International Women�s Day

Alison Hume Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to make a contribution to this debate on International Women�s Day. I am proud to be the first woman to represent my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby.

In my acceptance speech, I pledged to play my part in ending the epidemic of violence against women and girls, and to see the very first women�s refuge built in North Yorkshire. Today, I rise to pay tribute to a constituent who has spent a lifetime overcoming what happened to her as a young girl to become an outspoken survivor and an advocate for victims of child sexual abuse. When I say �a lifetime�, I mean a lifetime. Abused at 10, Suzzanne buried what had happened to her to build a successful career and raise a family. She told me that it was only once her children had grown up and left home that she felt able to deal with what had happened to her. At 48, she went to the police. When she was 50, and after a very traumatic and drawn-out investigation and trial, the perpetrator was sentenced to 13 years. Such perpetrators serve only half of their sentences in prison, and he is due to be released in the summer.

As a childminder and early years inspector, Suzzanne loves where she lives. Of course she does�it is her home. But as she waits for the decision of the Parole Board, she is planning to sell her home, because when her abuser is released, he will move back to his family home, which is a few streets away from her�a house that she has to walk past to reach her parents� home. The man who abused my constituent as a child will live literally two streets away from her, in a house that is a three-minute walk from her home, a mere 322 metres away, and visible from her upstairs rooms. Understandably, she cannot face the thought of coming face to face with her abuser.

Suzzanne told me that she was very fortunate to have been signposted to IDAS, a specialist charity supporting victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. She says that without its support, she would have taken her own life. Why should a man who has abused a child in their close neighbourhood be allowed to return to live just a few streets away? It goes beyond whether perpetrators are seen as a risk, and it continues the suffering of women and girls who have suffered abuse.

I am sure there are no easy answers, but I pay tribute to Suzzanne for allowing me to share her story. I thank her for her courage. We want women to feel safe on the streets and in their homes, including survivors like Suzzanne.

[Several hon. Members rose�]