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When Paul Connolly was just two weeks old, his mother put him out with the rubbish. “one of the neighbours heard me crying and called the police. They came and got me, and I was taken away by social services.” Born the seventh boy of eight children to an Irish Catholic family in Stratford, in london’s east end, he spent his earliest years living with nuns in a convent. I got into boxing and the trainers were the first role models who didn't want to rape us," said Paul. St Leonard's Cottage Homes was built around 1890, and began with trying to house 'pauper' children away from the workhouses. Most cottages were looked after by a house-mother and a house-father. Speaking at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (“IICSA”) Connolly spoke of the horrors at St Leonards where children were snatched from their dormitories and raped.
Where to begin with reviewing this autobiography? I feel like I may need to repeat the word autobiography to myself often, just to remind myself that this really happened and that it wasn't just some gritty fictional novel that I was reading. This painful British drama part-fictionalises the life of Paul Connolly, abandoned in a dustbin as a two-week-old baby and then later abused at the notorious St Leonard’s children’s home in Essex. The effects of childhood brutality and the cost of growing up being told you’re nothing: it’s all there in This Is England actor Michael Socha’s performance as Connolly in adulthood, a violent man carrying invisible scars. Paul was transferred to St Leonard's Children's Home in Hornchurch, which use to be situated between a bus garage and a park.St Leonard’s was a children’s home in Essex operated by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council (Tower Hamlets) from the late 1960s until it closed in the early 1980s. It comprised a series of family cottages, run by a house father and house mother together with other members of staff. [1] Allegations of sexual abuse I had to wait a year and a half to go to Crown Court, and all I could hear was the people who’d brought me up in children’s homes saying to me you’re a low-life Irish scumbag and the only place you’re gonna end up is in prison.” A] Sanctuary for the Abused http://abusesanctuary.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/for-survivors-coping-with-triggers-if.html It is only by being part of a group that you may get the strength and recognition and representation that you deserve. Nottingham and Shirley Oaks have blazed a trail of forming survivors groups and both achieved an investigation by the Goddard inquiry. Help in forming group meetings is available from Voicing CSA [12] eg Voicing CSA Nottingham Meeting [13]
As Archbishop this recent meeting provided the opportunity for me to apologise for the grave damage caused by the sexual abuse by one of our priests. I was distressed by what this lady and her family have lived with for decades. I encountered this in my meeting with her. Indeed, the abuse not only seriously damaged her but also flowed out to her family members, close friends and the wider community who were betrayed, in this instance, by a priest in whom great trust was placed. It came out, after certain reporting restrictions were lifted at the Old Bailey, that St Leonard's was not just a home for children without a place to go, but paedophiles.Towards the end of the book, Paul says that he has learned his lesson after ending up in court charged with GBH, and will never use violence again. And yet just two weeks later, the police turn up on his doorstep due to an incident of road rage whereby Paul assaulted an off-duty police officer. Daniel O'Malley, a detective inspector who heads the continuing investigation, suggested that there could have been as many as 70 victims during those years. Then, at the age of eight he was moved to St leonard’s children’s home in Tower Hamlets. It was to be a life-changing move, for all the wrong reasons. From the Principal, down, the home was run by a paedophile ring. From then on, Paul’s childhood and schooling was fi lled with violence and mental torture. Operation Greenlight St Leonard’s Children’s Home https://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/operation-greenlight/east-england/essex/st-leonards-childrens-home/ He began working as a doorman for busy bars and admits he would get involved in altercations on the door.
One of his trainers threatened his house-father over Paul's abuse and the harrowing torture stopped. Paul worked with supermodel Elle Macpherson on her workout video The Body and trains famous faces including Celebrity Big Brother winner Chantelle Houghton. In the end, that is the choice Paul made. He went on to train a-list celebrities like Elle Macpherson in Hollywood and has now written a chart-topping book telling his remarkable story which has been optioned for a movie – all the way from being thrown out with the rubbish to his rise to success. In and out of trouble with the law since he was very young, Paul Connolly was not well pleased when, in his twenties, two policewomen came to his door. The news they told him stunned him. Of all the children in his dormitory at the abusive orphanage where he’d grown up, only he and one other were still alive. Most likely as a result of the horrendous sexual abuse they had suffered, nearly all his friends had committed suicide. The news made Paul reconsider the direction of his whole life and start to make something positive from it. The Best You discovers how despite the worst of beginnings, Paul Connolly became a famous celebrity fitness trainer and a bestselling author – even though he only learned to read when he was 25 years old. Unfortunately, I was really disappointed with Paul’s attitude throughout the entire book. He’s brought up in children’s homes with horrific experiences, so some could say that he practises all that he has ever known. But Paul’s mentality towards violence, and the amount of times he resorts to violence, is awful. He uses phrases such as ‘because they were scum and they deserved it’ to justify his actions; no Paul, violence is not justified just because someone is ‘scum’. He uses violence so much, that it is clear he is a bully just like the people he is brought up around, and yet doesn’t recognise he is using the same behaviours that he has grown up to despise. I cannot abide how he thinks violence in these situations is okay, and the way he talks about it is so blasé. In one act of violence he fractures someone’s skull. He also says that he has never been involved in petty crime. Perhaps never been involved in petty crime, but caused physical damage to plenty of people and avoided being caught.There is also information on St Leonards on Operation Greenlight [5] Needleblog [4] . St. Leonards deserves a great deal more time than I can spend on it. St Leonards was a childrens home in Hornchurch Essex around 1950 until 1985, when it was closed down. It was run for part of this time by Tower Hamlets Borough of London. It was also known as Cottage Homes as it was divided into separate homes of about 30 children looked after by two house parents. Viewers have labelled the series as “heart breaking” as it follows the story of Paul Connolly who was abandoned in a dustbin as a baby and later ended up at St Leonard’s.
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