Cries Unheard by Gitta Sereny

Pieces together the damaged life of Mary Bell, who aged 11 was tried and convicted of manslaughter after the death of two young boys. Only as an adult has she been able to realize the moral enormity of her crimes...

This was truly disturbing. Not only the fact that she killed the two boys, which is integral to the book, but not what the book is about. The book is about what led up to her killing the boys [after all, what would drive a child to kill an unknown toddler?] and what happened to her afterwards. At what age do children become criminally responsible - which means they are tried in an adult court. In Scotland, it's as young as 8. How is a child that young supposed to understand why it's there and what's going on? If the child's only contact with a psychologist is a brief meeting where they decide whether or not the child can tell right from seriously wrong, how can they possibly make any judgements on the child? How can they convict one child as guilty and another as not-guilty simply because the one has a loving family and the other doesn't?

One would hope that since Mary Bell was convicted in 1968 that the system had radically changed with new, progressive knowledge. At the time this book was published [1999] it hadn't. After all - who cares about the people [adults and children] that aren't happy and whole. If they're damaged, just push them away and ignore them... Like I said, this is a very distubring book. I never realised that there are actually people who completely deny the existence of paedophilia. If you're squeamish, don't read it. It's not particularly gruesome or gory, but I couldn't put it down and every time I did [even when I finished it] I was miserable and depressed about the state of the world and wanted nothing more than to hide in the bed and cry.

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