Though it was never proven that the man called ‘Michael’ had ever touched Nathan and Jodie sexually, he was returned to prison anyway for breaking the terms of his discharge, in inviting the children into his flat. As for Nathan’s father, though he admitted to having perhaps being ‘heavy-handed’ with his discipline, no charges were ever brought against him for either violence or sexual offences, and Nathan’s bruises remained unexplained. He did admit when interviewed, however, that he and Nathan did both sleep together on a mattress in his bedroom, while his wife slept on the floor in the other. For this reason, though Nathan was returned home some months later, he remained on the ‘at-risk’ list, and his mother and stepfather were ordered to attend parenting classes.
As for Nathan himself, he was moved to another school, the educational psychologist’s report having made the recommendation that a specialist unit might be better suited to his complex mental-health needs. It would be eight years before I next saw him. By that time, aged 19, he had come out as gay and seemed happy; he had a job in retail and was living with his boyfriend. I didn’t ask him about his father.
And, as for me, well, I learned some valuable lessons. That you really can only do what you can do, when you can, and that real life is different from stories. Sometimes you have to accept you won’t get all the answers. The main lesson I learned, however, would take a while to filter through: that a new career, down the line, had started beckoning …