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way. They also admitted that Sean had a lot of pent up rage against father figures, as his mother had constantly criticised both of his fathers and generally had a poor opinion of men. By now, Sean’s mother and her latest boyfriend were arguing a lot – and Sean’s remaining brother would later leave his mother’s house to live with his dad.
    Sean was found guilty of manslaughter and given the sentence of twenty-four years in jail with the proviso that he serve at least eight of them. Rob, whose testimony had been vital, was put on probation for five years.

A new start
    Cheryl didn’t cope well in jail, losing a lot of weight and generally feeling ill. She was desperate to spend time with those relatives who were still supportive. Ironically, the many rules she faced in prison – that she could only wear certain clothes and was forbidden perfume and makeup – were identical to those she’d faced at home.
    Fourteen weeks later she was freed and immediately became engaged to Rob. In October 1988 they married in church.

Update
    Rob and Cheryl went on to have a child. When a journalist made enquiries six years later, the family were still together. Sean Pica fared less well – his girlfriend soon broke off their engagement and during his first year in prison he got into an altercation with another prisoner and was moved to a different jail, a move which made it much more difficult for his family to visit him. Photographs show that he changed a great deal in prison, turning from a cute, beatle-haired youth into a shaven-headed and sad-faced young man.

4 I am, I said
    Peter George Dinsdale (aka Bruce Lee)
    Peter was born on 31st July 1960 to single mother Doreen Dinsdale. He was born with a partially paralysed and withered right hand and leg. His mother, who lived in Manchester, England, was a prostitute. His father is unknown.
    Within weeks of his birth, Doreen was back on the game and he was shut away and ignored whilst she entertained her clients. A year later she gave birth to a daughter, Sharon. Both children ended up in local authority care.
    Peter first went into an orphanage at age three or four when his mother deserted him. The authorities could see that he hadn’t been adequately nourished and was very unkempt, small for his age and exceptionally thin. His hair was raggedly cut and was a dirty blonde shade, his eyes were sad and his expression haunted. He had received so little attention that his diction and speech were poorly developed for his years. His IQ would variously test at between 68 and 75, in the educationally subnormal range.
    The neglected boy stayed in the orphanage for a year or so men the authorities tried to reunite him with his mum. The reunion was a failure. She alternately ordered him about or told him to hide away as she didn’t want her clients to know that she had ‘a crippled kid.’ At nights she’d walk the streets and he’d do the same, perhaps hoping to find her. Ill clad and underfed,he mentally retreated into his own little world. The recognised signs of neglect include constant hunger, emaciation, a lack of social relationships and increasingly destructive tendencies. Peter had all of them.
    Returned to the orphanage within weeks, Peter became increasingly withdrawn. A second attempt was made to unite him with his mother when he was six, but this too failed abysmally. Doreen’s increasing dependence on alcohol and her own unhappy childhood rendered her incapable of loving and nurturing her bewildered son. Social workers could see that the little boy was becoming increasingly anti-social and disturbed.
    Peter’s mother presumably thought of herself as bad and projected that badness onto her offspring. Over time the constant cruelty and neglect began to change the child’s way of viewing himself and the world.

A punitive philosophy
    Dorothy Rowe (writing in her book The Successful Self ) has explained how a child’s mindset is changed by abuse. At first the child