Killer Women by Wensley Clarkson Read Free Book Online Page B

the village green.
    Two hundred years ago Stonham Parva provided Suffolk smugglers with a perfect stopping-off pointen route inland after hauling their illicit goods ashore on the East Anglian coastline but the smugglers had long gone when teacher Vic Copperman bought one of the picturesque Georgian houses that skirt the village and decided to turn it into the Four Elms Children’s Home.
    Copperman’s plans met with the approval of everyone concerned, from the local council to the authorities in the south east of England and London who would provide twelve troubled youngsters. None of the locals objected as the home seemed an admirable project and the vast amount of land attached to the house meant that there would be little danger of Four Elms affecting the peace and tranquillity of the village.
    The children who moved into the home were in desperate need of love, care and attention. All were from broken homes where they had either suffered at the hands of abusive parents or simply been rejected.
    By the time thirteen-year-old Joanne was enrolled in the school in the early 1980s, owner Vic Copperman seemed to be running an excellent establishment. As headmistress, he had drafted in a rather over-made-up blonde called Thea Trevelyan but the authorities who used the home as a filter for their most troubled youngsters were impressed with the place.
    Joanne’s background was particularly tragic. As a little girl of seven she had been removed from the family home after her mother, Dee Washington, had a nervous breakdown following the break-up of her second marriage and because she simply could not cope.
    Dee was riddled with guilt for failing to support her daughter but she was advised to start a new life and let Joanne settle into a home because there was a definite feeling that Dee might have further mental problems.
    Dee then started to rebuild her own life. She developed an interest in shooting and became a top markswoman, even qualifying as an international referee for clay pigeon events.
    However, she never forgot Joanne. She kept wondering how her daughter was surviving; what her life was like without a proper mother. Dee even went to her local authorities and asked them if she could visit her daughter with a view to maybe taking care of her again. The authorities contacted Vic Copperman at Four Elms to ask him his expert opinion as he was the only parental figure in Joanne’s life at that point.
    Copperman responded in an extremely sensitive way. He calmly and sensibly explained that he felt it would be ill-advised for Joanne to see her mother. Copperman told the authorities that Joanne wasmore settled than she had ever been before in her short and troubled life and that to reintroduce her mother for a few hours might set her development back years.
    Dee was disappointed but understood the sentiments being expressed as she had suffered an unhappy, abusive childhood herself and the last thing she wanted was to add to her daughter’s suffering.
    Dee eventually grew to accept that it was probably best if she did not see her daughter again until she reached adulthood. It was a heart-wrenching decision but under the circumstances it seemed the only answer.
    By October 1987, Joanne had grown into an attractive blonde teenager of nineteen, still in the care of Copperman and his headmistress Thea Trevelyan at Four Elms. She began to express a wish to meet her family. She was naturally curious about her background but it was decided that perhaps the best person for her to meet first would be her grandmother in Devon. A few weeks later, Joanne headed off to the West Country for a short stay.
    Within days of arriving in Devon, Joanne started to drop hints about certain ‘things’ that had been happening at Four Elms. Her grandmother was puzzled about exactly what she meant until she laid it on the line: Joanne had been sexually abusedvirtually since the first day she had arrived at the children’s home as a thirteen-year-old