny that he was the one who woke Ray in the night to go and attack their stepfather, and as such was the instigator of the attack.

I think Ray’s barrister made it clear in a brief scene that she considered the mother a loose cannon. The prosecution barrister would have made mincemeat of her. I guess given that so far as they were concerned she was a woman who had put her need to be in a relationship over the safety of her children, there was no guarantee anything she said would have been helpful to Ray’s defence. She may have felt judged and defensive and on trial herself and concentrated on painting herself in a better light, not on telling the truth.

I woke up thinking about this piece of television and all them children living in unsafe and chaotic homes. It's heartbreaking to think that children are exposed to such violence, neglect and trauma.

A few posters on this thread have related to this tv show also, and it scares me to think how many children are having to live a life like Rays.

I thought the ending was quite subtly clever. Ray has been shown doing art classes, playing computer games, making a tentative bond with the prison officer guy (key worker?), and you started to think - well, it's obviously not ideal, but maybe he's better off in the YOI than he would have been in care or with either of his parents. At least he's getting an education and there's someone looking out for him. And then you see him gazing at the fight in the corridor, apparently fascinated, and you realise he's just going to be exposed to more violence and how much it's going to screw him up.

The part where he had the PTSD episode, intercut with the attack on his stepfather, was horrific, but astonishingly well-acted. That kid is outstanding, has he been in anything else?

Eoin he’s been in a few things. I looked him up because I thought I’d seen him in something else but in fact I think he reminds me of Tyger Drew Honey when he was younger, in the early Outnumbered days.

m.imdb.com/name/nm7811397/

I felt anger towards the mother too, and my son asked me why I didn't direct this anger towards the abusive stepfather, which I know I should. I know it's illogical and the mother was a victim herself and was being coerced, so why do I feel like this?

in fact I think he reminds me of Tyger Drew Honey when he was younger, in the early Outnumbered days.

I'm glad you said that as I looked to see what he'd been in, as he looked so familiar, but actually I think he does just remind me of Tyger D-H

I feel huge anger towards the Mother. The scenes where she was sitting in the chair or lying in bed, while the stepfather was engaging with the two youngest or folding laundry or sorting out our food were very telling.

She wasn't remotely interested in the children or in her life, her older boys had clearly been completely neglected.

Watching him joyfully spend his school grant in the two little ones made me cry.