I Escaped, But Only Just - Part 19: The Night Of Violence

I celebrated my 18th birthday by hosting a party at a nightclub in the centre of town. A crowd turned up at the nightclub. I received free champagne and people kept buying me drinks and I got drunk, so drunk, that when I went to bed in the early hours of the morning the room wouldnt stop spinning. For a night at least, I managed to forget about Bob.

Then, all too soon he was back. He drove past early one evening, ordering my friend Sam and me into the car. This time, he was with a different man, a small man with a dark complexion. Telling Sam and I to stay down on the floor, he drove to a deserted car park in the local park. After parking, Bob took Sam to talk by the trees a few yards away, leaving me with Bob's mate.

We spent a few minutes sitting on a bench in the early evening chill, neither of us speaking. Bob's mate got up and stared into the horizon. Daylight was fading, Bob and Sam's voices sounding in the distance. Without warning, Bob's mate spun round and lifted his foot, kicking me in the head with dynamic force. I nearly fell off the bench and was still reeling from the kick when Bob reappeared, yanked me to my feet and gave me a number of hard slaps across the face.

'Get in the car', he said.

More violence followed, along with another sexual encounter. There was talk of throwing us in the boating lake. I can't swim, and Bob must have known that. Instead, yelling at Sam and me to keep down on the floor out of sight, Bob drove away into the night, towards the playing fields at the bottom of a winding, industrial hill. As we travelled, I sank deep into my own imagination where I felt safe.

The car spluttered a few times before coming to another halt. Bob began to swear. 'You two, get out and help me push.'

As soon as the vehicle lurched into life again, Bob became hysterical in the front. Pulling me onto the passenger seat, he punched me repeatedly in the face, screaming at the top of his voice and accusing me of not helping him push the car. But by then, any pain had ceased. I felt no fear, only calm detachment.

The outburst over, Bob resumed the journey, stopping by the entrance of a secluded field two thirds of the way up the hill. A row of houses stood to the right. It was dark by now. Bob and his mate had turned their backs. I glanced at them, then at Sam. Sam caught my eye, nodded and whispered, 'Now.' We ran to the houses, intending to hammer on someone's front door and plead for help.

'Oi,' Bob shouted, chasing after us. He caught up with me, bringing me down onto the grass while his mate tackled Sam to the ground.

'Right, you're in big trouble now,' Bob said. He and his mate escorted us down the hill, away from the car, to a spot that wasn't visible to anyone in the houses further up. They looked around in the dark, finding a plank of wood with a rusty nail in it.

'This will do,' Bob said.

He ordered us to strip down to our waists and proceeded to lash us both on our backs with the wooden plank, giving us about thirty lashes each. Again, I hardly felt any of it. Instead, I focused my mind on other things. Then, Bob's mate swooped on me without any warning, taking a flying kick at my head that caused my vision to oscillate. Once he got me down on the ground, he kept on kicking my head while I desperately struggled not to lose consciousness. I didn't.

Finally, they bundled us back in the car and dropped Sam at his house before shoving me out onto the street in front of mine.

'Not a word to anyone, or well come back and kill you,' he hissed.

My parent's were furious when I returned that night, my father punched me in the face. Later, my parents drove me to the hospital where a nurse suspected sexual assault but I denied it.

Worse was to come.

As reported to the police in 2017