Care home manager was left ‘broken’ after a boy, 15, who’d been ‘treated like a stray dog’ revealed he’d never had a bed made for him
- Chris Wild, 39, from Enfield, opened up about welcoming teenager into care
- Became emotional as he recalled how 15-year-old was ‘treated like a stray dog’
- Care home manager welled up as he admitted the night had ‘broken’ him
- Told BBC Newsnight the encounter had brought his own trauma back to him
A care home manager and former boxer has revealed how welcoming a teenage boy who had been ‘treated like a stray dog’ broke his heart in an emotional interview.
Chris Wild, 39, from Enfield, lost his father at the age of 11 and grew up in the care system, before becoming a care home manager as an adult.
He became emotional telling BBC’s Newsnight about how meeting one teenager, whom he said had never had his bed made for him, brought back his own trauma.
Chris revealed: ‘A 15-year-old boy treated like a stray dog… that will never ever leave my mind.’
Chris Wild, 39, from Enfield, said he was left heart broken when a teenage boy who ‘had been treated like a stray dog’ arrived at his care home
Chris ran away from a children’s home at the age of 12, and went on to live on the streets before turning his life around and taking on the job as a care home manager.
He opened up about one particularly upsetting case he’d dealt with, which he admitted would always remain with him.
Chris revealed it was half-past nine at night when a taxi pulled up with the vulnerable teenager, who was alone and terrified.
He explained: ‘He was like a rabbit in a headlight, he didn’t know what was happening to him, you know, passed from pillow to pillow.’
The care home manager welled up as he recalled the meeting, saying the unnamed 15-year-old was ‘like a rabbit in a headlight’
‘And I remember seeing all the black bags in the car and him being on his own.’
He said the experience had left him questioning the system, adding: ‘That’s when I knew there was something wrong with the system.
‘To allow a 15-year-old boy to come to me, on his own, at night, without representation… when he walked into my house, he walked into a welcoming house with happy people.
‘The house was clean. And we were there to support him – which he’d never had before.’
Chris said he was heartbroken when the boy told him that he’d never had his bed made for him before and that he’d slept on a mattress in his previous placement
Tearing up, he continued: ‘I took him to his bedroom, and when I opened the door, he walked into the room and his eyes lit up.’
The boy went on to tell Chris that he had ‘never ever, in my life, had a bed made for me’.
The care home manager admitted the moment broke his heart, saying: ‘I was so welled up at the time I had to walk away because it broke me.
‘He’d never had something so trivial, something we all take for granted. His bed was made.’
Chris said he was fraught with emotion after the teenager’s revelation, which brought his ‘own trauma’ back
The teenager went on to tell Chris that on his previous placement he’d slept on a mattress in a room.
Chris said he was fraught with emotion after the conversation, saying: ‘I went on home that night, and I said to my wife, “What’s going on? What’s going on? How is this possible?”‘
He added: ‘And your own traumas come back to you. Still in our day, in modern times, this kind of negligence is still happening, where a 15-year-old boy is treated like a stray dog.
‘And that will never ever leave my mind. And that is what’s wrong with our system.’
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