Child of Rage

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE

FOR PREVENTION OF CHILD ABUSE

I wanna kill you, I wanna kill

you, mommy, I wanna kill you!

CHILD OF RAGE:

A Story of Abuse

Are people afraid of you, Beth?

- Who's afraid of you, Beth?

- John.

Your brother. And why is

your brother afraid of you?

- Because I hurt him so much.

- Okay.

And what... at night time, what do

your parents do to your door?

- Lock it shut.

- Why did they lock it shut?

Because they don't want

me to hurt John.

Right. And they're kind of afraid of...

of hurting John.

Are you hurting John?

Okay. Are they afraid you

might hurt them?

- Yup.

- Would you, Beth?

When would you do it?

- Night time.

- Okay. Why would you do at night time?

Because I don't like them seeing me do it,

but they can feel me do it.

And what would you

do to them, Beth?

- Stab them.

- Okay. What would you stab on them?

A knife.

The program you are about

to see was compiled

from the actual therapy tapes

of Dr. Ken Magid,

a clinical psychologist specializing

in the treatment of severely abused children

- children so traumatized

in the first years of life

that they do not bond

with other people.

They are children

who cannot love or accept love

- children without conscience

who can hurt or even kill without remorse.

This film shows the devastating effects

of abuse on a child.

It also shows that

victims can be helped.

It is the story of

a six-and-a-half year old girl named Beth.

Do you ever stick

pins in people?

- Who?

- My brother.

- Okay. Do you do it a little bit or a lot?

- A lot.

Okay. And what are you trying to do

to your brother?

- Kill him.

- Why do you want your brother to die?

Because I was hurt so bad and I don't

want to be around people.

Okay. Who else would you like to

stick pins into?

- Mommy and daddy. - What would you

like to have happened to them?

Die.

Tim is the minister of a small

Methodist church in the south.

He and his wife Julie had been

married for twelve years.

Unable to have children of their own,

they decided to adopt.

In February of 1984, they received a call

from the Department of Social Services

telling them they had two children

available for adoption.

They were told that Beth, 19 months old,

and her brother Jonathan, 7 months old,

were normal and healthy.

We did not need children

to make our lives complete.

We've got security in ourselves and

security in our relationship, but we

wanted to share that with somebody else,

and we felt like we had a lot to pass on

to a child, and that was what we really

wanted to do and when the phone call came,

it was like, "At last it's here!"

And we think like a miracle

what happened, was so quick.

We'd heard of couples that

had to wait 5, 10 years on... on a child,

and here we had two young children, and

it was like they answered to our dream.

Their dream became a nightmare when they

realized that Beth and Jonathan had

severe emotional problems.

We had the kids with us...

Beth and her younger

brother John for... probably a couple of

months until we began to learn something

about their background and their past,

and when we learned it... something's

seemed to fall into place about

her behavior and John's behavior...

From several sources, we discovered that...

that they didn't have enough food to eat...

that perhaps even Beth went all day

maybe with just a box of kix cereal.

John himself was found in a bassinet

with whole patches appearing

all over him and a dirty diaper

and a couple of bottles at his feet.

They had curdled milk and the back

of his head was completely flat.

The front of his head, it balds down

and he, at seven months,

he couldn't raise his head,

he couldn't roll over.

He was... just had no

stimulation and... we think

perhaps that it happened to Beth

and it wasn't very long until

she began showing some signs

of perhaps... even some abuse.

There was a nightmare that she had.

The nightmare was

about... a man

who was falling on her and...

hurting her with a part of himself.

Tell me about your birth father,

what was that nightmare like?

- When he touched my vagina.

- Okay.

And so it bled, hurt it a lot

and so it bled

and... would pain me a lot,

he'd hit on me, wouldn't be

very nice to me.

- How old were you?

- One.

- And, in your nightmare, what happens?

- I get real scared.

Where are you in the nightmare and

what happens in the dream?

- I'm in the house, upstairs.

- And then what happens there?

When he comes upstairs

and... hurts me.

How do you feel

when you talk about this?

- Scared.

- Where is your birth... where is your

birth father? What's he doing?

- He's right there and there's his hand,

his hand's right there. - Where?

- Right there. He can't hold it to you

because it's green.

- What's it touching? - My vaginas.

- And what is your birth father doing?

- Hurtin' it.

Your face looks... sad. Can you

you tell me about that?

Beth's crying, that's... that's...

that's all the tears.

Beth had endured severe neglect

and abuse as a child.

Her birth mother died

when she was one.

Because of this early

childhood experiences,

Beth never developed

the sense of conscience,

love, or trust for anyone.

The earliest sexual abuse

by her birth father

would cause her to exhibit

inappropriate sexual behavior

especially toward her brother.

Does your brother have

private parts?

Yeah.

- Yeah, what are his private parts?

- Penis and butt.

And what do you do with your

brother? With his private parts, Beth.

- I hurt it.

- Tell me about it, what do you do?

Well... I pinch it...

Squeeze it... kick it.

When you do things to your brother's

private parts, what does he say?

- Stop.

- Can you tell me about that?

- Well, he says stop but I don't stop.

- Do you hurt him?

A lot.

Okay. And, would you like

to do that to other boys?

When I caught her with Jonathan

one morning she was molesting him,

He was crying and his pants were down

and I said, "Beth, what's happening?",

and she said, "I pulled his penis and

put my finger up his anus",

and I said, "Didn't he say to stop?",

and she said, "Yeah, he did".

And I said, "Did you?",

she said, "No".

Have you ever rubbed

your private parts?

- Do you do it a lot?

- A lot.

How much do you do that?

Not every single day... and I did...

I did it every single day

until it got real bad and

I stopped and I had to get to the

doctor and I did not like it.

What do you mean by real bad?

Well, it looked real raw...

got all kinds of bruises on it

germs, dirty stuff from my hand...

- And it bled?

She started to masturbate

in inappropriate times.

I remember

one time perfectly,

when we were at the hospital waiting

for Tim to come out, he was there visiting

and Beth and John were in the backseat

not turned around and she had her

legs spread and was masturbating

in a public parking lot,

and I had tried to explain to her numerous

times before that that's private area,

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