Survivor’s story

I grew up amongst a family who were involved with a cult, there was nobody in the family who wasn’t involved. The teachers at my school were involved so would watch me at school to make sure I never told anyone.

I was abused every day by my mum and dad, and would be taken to parties and sold to other people for days at a time. I had to go to the rituals that the cult held, and they would make me take part in what they did.

Sometimes my mum would see me getting really upset, so would say she would help, and took me to see a doctor, or talk to someone like a counsellor, or therapist. These people would ask me lots of questions over and over. I was really frightened and ashamed to tell them, because I had always been told that nobody would believe me. Or that everyone would think I was evil for doing the things the cult made me do. After I had been seeing them for a while I started to trust and would answer their questions, then they would go back to my mum and dad and tell them what I had said, and I would get really badly punished.

I found out years later that the people I had been taken to see were also members of the cult, and had been paid to do what they had done. I learned over years of tricks and punishment that it wasn’t safe to trust or talk to anyone….especially the ones who promised me it was safe to talk to them, the one’s I was supposed to trust”