Emily picked up the phone when she was alone in the house. Her father had been frightening her, and while she spoke to the ChildLine operator the 11-year-old nervously listened out for the jangle of his keys.
The operator told Emily his name was James. "Do you feel OK about talking to me?" he asked.
Emily said she was, but that she had never told anyone about this before. James told her ChildLine wanted her to be safe and wanted to help her. Reassured, Emily began to reveal her harrowing day-to-day existence.
"It's been happening since mum left," she said. "Dad started hitting me a lot. It's been hard because we don't have as much money, and dad is tired all the time."
James asked what Emily meant by "hitting a lot". At first it was a couple of hard slaps, she said, but it soon got worse. She had worked out that her dad's visits to the pub made him violent - and that the longer he spent in the pub, the more violent he'd be on his return.
James told her that what was happening to her was wrong. "You shouldn't be getting hit," he said, "and it isn't your fault."
The last straw
Emily cried and told James she must have done something wrong. Why else would her dad be hitting her? "I've only got my dad," she said, "and I love him – he's not a bad person."
Until that day, Emily had been scared that someone would take her away from her father if she spoke out. But that morning was the last straw: he had locked her up in the house. He wouldn't let her go to school because he had given her a black eye the night before.
Emily spent the day alone thinking about what he was going to do to her when he got back. She realised she couldn't bear it any longer and found the courage to ring ChildLine. "I just wanted to make it stop," she said.
Last year over half a million children rang ChildLine. With one-sixth of youngsters experiencing serious maltreatment by parents and one third being a victim of bullying at some stage in their lives, this anonymous, 24-hour helpline for children in distress or danger is crucial.
ChildLine is one of two helpline services run by the NSPCC. The other, NSPCC Helpline, is for adults who are concerned about the welfare of a child. It provides specialised support, advice, counselling and information. Between July 2006 and July 2007, it received 120,114 calls. In many cases, intervention by an adult has been instrumental in making abuse stop.
Why the NSPCC needs your help
But the charity wants to do more and has just launched the Child's Voice Appeal as a result. The appeal is designed to fund the development of ChildLine and the NSPCC Helpline, so more children are heard and helped.
By 2011 the NSPCC Helpline wants to increase its capacity to provide support on the phone by 58%. The number of email responses Helpline staff sends out stands at 9,000 per year right now; the aim is to raise that number to 44,000.
As for ChildLine it hopes to increase the number of calls it handles every year from 607,000 to over a million. It is also keen to open up more channels of communication; ChildLine services could soon be available online and via SMS.
And resources are what matter; money means that their capacity for answering cries for help will be increased dramatically - more centres, more staff and more volunteers like James.
James told Emily that ChildLine could help her be safe that night and explained that he wanted to contact social services. Emily agreed, but said she was terrified of what would happen next. She didn't want to get hit.
James, having asked her for her address, stayed on the phone with her while police entered the locked house and took her to safety. Emily now lives with her grandmother.
It costs £4 to answer a call at ChildLine. Readers can help both ChildLine and the NSPCC Helpline by donating to the Child's Voice Appeal. Just £10 per month could help save two children like Emily from violence, from sexual abuse, even from death. Please make a donation now.
Message from the NSPCC: This case draws on what children tell ChildLine, but does not describe a specific case.
