Rob Parsons

Well, when we were kids, some of the kids in my street went to a little church, a Sunday school.

And one day, Miss Williams, the Sunday school teacher, said, next week there's a new boy coming, and you better be kind to him.

He doesn't have a mum and dad like you, lives in something called a care home, and we're going to pick him up from the care home and bring him to Sunday school.

And when Ronnie arrived, he's a couple of years older than us, and he was unusual.

First thing he did was hide Miss Williams' handbag.

Second thing he did was put my friend Cecil in a headlock.

He was a bit unusual.

And then when he was 11, he disappeared.

We didn't see him for five years.

When I was researching my book, I discovered he'd been sent to a home 200 miles away.

that the report described as disgracefully for subnormal boys.

He was there for five years.

And eventually that school was closed down because the carers had sexually abused the kids and they were imprisoned.

But Ronnie comes back at 16 and occasionally he would drop into a youth club I ran and then you wouldn't see him again.

But now it's two days before Christmas and he's on my front door.

He's found out where I live.

And he's got all his worldly possessions in a black plastic bag.

29, 30.

Oh, probably... Well, I used to see him around the best.

You'd see him around, you know?