Punished: A Mother's Cruelty. A Daughter's Survival. A Secret That Couldn't be Told.

The inspiring true story of Vanessa Steel, whose childhood was overshadowed by a terrible secret. Plagued by torture and abuse by both her mother and grandfather, little Vanessa was nearly destroyed until she developed a secret power of her own that ultimately saved her life. Vanessa was only two years old when her abuse started. It began with smacking, food punishments and lock-ins by her mother, her father a silent witness to Vanessa's torment. The punishments steadily intensified with beatings and torture, and on many nights Vanessa's mother forced her to sleep the pigsty in the garden, tied up like an animal. If this wasn't enough, Vanessa's grandfather began to sexually abuse her when she was six. It was here that mysterious faces and voices appeared to Vanessa in the dark, comforting her during those horrific ordeals. From then on these 'ghost people' talked to her every day, and tried to protect her with warnings. Then at eight years old, Vanessa found out that the 'mother' who plagued her life had adopted her as a baby and would never love her as her own.When Vanessa started foreseeing the future as a teenager, she plucked up the courage to tell her parents about her spirit friends. She was rewarded with repeated visits to doctors to 'put her right'. But her insights came too late to save her brother Nigel who was also tortured by their mother and was later to tragically die from his abuse. At sixteen, she met and married a man who seemed her salvation but Vanessa was once more trapped in an abusive and violent relationship -- this time with her husband. This is the story of how Vanessa fought back against her abusers and at last laid the horrors and demons of her own childhood to rest.