Battered, Broken, Healed

Can foster carer Maggie Hartley help a young mother escape her abusive husband to be a mummy to her baby daughter?

When six-week-old Jasmine is placed into her care, foster mother Maggie Hartley is delighted to have a baby in the house again. Maggie's been given temporary custody of Jasmine after social services were concerned that the baby was failing to thrive and develop. Her mother Hailey vehemently denies that anything is wrong, however, and social services allow her to have daily supervised visits with Jasmine.

Baby Jasmine is a joy to be around, but Maggie suspects that all is not quite as it seems with her mum. Timid and extremely quiet, Maggie struggles to draw Hailey out of her shell and fears that she may be suffering with postnatal depression.

Then one day a terrified Hailey turns up on Maggie's doorstep with her hair streaked with blood and her body covered in bruises. Breaking down, she admits that she is being abused by her violent husband, and is too afraid to leave him.

Maggie realises that the only way mother and daughter will be reunited is if Hailey admits what's going on behind closed doors and leaves her husband. But after years of physical and psychological abuse, that's easier said than done...

About the Author

Maggie Hartley has fostered more than 300 children while being a foster carer for over twenty years. Taking on the children other carers often can't cope with, Maggie helps children that are deemed 'unadoptable' because of their behaviour or the extreme trauma that they've been through. She's looked after refugees, supported children through sexual abuse and violence court cases, cared for teenagers on remand and taught young mums how to parent their newborn babies.