A 6-year-old girl saved her mother’s life by telling her teachers: “My daddy is hurting my mummy.
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36-year-old Jodie Keegans has shared how she suffered three years of extreme violence and possessive behavior at the hands of her husband Scott Keegans.
The abuse would have had fatal consequences had her little girl not stepped in and told her teacher about what was going on.
After seeing her mother suffer from what was later described by court as one of the most ‘satanic’ cases they’ve seen, the 6-year-old told staff:
“My daddy’s naughty. Daddy’s hurting mummy by the birdy wallpaper. She says that she loves him but he carries on hurting her.”
It was the girl’s words that started off the investigation and Scott Keegans has been imprisoned for 18 months.
Jodie said that they got married in 2009 and everything started out good. “It started off really good, he was a great partner and father in the beginning but about three years ago, his possessive behaviour started to escalate.
“He didn’t want me to engage with anyone and would always question the kids, asking ‘who did mummy speak to today?’ He used to tell me I was lazy and tell the kids ‘mummy is useless.”
Things escalated further and Scott didn’t allow Jodie to go to work, see her family and friends, or have a mobile device. The mother-of-three wasn’t even able to attend her sister’s funeral when she passed away in 2015.
She suffered extreme violence at Scott’s hands. There was a time when she tried to stick her ripped ear together with glue as he almost tore it off but didn’t let her visit a hospital.
Scott would also regularly punch her, stamp on her, and bite her, leaving her with severe bruises and fractured bones.
When the daughter unknowingly spoke out, police started to intervene and they visited their house after they missed a social services appointment.
“As soon as I saw them I knew this might be my only chance,” Jodie expressed. “I did something I’d never done before, showing the two police officers my injuries and simply said, ‘I think I’m a victim of domestic abuse.”
“The female officer said, ‘Yes, you are. I’ve never seen anything life this.’ I guess that was the first time I had actually admitted what was happening.”
She added: “My daughter is my superhero for being brave enough to tell her school what was happening, which is when support services first became involved. She really did save my life.”
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