Eighteen weeks, suspended for eighteen months, and a restraining order with a five-year term.
She has not seen my daughter. She has sent eleven cards.
And the thing people in this town cannot get their heads round, including two of my own cousins, is that I gave evidence.
I stood in a witness box and was asked by a barrister whether my mother had ever been violent in my presence before, and I said no, and that was the truth and it did not help anybody.
And then I was asked about the Sunday phone calls, and about the notebook, and I had to read three of my own sentences out loud in a courtroom with my mother eleven feet away.
And the three hours at Harrowmill, which I have not described properly and which are the only part Maia has asked me to include.
She was seen at twenty-five past eight. The baby was monitored for two hours and was absolutely fine, which is the first thing anybody asks and which I should have said four pages ago.
The bl00d was from her mouth, not from anywhere worse. A small tear, from a bone, dealt with by a doctor in about four minutes.
