Cathy Glass - Too Scared to Tell - Part 3 of 3

‘That was a bit rude,’ I told him. He looked at me sheepishly.

She didn’t call back, but Andrew telephoned a few minutes later and I took the handset out of the living room so Oskar couldn’t hear me. He began by thanking me for my email and said I should bring Oskar with me for the whole of the review on Wednesday. He then said he’d spoken to Roksana now she was back, and contact had been reinstated at the Family Centre with the same days and times as before – Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 4.00 to 5.00 p.m. He asked me a few questions about the phone contact Oskar had been having with his Aunty Dol and her family, and then said he’d spoken to her when Oskar had first come into care, which I didn’t know. He said Dol had phoned him and offered to look after Oskar, rather than have him in care, but Roksana had objected.

‘Why?’ I asked. Most parents would consider it preferable to have a family member look after their child if they can’t.

‘Roksana wants Oskar to live in this country,’ Andrew replied. ‘She believes he will have a better standard of living and education, and more opportunity to do well.’

Andrew continued to say that he didn’t see a problem with Oskar phoning his aunt once a week if he wanted to, but that I should monitor the calls, as I was doing when he phoned his mother. I didn’t have Dol’s telephone number, so Andrew found it in his file and read it out to me. He then began winding up by saying that he’d see Oskar and me at the review on Wednesday. ‘Andrew,’ I said, before he had a chance to say goodbye, ‘Roksana told me that Oskar’s abusers have been caught.’

‘Yes, that’s correct,’ he said. ‘I don’t know when the court case is yet.’

‘So they are being held on remand in prison?’

‘No. They’re out on bail.’ Which I’d feared. ‘Don’t worry,’ he added. ‘One of the bail conditions is that they mustn’t go anywhere near Oskar.’ But that didn’t make me feel much better.

‘Let’s hope they stick to the bail conditions then,’ I said dryly.

‘Was that my social worker on the phone?’ Oskar asked as I returned to the living room.

‘Yes. How did you know?’

‘You always go out of the room when he phones.’

I smiled. ‘That’s so I don’t disturb you. I tell you what you need to know. The good news is that you can phone your Aunty Dol once a week.’

His little face lit up. ‘When?’

‘We’ll start on Saturday, as it’s not that long since you last spoke to her.’

‘Goodie,’ he said.

I could have added: ‘And the bad news is that your abusers are out on bail.’ But of course I didn’t. I wouldn’t be telling Oskar that unless he absolutely had to know. He was doing well now, and I didn’t want to send him back to those dark days of being scared, withdrawn and anxiously looking over his shoulder for black cars every time we went out – although it wouldn’t stop me from checking.

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