When you’re a child and something unspeakable happens that takes a parent away from you, we imagine you would hope there are laws in place to protect your safety and well-being as you try and move forward. Unfortunately, that’s not always going to be the case, even when something horrific takes place within your own family. A woman in England has to carry the incredibly painful memory of watching her father repeatedly stab her mother to death when she was just 3 years old. What might shock you even more is that she was forced to move back in with him after he completed a four-year prison sentence.
A 36-year-old woman says she had to move back in with her dad as a child after he served a prison sentence for killing her mom.
In 1992, Gemma Ahern was 3 years old when she saw her father fatally stab her mother 36 times with a pair of scissors, the BBC reported. Ahern says that at the time of her death, her mother had been seeing someone else. Her father claimed to have no memory of the brutal attack and was cleared of murder charges but was found guilty of manslaughter during a trial, for which he served four years in prison.
After the murder of her mother, Carol Quinton, who was just 36 years old at the time of her death, Ahern lived with her grandparents for a couple of years before being required to live with her father again once he was out of prison, Leader Live reported.
Ahern’s only memory of her mother is from the day of her death when her father “came downstairs and grabbed a big pair of tailoring scissors from the [drawer]. [She] followed upstairs and saw him stab [her] mom 35 more times,” Leader Live reported.
That is beyond terrifying.
Ahern explained that it wasn’t until a few years ago that she really “stepped away from her father,” per Leader Live. “He manipulated me, blaming my mom for what happened. He was able to control the narrative,” she shared.
Even though her father was responsible for her mother’s murder, he kept parental rights, which many argue shouldn’t happen.
According to the BBC, after she briefly stayed with her maternal grandparents, her father decided that his daughter should live with his parents before his release from prison. Throughout her childhood, he continued to have full parental responsibility for her, and she was raised by her father and stepmother.
“When I was given back to him as a child at that age, I didn’t have the ability to process what had happened,” Ahern told Leader Live. She told the BBC that “throughout this whole thing” there hasn’t been a time where her “wellbeing has been put before [her] dad’s.”
Now, as an adult, Ahern sees things more clearly and is calling for Jade’s Law to help protect children in similar situations.
Jade’s Law would strip someone of their parental rights when they kill their partner.
According to the BBC, the law was campaigned for by the family of Jade Ward, who was murdered by her ex-partner in 2021. Even though it has been passed by Parliament, the new law, which would aim to strip someone who kills an ex-partner of their parental rights over their children, it has still not been implemented.
The Ministry of Justice has said that it’s “committed to implementing Jade’s Law as swiftly and safely as possible,” per the BBC. Sadly, it doesn’t appear to be happening at the rate in which it should.
As an adult, Ahern is still feeling the aftermath of having to live with a father who killed her mother. “My childhood was all about suppressing everything,” Ahern explained, per the BBC. “When I started to understand everything better, that’s when I really struggled with my mental health.” She notes that when all that “trauma” hit her, she was diagnosed with PTSD and ADHD as a direct result.
We cannot imagine having to grow up in a household that feels so intrinsically violent at its core. We hope the UK government implements Jade’s Law as soon as possible.
