Heart Of Darkness

Though the almost unimaginable hell endured in her inescapable memories, Lynette is a survivor. Through her great courage she is now able to tell her own shocking story of multiple incest, multiple rapes and of being lured into an ectreme child sex ring. Her story is horrifying and desperately sad and, in her own moving words, she speaks of her battle with the past and of those responsible for the evil which ruined it. Bt it is also a story with a message of hope. Lynette Gould, a once carefree and happy girl, suffered repeatedly at the hands of her own wicked father. After her father was imprisoned for his monstrous acts, Lynette's mother fell into a relationship with what seemed a friendly and caring man - just what the family so desperately needed. But, disastrously for Lynette, he had a mind as evil as his predecessor. Taking up where Lynette's natural father left off, he subjected her to even more sexual abuse which lasted for years. Eventually he too was arrested, but committed suicide before he could be convicted - robbing Lynette of a vital sense of closure. That nightmare world of systematic abuse that tore Lynette's world apart never seemed to end; and she was lured into a child sex ring, where cold-blooded adults callously took advantage of her crushed body and spirit. What followed was a chain of care homes and attempted suicides that drove the deeply troubled adolescent to the very edge of madness. Bouts of vicious self-harm left he rbody with scars which continue to bear silent winess to her incredible torment. But Lynette's life was pulled back from the brink of oblivion by the patient dedication and enduring friendship of child counsellor, out of which salvation tentatively sprang.

Lynette Gould was born in 1979 and grew up in Preston. Despite yers of awful potentially life-ruining abuse she now has a successful career and lives with her husband and daughter. Stephen Richards has written and co-writter a wide range of bestsellers.