Five Daughters

I've thoroughly depressed myself writing about housing, but all morning I've been wanting to write a small post on this three part BBC drama about the prosititutes that were killed in Ipswich in 2006 (crikey I'm getting old, it doesn't feel that long ago).

The drama, which finished last night, tells the lives of the five woman who were murdered. They were daughters, sisters, mothers, all addicted to heroin and crack and sold themselves to fund their addiction.

So powerful this story, which was written with full co-operation of the Suffolk police and family and friends of the girls, that I did what I haven't done for ages, which is cry uncontrollably.

It was about the effects of drugs on these women; how addiction is all consuming and comes before everything. We remember don't we, these women still walking the streets at night despite the killer not having been caught. To see their bodies in the morgue and their mothers crying over them was more than I could handle, having witnessed their relationships with eachother, their families, themselves.

In it a drugs counsellor wonders how money that has been donated to his refuge should be used to help the girls. In one scene he gives an addict some money so that she will not go on the streets that night.

Made me think of an article I'd read earlier about addicts being given their heroin in hospitals so they don't have to go to dealers (Guardian: yesterday). Many groups are against this but I think, like some others quoted in the article, coupled with counselling, it could work towards individuals getting off the drug completely and moving forward with their lives.

Worth a try anyway I'd say.

RIP: Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennel, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls