The physical assault on our nephew of the previous evening was so very shocking; it was an extraordinary attack: unprovoked and wicked. Mercifully it did not end, as it could have done, in a greater tragedy — a little more force, pressure on a certain point in the neck? — there was a complete lack of any attempt at control, and the pain and the bruising were severe; luckily the intervention of others brought the episode to an end. (Although her son did report Jim Perrin’s attack on him to the police the following day.)
What could Jim Perrin do after such a display of fury and violence? How could he now redeem himself?
He locked himself in his caravan and would not come out…
* * * * *
He would not at first communicate at all, until finally, speaking to our sister by telephone from his caravan to the house, he threatened to commit suicide. For hours that day he put our sister and her daughter through the most intense emotional turmoil: clearly, he was quite unbalanced, and indulging himself in hysteria…
Our niece, when in her bedroom later, heard her mother crying and sobbing in her own room and went along the corridor. It was apparent from what she overheard that Jim Perrin was threatening to kill himself and that her mother was pleading with him to do no such thing — yet, young as she was, uncertain and fearing to intrude she waited awhile outside the bedroom door rather than go into her mother’s room.