Who Trolled Amber? - Kicking Off | Careless Ep 2

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

Nkechi is frustrated by the lack of clarity and delays from the council. She seeks advice from the poet, Lemn Sissay, who also grew up in care. A lawyer recommends she should go bananas. Reported by Ashley John-Baptiste and Madeleine ParrProduced and written by Madeleine ParrSound design by Simon Panayi Artwork by Jon Hill The editor is Jasper CorbettCareless is a 4 part original series from Tortoise Investigates and The Observer.To binge listen to all episodes today, ad-free, subscribe to The Observer.Or subscribe to Observer+ on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to listen to all our podcasts, including this one, without any ads. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tortus Investigates. Hi, it's Bashar Cummings here from The Observer. Before we get going, I just wanted to let you know that to listen to the full investigation, you'll need to subscribe to the Observer, where you can get access to all of our Tortus Investigates podcast series. It's really easy to subscribe. You can sign up on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify or directly atobserver.com. If you're already a subscriber, just link your account.

Thanks, as ever, for listening. Thanks for calling Camden Council. We're currently having technical problems, and our staff only have limited system access, so they may not be able to assist you when you get through. It's making our wait times longer too, so you may prefer to try again later. Good morning.

Please say the name of the person or department you wish to contact. Information and records? Was that switchboard? No, records. Please say the name of another person or department. And for anything else, just hold the line. Or to hear these options again, just press the star key. For building control, it's one.

This is so annoying already. Birth, tests, marriages and citizenship are on three. To get help with transport, including freedom passes and blue badges, pick four. Four electoral services choose five. If you need recycling, rubbish, street cleaning, services or pest control press six to speak to the operator please press seven and to hear those options again just press the good morning this is a contact camden you're speaking to the switchboard service how can i help you today hi or um basically i'm just trying to find somebody i can speak to about a subject

access request that i've submitted um i'm just trying to get an update but i'm trying to find the right person to speak to. So when you say subject access request for what? So for my records? Neketchi's being remarkably calm given how bureaucratic this process is proven to be. I remember trying to get my files in my early 20s. I had left the care system

and I was living alone in a council flat with barely any clue of how to navigate such a faceless and clinical process. I didn't have anyone around to help or guide me. And when I contacted the council, I was always dealing with someone I didn't know. There's something deeply cold and isolating about navigating this particular path of bureaucracy. It's hard to fully put into words, so the best I can do is show you.

When Nakechi DM'd me, I asked her if she would be up for letting me in on her journey to get her, records. It's such a personal thing that I was honestly kind of surprised when she agreed to let us record her. But I shared experience sparked a synergy. What I didn't realize was just what it would take for her to get to that truth. I'm Ashley John Baptiste from Tortus Investigates and the Observer. This is Careless. Episode two kicking off. So back in December 2025, I saw that the Information Commissioner had released a report talking about how difficult it was for young people in care to access their records. And that sort of inspired me even more to try again. I'm in the studio with Nakechi.

And so that same week, I filled out a subject access request form. And in that form, they ask you for your name, your address, your email address, and then they ask you for what you want. and I explained that I wanted the entirety of my care records from childhood and through to leaving care. And they responded quite quickly saying that they'd received my email and they'd received my request. But could they have clarification on what it was I was asking for? It was just before Christmas. Nakechi was busy and felt a bit confused by their request for clarification. you felt that you were quite clear in your request.

I was so clear in my request. I didn't really understand what was difficult. If I want the entirety of my care records from childhood to adulthood, then send me everything. I didn't really understand where clarity was needed. And I think that's what frustrated me and made me feel like, okay, let me get through Christmas and then I can come back to this. In January, she wrote back to the council,

explaining that she wanted everything, every note and report and record kept about her from the beginning of the council's involvement with her to the end. This is a good place for me to explain how these kind of requests tend to work. In the UK, you have a legal right under data protection laws, otherwise known as GDPR, to request access to any personal data, an organisation like a council or employer, holds about you. This includes internal emails and records, as long as you are identified or discussed in them.

By law, organizations must respond to a request like this within one calendar month, but there can be extensions in complex cases. So when Nakechi feels like the council might be dragging its feet a bit, there's a legal deadline looming. When the council does respond to Nakechie's clarification, it's been about 10 days, and they ask for a scan of her passport. So she sends it over one week later. It was so frustrating because I would have expected to fill out a form,

receive a response, and in that response, them very clearly list out what they wanted from me. So that could have been consolidated into one email and one interaction as opposed to several emails back and forth over a number of weeks. The council wasn't counting the time spent getting Nakechi's ID as part of their 30-day deadline. But once she sent it over, Camden replied to her email, saying that the clock had officially started. The 30-day window began ticking down towards the 2nd of March, 26. But there was something else in their response that surprised Nakechi. Please note, we operate a page limit policy, as some requests may involve a large volume of records.

In such cases, we apply a 500 page limit. to ensure we can process and respond within the reasonable timeframes. To assist us in identifying the information you require, we encourage you to be as specific as possible in your request. If your request exceeds the 500-page limit, you may submit a follow-up request, but this can only be made 90 days after receiving your initial response, allowing us to provide an additional batch of up to 500 pages if required.

What was your reaction to that when you read it? What the heck does that even mean? Because is a response my papers or is a response more administrative jargon? Also, how are you going to choose which 500 pages to give me first? Are we going to go chronologically? Are we going to go backwards? Is it going to be the most random 500 pages that they put to? together, why do I have to reapply every 90 days and do it all over again? Because it's just dragging out something quite traumatic and upsetting. Also, that email is signed off by a business support officer, which is crazy because nothing I'm asking for is business related and nothing about that email is supportive. Imagine your whole life up until 22,

condensed into 500 pages. It's pretty hard to conceptualise. 500 pages might seem like a lot, but to have your whole life crammed into those A4 pages seems absurd. But here's the thing. Nakechi has no idea what she doesn't know. She has no way of knowing whether that 500 page limit will cover everything she is hoping to find out or whether she'll have to start the process all over again every three months until she gets all of her own files. But all the catchy can do right now is wait. And it's not an easy wait. She is anticipating finding out details about her life, her care and the people around her

that might not be easy to hear. And then, Ketchy yesterday was the 2nd of March. Yeah. Why is that significant? It is significant because. I had an email from Camden that stated my case had a live date, whatever that means, of the 2nd of February, and they had 30 days to respond, which was the 2nd of March. So Camden were meant to get back to you by yesterday. Yeah.

Have they? No. No, they've not. But I'm not surprised, I won't lie. Why not? I just think, I'm not sure. I just, I think I'm used to being a bit let down by Camden as a local authority. And I'm not surprised that the system is doing what I know it to do best, which is just take the mick.

In the days after the deadline, when I catch up with Nakeechi, I'm starting to feel a little worried about her. She's pretty robust, but the weight is having an impact. The anticipation is making me quite sick. Like, it's hard, you know. Sometimes I'm waking up in a bit of a sweat and I'm like, oh gosh, or I'm refreshing my email. I'm like, am I going to see one from subject access request? And it's a big thing to carry. And then, of course, you push it down and you crack on with life.

And then you do get an email and it kind of feels world shattering because there's so much riding on it all. So, yeah, I don't know if I'm being dramatic or what, but it's intense. It's really intense and it's so much more intense than I thought it would be. The thing is, Camden Council didn't just miss their deadline. They've gone radio silent. I don't hear much from Nakechie over the next few weeks. And then, on the 13th of March, 11 days after the deadline, she calls Madeline my producer. When did you see the email?

I saw it yesterday, but I didn't read it. And then I opened it this morning, and I literally, I was just like, are you joking? I'm going to get the email off. So the email basically says, please accept our sincere apologies on the delay in updating you on the progress of your subject access request. Our service is currently dealing with an influx of high volume of requests, and we're making efforts to manage demand and deal with the matters as quickly as possible. Due to the complexities of your request,

We have had to extend the deadline of the case by two months. Your new deadline is the 12th of May. We would like to assure you that we are actively working to process and respond to your request as soon as possible. In addition, if there is any way in which you are able to refine your request, if there is any information that you are specifically trying to retrieve, please let us know as this may help to expedite your request. Please bear with us.

We thank you for your patience in this matter. Our kind regards. Blah, blah, blah. What does that mean? What does that mean? Because you've apologised not actually for being late. You're just apologising for it taking a long time. And then you're sort of, again, using the word complexities, but that doesn't mean anything without any context. Is complexities the case that my journey through care was complex? So it's hard to gather the information. it says, in addition, if there is any way in which you're able to refine your request, if there's any information that you're specifically trying to retrieve, please let us know

as this may help to expedite your request. No, no, are you taking the piss? To be honest, are you taking the piss out of me? I can't be any more specific because I'm asking for everything. I'm not going to refine my request because I don't have to. I'm entitled as far as I understand to see everything. It makes no sense at all. If I don't know what's in there, if I don't know how much paperwork we're talking about, if I don't know the timeline that we're talking about,

actually, I don't know if social services were involved as far back as early childhood. So I don't know how I can refine my request. Yes. Yeah. By the time the deadline that they're talking about comes around, will be five months into the year. Yeah. How will we this far along?

And I'm still so unsure of what it is I'm getting. Am I waiting for 500 pages or am I waiting for more than that? Are these 500 pages going to be chronological, like as best as they can? Are they picking the highlights of my trauma and my story? are they, I have no understanding or clue as to how they're going to go about this. Yeah, I was going to ask you, like, what are your expectations now? Fucking none. None. The language and lack of urgency in these emails sound a bit like the council is discussing a parking ticket, not a someone's life story.

But I'm also hearing something else in the catchy's frustration. She's not just angry at how many obstacles this process involves. She's beginning to think there's something else going on. Is this them wanting to buy themselves time to look through it and see, like, if there's anything bad in there that they need to sort of work around, it makes them look very guilty. And like they're trying to buy time to cover up and hide and decide what things I'm going to get to see or not. And if that's not the case, then they're not making it look.

otherwise. Of course, there could be a more straightforward explanation. Local councils are hard-pressed. A lot of them are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and unfortunately, dealing with these kinds of requests just isn't a priority. But what if it isn't unfounded? There's something else too. Watching Nakechi struggle through the same process I did makes it hard sometimes for me to stay on my side of the table as a reporter and not just step in as a friend. I know how isolating this process can be, so I want her to meet someone I've known and admired for years. Turns out I'm not the only one. I'm a big fan, you're a legend. I think I should probably say to you, I went to a prune for most of my education, different prues, and one specific prune had one of your poems,

let there be peace in isolation. And I spent a lot of time in isolation. And I spent a lot of time in isolation me. So yeah, I would spend most of my time reading that poem again and again and again to pass the time. So yeah, it feels very full circle moment for me to be here today, Chan. Wow. And catchy, I didn't know that my poem was in an isolation unit. Yeah, your poems were everywhere. Let there be peace as the one I specifically remember. Yes, let there be peace. So frowns fly away like albatross. So skeletons, fox-trock from cupboards. and magpies bring back lost property. Children, engagement rings, broken things.

Let there be peace. I don't know why I'm crying. That is so silly, but just so funny how life works. As it might be clear, Lem Cese is a poet. He's also got an OBE, a whole cabinet of awards and accolades, and has a much-loved public figure. I've known Lem for years now. I've interviewed him, hung out with him a bit,

but was bold over when, having written a book about my childhood, he rocked up to my book launch. He also grew up in care. I've noticed when you get two care leavers in a room, however different in age and background, that shared experience can create an instant bond. And for two people who went into care 46 years apart, it's striking how many shared experiences they have.

There's nothing that shows the damage than when you're in a room with people who've not been in care and somebody loses something and you have a feeling inside yourself, it's not me, I didn't steal anything. And most people who are in care, they want to find it. Let me find the thing that you've lost. They don't go to, oh, it's not me,

they go to, I got to find it. And that panic of needing to find things, needing everything to be okay. Yeah. You know, needing everybody to be okay. Yeah. That's what we're left with. We are the empaths.

Lem went into care as a baby and was fostered for 12 years by a family who told him his biological mother didn't want him. At 12, the family abruptly rejected him, placed him back into the care system and said they would never visit him again.

For the next five years he bounced between four different children's homes, ending up locked in an assessment centre, a place he called a virtual prison for children. When he aged out of care, he was looking for someone to fill in the gaps and corroborate this story.

I realised when I left care that I didn't have anybody that had a memory of me throughout my childhood. Nobody. The staff in the children's homes were staffing the children's homes for a short period of time.

All family is, is a group of people proving that each other exists over a lifetime. And I had nobody to prove that I existed. And if a tree falls in the forest and nobody sees it, did it fall? I was that tree.

It turned out he really didn't know much about his own existence. I was given my birth certificate, which revealed my real name, Lemsa, say, and up until that point, I didn't know what my name was. I thought my name was Norman. Don't laugh. I'm not laughing. I'm just, I can't imagine. And also, I didn't know who my mother was, my father, my sisters, my brothers, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, my grandparents.

Lem decided to demand his files. In 1987, the Access to Personal Files Act had just passed. Lem was the first child to request his records in Wigan. In the 80s, it was a pretty different thing to sending a subject to access request via email. He wrote to Wigan Council with his request and received a letter in return. Can I show you a letter? Yes, please. This is a letter, the reply from the head of children's services in Wiggin, from Metropolitan Wiggenborough, and I just pull this out of my files to show you,

because I don't know, it seems right to show it to you. The dates at the top there, and the date's 1987. Can you just read that out, the beginning bit? Which part? This bit? Yeah, just the first paragraph for two. Dear Mr. Sese, I acknowledge. receipt of your letter of the 12th of October 1987 containing the request for access to your

personal life. You are quite correct in the belief that my department has an open access to files policy from the 1st of June this year. However, as has been possibly explained to you, this policy is not retrospective and it therefore would not normally be acceptable. Go on. Practice to comply with your request. Go on. Nevertheless, I've given your request. careful consideration, I am agreeable to allowing limited access to your file under the supervision of a senior officer of this department.

In this way, I hope my department will be able to furnish you with the information set out in your letter of the 12th of October. I would suggest that you contact Mr. Whoever at the Golden Area Office, who will shortly have your files in his possession. Mr. Whoever has been authorised by myself to undertake the duties mentioned above, and I think that you, should seek a meeting with him at your earliest convenience. May I take this opportunity of saying how pleased I was to hear of the progress that you have made since leaving care and I extend my best wishes to your future. That is bullshit. But his corporate parents didn't open their arms. They closed ranks. They told him that at best he could come in and a senior officer would look through them for him and answer questions. He sat across the table from me and he said,

Right, tell me what you want to know and I'll look through the files for you and I'll tell you. Right? So you won't even... I wasn't allowed to look at the files. It was like cruelty. It was like the institution just sticking its finger at me. He then said, I hated this.

He then said, I'm going to go out for a walk. I'm going to go out. I just need to see somebody outside. And he left the room in Goldbourne Social Services. And I was left in that room. with all of the files in front of me, right, on facing him with him out of the room. Now, I'm going to ask you a question. Did I look at those files?

If I did, why did I? And if I didn't, why didn't I? I'm in alone. It's all I've ever wanted to see. I would, but I also understand the fear of like, that punishment. and that like hesitation, I don't know. That's a weird situation to be put in. Right, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, the whole situation was weird for me.

And I was like, am I in some sort of like, literally, still, am I in a Kafkaesque Orwellian kind of, kind of situation here? Yeah. And I was like, there is no way that you are going to find me searching through my files for information about my family and I'm not going to be punished and I'm not going to be proven to be the bad kid

it's really sad it is really sad because it feels intentional it feels intentional on his part and it feels very spiteful it's like he's doing me a favour like this is how institutionalise people think they don't think of the cruelty

one of the things about institutionalisation is is the lack of humanity. Wiggard counsel eventually claimed his records were lost by a data company, but he kept pushing. Finally, a new head of social services wrote to him to say they had his files, and he could take them with him. But the day this happened was in 2015, nearly 30 years after his first letter. To be honest, watching Nakechi listen to Lem's story, I can't imagine how she must be feeling. It's like she's looking up at this huge mountain, Lem has just described. A mountain it took a massive chunk of his life to climb, and she is just at sea level.

I mean, I'm hoping it's not going to take me 34 years. I don't have that in me. So salute to him for his strength. But the fact that it was still a very inhumane process, and there was no love in that process, and there was no care in that process for him. And all these years later, I'm still feeling. very similar, no love, no care, no support is really upsetting and really disheartening because will it just be the same 20 years from now for the next kid wanting their information?

I really wanted Nakechi to meet Lem to get the kind of reassurance that only someone who's been through something similar can provide. Lem has a level of insight and experience that undoubtedly resonates with Nkechie. But there's something else in Lem's story. Something unsettling. Ketchi, I do believe that they are legally hoping for low self-esteem. Yeah, and what this means is that you give up. And I think it's to save money on getting redactions from the files.

And also being held accountable. Listen. The whole reason that this is a problem is because bad practice might be exposed. It's an institutional fear of being proved wrong, the institution's fear of it. It's fear and institutional fear makes all kinds of strange behaviours. And one of them is, oh no, we can't find your files.

Oh, it'll take a lot. Oh, it's with this person. It's in that department. It's in the blah, blah. Everything but actually the care that it was built to give. And in Lem's case, when he finally looked through his files, many of his worst suspicions were confirmed. I found proof in the documents,

you know, points where they were saying his mother's tried to get in touch with him, don't tell him. It's all in the files. Despite being told throughout his childhood that his mother hadn't wanted anything to do with him, the files revealed she had been kept away from him. There are revelations in handwritings that do not, we better not tell him his mother's searching for him.

lots of other stuff, including imprisoning me without reason. Racism is really central to this. Racism is not when somebody says the N-word, it's when somebody says you're suspicious. So in institutions, that means you're suspicious, so what should we do about you? In fact, the things Elam read about his care, or lack of it, kicked started another journey for him of getting justice.

I received the files, I saw what was in them, quite emotionally distressing really, but also I was ready for this. Okay, I knew what I was doing and I found the number one lawyer for children in care abuse for children in care and I said to him, I have all of the proof that I'm going to sue the government for stealing my family, stealing my name, imprisoning me as a child and putting me with foster parents who were actually abusive to the point that they lied to me and changing my name and all of this. Lem handed over the files to his lawyer and they launched a legal battle against Wigan Council. After three years, Lem and the Council settled out of court, and Lem received a six-figure payout in damages and a formal apology.

I just held on to the fact that all I wanted was somebody to be answerable to what happened to me, that's all. It's really important for you to be at peace with your story and with whatever settlements you've made with your past, regardless of finance. So I am more than satisfied. I have an incredible life. I am blessed to have had the hardships

which have allowed me to learn about the human condition and to be kind to myself and therefore to others. So, where does this leave Nakechi? She's been frustrated by the delays, the communication and lack of clarity. But I don't know how much it occurred to her until now, how serious the revelations in her files could be, and if this could be the reason why they were being held up. When we say goodbye to them and go our separate ways,

I get the feeling Nakechi is running out of patience. The thought of a 30-year wait is almost unbearable, but whatever happened, she still has the rest of the council's two months extension to wait. It's set for the 13th of May, and as we creep closer, the days are growing warmer, and the UK is opening up again after winter. When Nakechi started this attempt to get her records, we were in the cold and dark of early December, But now those days feel a world away.

When the 13th of May arrives, we're both holding our breath to see if anything comes our way. But just like before, it passes with total silence from Camden. Up to this point, she has only received generic emails. Given that Camden was her corporate parent, this is striking. She's not received a single phone call from a social worker or someone who supported her. She's not received a phone call from anyone at all, actually. Feeling completely shut out, Nakechi decides to take matters into her own hands. And this is a contact, Camden, you're speaking to the switchboard service.

How can I help you today? Hi, R. Basically, I'm just trying to find somebody I can speak to about a subject access request that I've submitted. I'm just trying to get an update. So when you say subject access request for what? The operator at the main switchboard seems to have no idea what a subject to access request even is. After a long, confusing exchange in which Nakechi has to explain that she is asking for her childhood care records, she has finally put through to someone in the records department. Unfortunately, we are really under a lot of stress due to the amount of cases that we have.

Okay. We have only a few officers, around eight officers. So no one has started, like, looking into my request? Your data has been collected, which is kept in a folder, ready for the officer to pick it up. The problem is that it's that officer still doing other cases. Okay. They cannot send you that information without authorization of that other person. So we're talking about redacting my files.

Is that usually a long process or can you tell me how many people are in the queue ahead of me? I don't really know because your request has been assigned to an officer. So the only thing I can do is what I said at the beginning, which is a request to manager to prioritize your case. Yeah. Just because, you know, 16 days past that, you know, I've not given you guys. these deadlines. These are deadlines that you guys have given me and I do think if you're going to miss them and I can understand and sympathise with the fact that you guys are busy and overworked

and stuff like that but the polite thing to do really would have been to send me an email and go look miss Sims we're really sorry however we can't make that deadline this is where we're at this is the progress that we've made and this is what to expect next I've sort of spent the last six months waiting for your emails which aren't. or haven't ever really been very clear or, you know, hopeful in this process. And that's been really frustrating. Yeah, I mean, I understand exactly what you're saying. I would feel the same if I was in your position, to be honest.

But I can't really help you any more than, you know, and try to prioritize with my manager, to be honest. She's been holding it together, trying to be. be polite on the phone. But when she hangs up, she can't hold it in. I'm so fucking pissed off. I'm trying not to be angry, but I'm really angry. It's rude to not care and be so blaze about something that's so important to me. I've literally spent 12 years of my life hearing that. It's all they ever do is palm it off on their manager. It's so triggering. I'm wasting. for someone else to read it first and decide what I'm allowed to read.

That's bullshit. What a bullshit process. Someone's going to sit in that office and read through every crappy personal detail of my life. Decide what I get to see. And I'm just supposed to wait. To find out if this is just the feature of the system, I needed to speak to someone who really knows how the law works in these cases. I remembered that as we said goodbye to Lem, he mentioned his lawyer, David Greenwood. He's been a solicitor specialising in carelevers' rights for more than 30 years.

He represented Lem in his landmark case against Wigan. Tony Blair's government, back in 1999, an act of the Freedom of Information Act. That empowered people whose data, whose names, whose records were kept by public authorities to get hold of the information. It requires any public authority to provide personal information about an individual. It's a legal duty.

Airlevers are entitled to the whole of their files. When I told David about Nakech's case, there was one part that really stood out to him. I've never heard of that kind of 500-page limit before. I regularly get three, four, five, six thousand pages of records through. I'm absolutely astonished that local authorities putting up barriers

to her accessing her records. Why can't she have them? This has been an obligation that local authorities have had since 1999. There's no reason why there shouldn't be allocating resources to make it happen. David was equally appalled by Nakechi's first attempt to access her records in 2020. When the council told her she could only view them in the town hall under supervision. That is such an outday to practice.

God, I had that 25 years ago. That is totally unacceptable. It sounds to me as though someone in the council knows that something's gone wrong there and wants to restrict her ability to find out what's gone wrong. Really? That sounds very suspicious to me.

Right now, all she knows is that it's going to take a long time for someone to go through her files. And she's, I suppose, to some degree, waiting indefinitely for that response. From your experience, David, what would you say? That is totally unacceptable. They need to put resources in to ensure that she has access to her records. These are records of social workers who are keeping tabs on her throughout her life. and she's entitled to them.

They're her records. She needs to go bananas with the people at the other end. She needs to be reminding them every week or every day even. She needs to really bug them. She needs to be playing holy hell to get hold of them, if you ask me. My advice to her would be to put in a complaint to the disclosure team of the local authority and to copy in the chief executive of the council. And if she doesn't get a positive response within 14 days, I would write to the

information commissioner's office. Armed with David's advice, my producer Madeline called up Nakechi to catch up. So he said she needs to consider making a complaint to the information in commissioner's office because that delay is on. acceptable. What do you think of that? It's so interesting because it's so true and so valid and for him to be able to say, no, this isn't right. Don't accept it. It does feel really validating. It's also frustrating because it shouldn't be my responsibility to bug and go bananas and have to call up weekly and remind people to do their jobs. There's another reason that kicking off is a complicated thing for Nakechi.

Quite a difficult reputation within my local authority. And so in this process, I haven't wanted to be pushed for things or get angry because I feel that that is sort of the thing. that's gone against me with my local 40 and past. It makes you sort of a grass back at place. Yes. Being in care and not really knowing, like, how to appropriately advocate for yourself. And so what used to happen is, you know, you get angry and kick up.

And then in this process, obviously, I'm outgrown with that, thank God. But it still means it's like, oh, okay. so if I complain, is that okay? In the end, though, I think Nakechi is feeling like the alternative is to wait, maybe for years, for the council to hopefully get round to it. I can spend tomorrow maybe starting up the complaint. I'm going to take the lawyer's advice, pushing a little bit harder now, is what I need to do.

But then, just before Nakeechi is about to take her complaint right to the top, Dear Nakechi, just to update you that I am ready to send the first batch of information. This will be all assessments and forms from your electronic file. If you're okay with this, I can begin sending the records I've completed. Next time on Careless. It wasn't protected. If people knew then they should have done something. There was a photograph of a group of women and there was a post-it over this woman's head

and it said, Mother, with a little arrow. It never started off about blame or me wanting them to say sorry. But in this process, what I've learned is that I'm owed an apology. Careless is reported by me, Ashley John Baptiste and Madeleine Parr. It was produced and written by Madeline Parr. Artwork is by John Hill. Sound design is by Simon Paniy. The editor is Jasper Corbett.

Thank you for listening. To get the full series, subscribe to the Observer on your listening platform of choice or directly at Observer.com.uk. Where, as well as all of our podcasts, you'll also get access to the rest of our excellent journalism. Visit observer.com.uk forward slash subscribe, forward slash audio, and use the code Audio 50 for 50% off today. Tortus Investigates.