Shy Keenan

`I was born and broken in Birkenhead. I was unwanted, beaten, sold, swapped, photographed, filmed, left for dead, corrupted, blamed, betrayed and ignored. But I was also born with a fire inside me. I call it my Phoenix Fire. I am no victim - that word only describes what happened to me. Nor am I a survivor because that implies I am over it. I am a Phoenix - a work in progress. This is my story.`

Shy wasn`t meant to survive her childhood.

Her mother beat her so severely that Shy was deaf by her first day in school. Her stepsister thought nothing of pouring boiling water over her in punishment fot the crime of wetting the bed. And virtually every day, from the age of four, Shy was raped by her stepfather, Stan. When she was ten she was attacked so viciously by the gang of dockworkers Stan had sold her to that she was left for dead in a field, her skull fractured. Shocking as it sounds, this was virtually normal life for Shy.

Today, Shy is the internationally respected chief advocate for Phoenix Survivors, the campaining group she founded to fight for justice for vicitms of child sexual abuse. Alongside Sara Payne, she has worked tirelessly with politicians, social services, the legal system and the media for such measures as the UK`s adoption of Sarah`s Law.

Six years ago, her testimony secured the imprisonment of Stan and his associates for a catalogue of crimes against children. But it was only after a journey fraught with horror - stealing to survive on the streets of London, psyciatric care, prison and near-suicide that Shy emerged as the person she is today.

Her experiences challenge the limits of our understanding of the wickedness people are capable of but they also tell us something unique about goodness.