Woman abused by mum wants sentence guidance review

A woman who was beaten, burned and starved as a child has said it is never too late to seek justice after her mother was jailed for abusing her more than 50 years ago.

Caroline Eshghi said she was subjected to years of "terror" by her mother, Melanie Burmingham, while living in Bristol, Somerset, and Wiltshire during the 1970s and 80s.

Burmingham, 76, was jailed for 20 months in May after Ms Eshghi, 57, successfully appealed the initial suspended sentence. Now she is campaigning for a change in the law around sentencing guidelines for historical child abuse cases.

"My childhood was definitely stolen from me," she told the BBC. "When you've survived child abuse, it never really goes away."

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing

Ms Eshghi, who now lives in Cornwall, grew up at houses in Redland in Bristol, Long Ashton on the outskirts of the city, Midsomer Norton in Somerset and Avebury in Wiltshire before she ran away at the age of 15.

One of her earliest memories is being five years old and in a house with an L-shaped hallway, where she remembers being "drop-kicked like a human football".

"The viciousness of it made me pee blood," she said.

Ms Eshghi recalls being put in the bath where her mother would hold her head under the water and turn out the lights, and being made to sleep on the floor.

"I used to sleep next to the bed that she was in and randomly through the night she would just lean over while I was sleeping on the floor and punch me, so I would be lying there in terror."

"I think at the age of nine is when she became an alcoholic and the hell was amplified quite a bit," Ms Eshghi added.

"She would smash things, she split my face open with a broken glass butter dish.

"She would tell me to get the walking stick and make me kneel in front of her while she beat me with it and she put out cigarettes on my body."

Ms Eshghi said she would be sent to school unwashed, wearing broken wellington boots, with just a cream cracker in her lunchbox.

"I used to have the nickname Paddington Bear at school," she added.

"School dinners were torture for me because I had nothing and I used to watch the other children eating lovely food."

Ms Eshghi said she was "hugely let down" by Bristol social services, formerly Avon social services, which she said allowed her to "slip through the net" despite referrals from schools she attended.

"The only thing I remember is that a lady used to come and visit and ask 'does your mum hit you?'

"Of course I was going to say no. As soon as she left I was beaten and assaulted."

Ms Eshghi made the decision to report the abuse she suffered to police in 2019.

"I was told on the phone that the records from that time were not looked after as they should have been and were put in a basement that flooded and many were lost," she said.

Avon and Somerset Police launched an investigation and four years later, in March 2023, Burmingham was charged with one count of cruelty to a person under 16 years contrary to section 1 of the Children and Young Person Act 1933.

She was given a 20-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty during trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.

In May, Ms Eshghi appealed her mother's suspended sentence.

"I thought that was it, that was done," she said. "But it went straight to the Attorney General who agreed that the sentence was unduly lenient."

The case was escalated to the Court of Appeal and on 23 May, Burmingham was sent to prison for 20 months.

Lord Justice Stuart-Smith stated that if he was trying the case now he would be looking at a minimum term of nine years and a maximum of 14 years.

Under current laws, judges can only pass a sentence within the maximum term available at the time of the offending but Ms Eshghi has launched a petition calling for this to change.

"The way the law works is that if you are taking a historical case through the judicial system for child abuse, they have to adhere to the sentencing rules of when the abuse took place.

"I would like the law changed so that historical cases will be charged on current sentencing guidelines and not on the guidelines from decades ago."

The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.

Ms Eshghi said she feels a "sense of peace" knowing her mother has been sent to prison.

"When you are abused, it is part of you," she said.

"But you heal in such a way that you're not in denial of it. You're not ashamed of it.

"I'm very lucky, I've got wonderful children, I live in a beautiful home in a beautiful part of the world. I am blessed".

A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: "The events described by Caroline are awful and should never be an environment any child has to experience.

"Whilst we cannot answer for a council and a social services regime that no longer exist, we are pleased to see that Caroline has received some form of justice but recognise that this does not remove the impact of the abuse experienced as a child.

"A search for historic files associated with this case was undertaken following a request received from the police.

"Three separate and extensive searches were undertaken in 2020, 2022 and 2023 but were unable to identify any records that matched the details given by police.

"The protocols often in place over 40 years ago meant that when an individual left the local authority area, their case files were transferred to the council for the area the person moved to.

"Every effort to support the police in their investigations has been taken and should any further support be required we will again fully engage with that process."

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