Free The Girl Nobody Wants: A Shocking True Story of Child Abuse in Ireland by Lily O'Brien

the people and he told them all to fuck off and he tried to close the door, but the police officer told him to stop messing around or they would have to arrest him. Dad said ok and then he came back inside the house and he told us that we all had to go with them, then he got us all dressed and he walked us out of the house and into the waiting police cars.
    Once we were inside the cars, dad went over to one of the police cars and he got in the front seat, next to one of the police officers that he knew. The police officer told daddy that he was sorry, but he could do nothing to help us and then he drove us all to the police station. When we arrived, they took us children into the police station, but they would not allow dad to stay with us; instead, they put him into the back of the police car and they drove him straight to the courthouse.
    Once there, they put him into a room and they told him that he had to sit and wait until they had time to finalise his court case, and until then he could not leave the building or talk to anyone. He asked the police officer what was going to happen to his children and if we were ok at the police station, and the officer told him not to worry, as they were taking good care of us and they would bring us along to him shortly. And dad had no choice but to sit down and wait for us. Back at the police station, we all shouted at the police officers and we made a big fuss, telling everyone in the station that we wanted our dad and that we should not have to stay there because we had done nothing wrong; and we told them they were bad people for taking us to the police station. But it didn’t make any difference; they just looked at us and tried to keep us quiet by talking to us.
    Then, one of the police officers asked us if we were hungry and if we wanted something to eat, and we all said yes, so one of the older police officers who knew our dad put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a load of money. Then he told two of the other officers to go and get us some food, and he kept us occupied by telling us jokes and letting us play around with some of the things in the station. Then, after about half an hour, the police officers came back and they told us all to stop playing and to follow them. They walked out of the room and up some stairs with us following behind them, but as they got to the top of the stairs they all stopped and we all stopped behind them, but we didn’t stop quick enough and we bumped into each other and then we accidentally pushed one of the police officers into his back. He turned, looked back and smiled at us and then he opened a door in front of him, while at the same time he told us all to go inside, but just inside the doorway stood six police officers.
    We walked in and we all looked up at them as we walked past, thinking that something bad was about to happen to us; but as we got further into the room, we could see a huge table covered in food, ‘It’s all for you lot’, he said. ‘Now go over to the table and eat something.’ We all ran up to the table and we looked at the food, there were cakes, drinks and food that we had never seen or tasted before and then one of the police officers poured me a drink of coke and he handed me a cake to eat. I was very excited about the food and I just couldn’t believe my eyes; we shouted at each other and then we jumped up and down with excitement. I grabbed at the food and I began to eat, but it didn’t take long before I started to feel sick and I wanted to vomit; I hadn’t eaten so much food for such a long time that my belly couldn’t cope with it.
    I drank some coke, then I sat down and began to cry, and I told the police officer that I didn’t want the food anymore and that I wanted to go home with my daddy; then my brothers and sisters began to cry and I shouted at the police to let us all go. So, they opened the door of the room, they allowed us to walk back down the stairs and they gave us the freedom of the