There was only one woman who testified in court that day. But six people spoke from her mouth. Six different personalities who testified about the extreme abuse he suffered (as).
"I went to court, I sat down, I swore and a few hours later I got back in my body and left," Jeni Haynes told the BBC. Its story causes shock and horror and haunts anyone who reads it.
As a child, Jeni was repeatedly raped and tortured by her father Richard Haynes. Australian police say their case is one of the worst sexual abuse a child the country has ever seen.
To manage the horror caused by what was happening to her horribly, Jeni's mind used an extreme tactic: She created multiple identities to distract herself from the pain. The abuse was so extreme and so long that Jeni's mind eventually formed 2.500 different personalities in order for the girl to survive.
When she was in court in March, Jeni confronted her father to present evidence against him in court, through many of her personalities - including a 4-year-old girl named Symphony. It is believed to be the first case in Australia, and possibly worldwide, in which a victim diagnosed with Multiple personality disorder testifies with many of his personalities, and the testimony leads to the conviction of the perpetrator.
"We were not afraid. "We waited a long time to tell everyone exactly what he did to us and how he could no longer shut my mouth," said Jeni herself.
On September 6, 74-year-old Richard Haynes was sentenced by a Sydney court to 45 years in prison.
The Haynes family moved from Bexleyheath, London to London Australia, in 1974. Jeni was then four but her father had already started abusing her. In Sydney, abuse escalated into almost daily sadistic "attacks."
"The abuse by my father was calculated and planned. "He was voluntary and enjoyed every moment of it himself," Jeni told the court. In fact, she waived her right not to reveal her details, due to the nature of the case, in order to disclose the identity of the perpetrator, her father. "He heard me begging him to stop, he heard me cry, he saw the pain and terror he was causing me, he saw the blood and all the damage he was causing. And the next day he chose to do it all over again. "
Haynes had convinced his daughter that he could read her mind and threatened to kill her mother, brother and sister, and only if she was thinking of abusing her, let alone daring to tell them anything.
"My inner life was invaded by my father. "I did not feel safe even in my own head," Jeni described. "I could no longer look at what was happening to me and draw my own conclusions." And so she began to compose her thoughts through lyrics, trying to hide them so that her father would not discover them.
Her father kept her school activities to a minimum, in order to reduce any chance of an adult understanding what was happening. Jeni has learned to be silent because if someone "saw" her - when, for example, the swimming teacher approached her father to talk to him about her natural talent - punishment awaited her.
Her father also denied her medical care for her wood wounds and sexual abuse, which turned into lifelong problems.
At 49 today, Jeni has serious problems, which are not reversed, in vision, jaw, intestine, anus and coccyx. He had to undergo major surgeries to deal with them, even a colostomy.
Η abuse continued until Jeni was 11 years old, when her family returned to Britain. Shortly afterwards, in 1984, her parents divorced. She believes that no one, not even her mother, knew what torture she was going through.
Jeni disorder is also called identity disorder and, as experts say, is closely linked to cases of extreme child abuse in a supposedly safe environment.
"BTI is really a survival strategy," Dr Pam Stavropoulos, a child trauma specialist, told the British network. "It's a well-thought-out management strategy that is considered extreme. "But we have to remember that it is the response to the extreme abuse and trauma that a child has suffered."
The younger the trauma is recorded and the more extreme the abuse, the more likely a child is to resort to the BTI to manage the situation, resulting in the creation of these "multiple selves".
The first personality Jeni developed was Symphony, a 4-year-old girl who lives, as she says, in her own time. "She suffered every minute from being abused by Dad, and when she abused me, Jeni's daughter, she was actually abusing the Symphony," Jeni told the BBC.
As the years went by, Symphony itself developed other personalities to withstand the abuse. Each of the hundreds of personalities he developed had a specific role in relation to some element of the abuse, whether it was a specific horrific act or it provoked a reaction to images and smells.
"A copy was coming out of the back of Symphony's head and taking the disorientation," Jeni told the BBC. "My copies were my defenses against my father."
Half an hour after the start of the discussion with the British network, Symphony makes its appearance. Jeni has warned that this could happen and there is a typical reaction before the transition: Jeni is struggling to articulate a reason.
"Hello, I'm Symphony. "Jeni is in a difficult position, I will talk to you about all this, if you do not mind," she says quickly.
Symphony's voice is thinner, more girlish, and speaks very fast. Her memories of the abuse, "Daddy's wickedness", as she says, are detailed, even though years have passed.
"What I did was do what I thought was important to me, what was important and I loved it, I hid it from my dad so that when he abused me it was as if he was not abusing a thinking human being," explains Symphony.
The apparent alternation of parallel personalities is obvious and creepy in the interview given by Jeni in 60 minutes Australia.
Last March, Jeni testified in court as a Symphony and five more of her parallel personalities, each describing a different aspect of the abuse. The hearing was attended by only one judge, because the lawyers considered that the case was too traumatic for a jury to hear it.
Haynes initially faced 367 charges, including several counts of rape, rape despite nature and indecency against a child under 10 years. Jeni, with her different personalities, provided the court with details of each of the attacks she had received. The multiple personalities helped her to retain memories that in another case may have been erased due to the trauma. Prosecutors had summoned psychologists and BTI experts to court to discuss Jeni's condition and the credibility of her allegations.
"My memories, with the BTI, are clear and today as they were on the day they were created," she told the BBC. "Our memories just froze in time, if I need them I just go back and bring them back," he added, alternating first singular and first plural person.
The Symphony was to describe "in frightening detail" the crimes committed during the family's stay in Australia. Muscles, an 18-year-old strong man, reported the physical abuse, while Linda, an elegant young woman, testified about the effects the abuse had on school life and the girl's relationships.
About two and a half hours after the start of the Symphony's trial, on the second day of the trial, Jeni's father changed his mind and pleaded guilty to 25 of the "worst" charges, Jeni said.
"It's a landmark case, because, as far as we know, it is the first time that the filing of different personalities with BTI has been properly taken into account before court "They even led to a conviction," said Dr Cathy Kezelman, president of the Blue Knot Foundation, an Australian organization that helps people with childhood trauma.
Jeni first spoke about the abuse she suffered in 2009. It took ten years of police investigation to convict and imprison Richard Hayne.
He was extradited to Darlington, Northeast England in 2017, where he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for another crime. He lived with distant relatives of Jeni, to whom he told that his daughter was a liar and manipulative.
Ever since she learned of the abuse, Jeni's mother, who divorced her father in 1984, has been a steadfast supporter of her cause as she seeks justice.
But for decades Jeni found it difficult to get help for what she had suffered. She says counselors and psychotherapists rejected her because her story was either accepted with disbelief or was so traumatic that they could not handle it.
-Cutting off- disconnecting from yourself or the world is considered a normal response to wound.
-BT can also be triggered if a person, especially a child, needs to live with a complex trauma for a long time.
-The absence of adult support, or the challenge from an adult who says that the trauma does not exist, contributes to the appearance of BTI.
-A person with BTI may feel that he has multiple selves who think, act or speak differently or may even have conflicting memories and experiences.
-There is no medication, experts mainly use psychotherapy to help those who suffer.
"The nature of the disorder is such that it causes distrust, doubt and embarrassment for the causes that cause it. "Partly because people find it hard to believe that children can be subjected to such extreme abuse," explains Dr. Stavropoulos. "That's why Jeni's case is so important, because it raises awareness of this very difficult but not uncommon disorder that is not yet fully accepted."
Jeni says that the BTI saved her life and soul. But at the same time, this disorder, as well as her trauma, have caused her great difficulties. He has spent his life studying, has a master's degree and a doctorate in law and philosophy, but finds it difficult to stay in a full-time job. She lives with her mother and they both rely on welfare benefits.
In her statement, Jeni states that she and her personalities "have spent our lives worrying, constantly on the lookout. We need to hide our diversity and fight for consistency in behavior, attitude, discussion and beliefs, which is often impossible. Having 2.500 different voices, opinions and mentalities is something very difficult to manage. I should not have to live like that. "Don't forget, my father caused me this disorder."
In court, Jeni sat a few meters away from her father, to see him sentenced to 45 years in prison. Haynes, who is in fragile health, must have spent at least 33 years in prison before he has the opportunity to request release from prison.
Announcing the sentence, Judge Sarah Huggett said Haynes was expected to die in prison. His crimes, he said, were utterly horrific and heinous, but it was impossible for the conviction to capture the degree of evil it had caused.
"I definitely want my story to be told," Jeni told the BBC. "I want my ten-year struggle for justice to pave the way for people. If you suffer from BTI as a result of abuse, the justice it is now possible. You can go to the police, tell your story and become credible. "Your diagnosis is no longer an obstacle to the administration of justice."
- Muscles: He is a teenager who looks like Billy Idol. He is tall, wears clothes that show off his fit hands, he is calm and protective.
- Volcano: He is very tall and strong and dressed from top to toenails in black leather. She has long blond hair.
- Ricky: He is only eight years old but wears a gray suit. His hair is red and short.
- Judas: He is short with red hair. He wears a gray suit and a green sweater. He always seems ready to speak.
- Linda / Maggot: She is tall and slender, she wears a skirt from the 50's and her hair is held high.
- Rick: He wears huge glasses, the same ones that Richard Haynes wore. They are bigger than his whole face.