Children thought ritual beatings and humiliation 'was normal' » Communities » 24dash.com

One of the children who suffered horrific abuse at the hands of his foster mother finally realised he was being mistreated after reading the best-selling book A Child Called 'It'.

The 18-year-old and two girls under the woman's care had until then regarded the sadistic punishments meted out to them by Eunice Spry as normal and even routine.

But Dave Pelzer's harrowing memoir made him think for the first time that other children were not beaten, starved and humiliated like they had been.

Their experiences shared a striking and disturbing similarity to Pelzer's traumatic upbringing.

His book tells the story of how he suffered terrible physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his alcoholic mother.

Pelzer was repeatedly beaten, starved and degraded by her and eventually forced to live in the basement when he was just eight years old after being ostracised by the family.

And just like the siblings who bravely gave evidence against Spry at Bristol Crown Court, Pelzer was also forced to eat his own vomit, dog faeces and swallow soap.

The dehumanising of Pelzer, who was one of five brothers, continued until his mother simply referred to her son as "It".

Pelzer was finally rescued at the age of 12 by teachers at his Californian school in 1973 and taken into foster care.

The haunting story became an unlikely hit and sold more than four million copies worldwide.

During the trial, each of the children who gave evidence against Spry were asked if they had read the book and the teenager - known as Victim C - - admitted he had.

"She really didn't like me reading books like that," he told the jury.

"I was reading it without her blessing. I had taken it from her room."

The defence implied the allegations bore such a close resemblance to those described by Pelzer that he had simply used the book to create a "fantasy land" of cruelty claims against his strict mother.

This was strongly denied.

Ironically it was Spry herself who had bought the book. She later told the jury: "I never thought it would be something that would interest them."

Pelzer's graphic survival story opened the Gloucestershire teenager's eyes and helped him end his own gruesome nightmare.

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