PencilsinSpace Transcript part 2:
EB: Do you feel the Green Party failed you in a duty of care and safeguarding, to check whether it was right for you at the age of 18 to be running, and also who was around you, influencing you at that time, especially considering, as you've described, some of your background?
AC: To an extent. I think there definitely could have been a lot more support and training because even aside from being a political candidate in an election, I was a spokesperson, so dealing with external communications for the party. I think there definitely could have been a lot more training and support for all spokespeople, it was a common issue. Not, obviously, safeguarding necessarily but the lack of training and support, which for the Green Party was difficult because it's - they have a small staff team but it's something difficult that they should have tackled, rather than going, it's difficult, we can't do it at the moment.
EB: You don't win the seat, as we know, and then there's the trial of your father. How much later was that?
AC: That was over a year later, it was summer 2018.
EB: Is it right in saying that you appointed him twice as an election agent?
AC: Yeah, I appointed him in the 2017 general election ...
EB: And then ...
AC: ... and then the 2018 local council election.
EB: Which your mother also stood for ...
AC: Yes.
EB: With him as ...
AC: So both me and my mother were what's called paper candidates. So we're a name on the ballot but we do no campaigning. It's again to provide an option to vote Green.
EB: I think, just to break in at this point if I may, people may be surprised that - you know, you AND your mother are thinking of standing for office in the middle of what was going on with the trial approaching.
AC: My focus was improving the lives of people in Coventry, improving the city. Obviously, late 2017 we had the amazing news of City of Culture, so it was a great time to take a stand and represent people in Coventry.
EB: And your mother?
AC: I can't speak for my mother.
EB: It just seems a bit odd that there's this man in the middle of this who's both of your election agents and you're both running like this, and it sort of begs the question about his level of control at this time.
AC: I can't speak for my mother but we were both paper candidates, we did no campaigning in the area for example.
EB: But did he suggest that you should run for those seats as ...
AC: I wanted to stand for local election. Members of Coventry Green Party besides my father, but also my father, suggested that my mother would stand in as a paper candidate to get the full slate across the city. Obviously my father had some role in that, not all of the role but he did have some role in that. As I say, I can't speak on behalf of my mother, I can speak ...
EB: Can you see why it might seem a bit odd?
AC: To some people I could, yeah. My focus at the time was, you know, making a positive message in the city.
EB: When did the trial happen then? That was ...
AC: That was August.
EB: That was August, OK. And when that began, could you describe, as you started to, is that when you did start to learn the full nature ...?
AC: So I learnt a little bit of detail in July when I was asked to produce a statement for court and to prepare to be a witness. But then obviously at that point I'm a witness for court so they don't want to tell me too much because it might skew what evidence I give. And then I'm on the stand in the courtroom and the prosecution barrister for the CPS presents these details to me and I'm shocked ... heartbroken in a way because this is my father. And ... I - I give my statement for court and, sort of, the judge orders a recess and I sort of slump out of the court and I go off and I cry to ... my mum and I get - how can this ... be? I don't go back to court to watch the rest of the trial, I stay at home.
Then 22nd of August, mum's in court with my dad and ... I'm not hearing much because obviously, court room, you're not on your phone, and a message comes through from a family friend and it just goes, Aimee, I'm so sorry. And at that point obviously I know that he's - he's gone down. And then ... my mum calls me and tells me he's gone down for 22 years - 21 years. And ... I phone up the Green Party press office on - emergency on-call team and I'm like, right, this is what's happened, tell - tell them about, you know, he's been my election agent, the fact that I gave evidence to the court. And they go, all right, I'll call you back tomorrow, type thing.
I then - my priority is then my mother because my dad was my mother's main carer because she was - had a number of disabilities so I had to spend a couple of days trying to get care in place for her. I then go up to spend time with family [inaudible] in Aberdeen and ... that's when it hit the press. I had to turn my phone off because I was just getting hounded with calls from not just reporters but people I didn't know and I - I called the press team and you know, like, this is - this is getting bad, they've just tried to doorstep my mum.
And ... so we put out a - a statement. We had to put out a number of statements in that week because ... originally I was - there was an emergency statement of, we're aware of it, and, you know, Aimee's producing a statement and we've suspended David Challenor's membership. Obviously I didn't - I was standing for deputy leader of the Green Party at the time. I didn't want that ... election, that conversation of the future of the Green Party to be dominated by the atrocities that my father had committed. So I stepped aside from that election which ... upset some people around me because obviously, here's this man who's done atrocious things to a young - young ch- woman - a child. And ... then they sort of go, he's still, even though he's been sent to prison, then having an effect on the women around him because it's affecting, you know, my mother, his wife's care and whether - we weren't sure at that point whether she'd be able to stay at home. It's affecting obviously me and politics and has until last month.
EB: Because you're no longer a member of the Green Party ...
AC: yeah.
EB: ... we'll come onto where you're up to in just a moment, but how were you feeling at this point?
AC: I - I had to take a long time off from anything. I went up to Aberdeen and I sort of crashed because ... it was - it was heartbreaking you know, this ... individual, my father, had done such monstrosities and then obviously the sort of feeling of people left, right, centre, all going - all going, Aimee needs to say this, Aimee needs to say that, and I'm like, I just want to hide my head under a pillow and scream. It was an absolutely devastating time for me, and obviously then my family.
EB: And did you talk to him after the trial?
AC: I didn't, he was sent straight down then.
EB: But did he make a phone call to you?
AC: He couldn't that day.
EB: But since, have you ...
AC: I've spoken to him since.
EB: What was the first conversation like, because if as you say, you hadn't known the nature fully until everything came out in court, what was that first conversation like?
AC: Very ... hard. He was ... put on medi- quite strong medication when he was sent down so he - he wasn't, I don't think, quite with it during our first phone call. It was quite a short one because obviously they had to process us to go through to have longer phone calls with prisoners.
EB: Have you - have you shouted at him? Have you been annoyed with him?
AC: I've cried to him. I wouldn't really say I've shouted at him. I've told him that I'm angry.
EB: And what has he said to you?
AC: He's all - he's constantly saying sorry, sorry, but ... I - I'm still in a place where I'm battling my own internal conflict because there's part of me that's like, he's my dad, you know, I've got to allow him to say sorry, but he has destroyed ... this child's life, he's taken a sledgehammer to things that I've worked hard for and obviously it's deeply destroyed my mum.
EB: Do you have a relationship with him now?
AC: Not a close one, no. Last time I spoke to him, which was just after new year, it was to let me know that he'd been moved to a different prison and that he was calling me because he couldn't get through to my mum. I've not gone to visit him yet because I don't think that I could handle that emotionally and I'm not in a place to - where I could go in there and control my emotions, and not scream at him.
EB: Do you think you will visit him?
AC: I don't know. I just genuinely don't know.
EB: I suppose the other question at this point then is, you say it's like he took a sledgehammer to what you'd worked for, do you feel like you are able to come out yet of the shadows that he has cast over your life because of that connection with your political work?
AC: Slowly ...
EB: Because I know this is the first time ...
AC: ... yeah.
EB: ... that you've - you've spoken today.
AC: So it's the first time I've spoken on this but since then I have spoken on trans related issues.
EB: Yeah, sorry, I meant about what has happened.
AC: I - I have now joined the Liberal Democrats but ... I'll be continuing to speak out because it's the right thing to do, to continue to speak out when I see injustice and to campaign for what's right. I did a lot of amazing things as a Green spokesperson, I've experienced things that I'll never forget - debating at the Oxford Union or, you know, even simple things like changing TfL policy. So I don't think that ... his shadow will cast over me for a while. I've agreed with the Liberal Democrats that I'm not going to stand for councillor or MP for two years at least. That gives me time to ... heal after ... the pain that he's caused, it gives me time to have training, support, mentorship. That ... is desperately welcomed because it was missing in the Green Party.
EB: And perhaps get some other experiences ...
AC: Exactly, you know, it gives me ...
EB: ... as I say, I don't mean this in a patronising way but I'm remembering how I was when I was your age, I studied politics, I was very interested in politics, but I don't think I was at all ready to go through running for office or some of those things. That's not to say we're the same in any way but - and you've got a lot of issues that you feel very passionately about ...
AC: Yes.
EB: ... that you want to contribute on, but it probably would be a good thing, isn't it, to get that training that you're talking about.
AC: It's going to be really great to get that training and ...
EB: And I presume you're not going to work with your family again on politics?
AC: No, god no. God no.
EB: Well I think ...
AC: I think I'll be working with professional teams from the Liberal Democrats if I stand again, obviously if there's going to be a lot of training and support. I have a partner in Michigan in the United States and you know, we're now looking actually, now I'm not so engrossed by British politics, actually is this a time - is this a good time for us to consider our future and the fact that we're currently, you know, several thousand miles apart - is this the time to start looking at closing that distance?
EB: So maybe a bit more on your personal life as well. Aimee, I really do appreciate you taking the time ...
AC: Thank you.
EB: ... to talk to me and to all of us this morning. Thank you.
AC: I just want to finish quickly ...
EB: Please ...
AC: ... by highlighting the fact that I have learnt from my mistakes, from this report and from my experience. Ultimately there's been a lot of tit-for-tat in regards to party politics or trans equality by commenters on this. We shouldn't forget that at the bottom of this there is a little girl who was ... absolutely hurt and whose life will ... always be affected by this and my thoughts continue to be with her throughout what must have been a very traumatic past few months for her as this was splashed all over the press.
EB: Aimee, thank you.
AC: Thank you.
[40:39]