The Asylum Audiobook By Ann Cusack - contributor, Carol Minto, Joe Cusack - contributor cover art

The Asylum

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The Asylum

By: Ann Cusack - contributor, Carol Minto, Joe Cusack - contributor
Narrated by: Fiona McNeill
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About this listen

For 46 years, Carol Minto has quietly gone about her life, carrying with her the most extraordinary and heartbreaking secrets.

Born into poverty and with mostly absent parents, Carol helped to raise her nine siblings. But when she was just 11 years old, her older brother began to sexually abuse her. After four years, Carol managed to escape - and ran away from home.

Picked up by social services, they place her at Aston Hall in Derby, a psychiatric hospital now infamous for the ghoulish ‘truth serum’ experiments it carried out on children. Over three years, Carol was stripped, sedated, assaulted and raped by Kenneth Milner, the doctor in charge.

Eventually she is released back into the community, aged 18, and has a daughter. But the baby is taken away for adoption, and Carol’s trauma intensifies. In 2010, Carol finally plucked up the courage to speak out about the abuse she suffered - and received justice, at last.

In The Asylum, Carol tells the full story of how she overcame unimaginable suffering, to find the happiness and solace she has today as a mother and grandmother.

©2021 Ann Cusack (P)2021 W F Howes
Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Sexual Abuse & Harassment Women Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Inspiring
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What listeners say about The Asylum

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excellent clear and very descriptive

i love that although she never forgot her love, she found a companion again and she never gave up she maintained a positive attitud

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Insane story!

I can’t believe all the horrors this women endured, I’m so happy she is doing good today. What an amazing book

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Narrator horrible good book

Narrator was really really bad . She does a long pause at the end of EACH sentence! It drove me crazy! But the story was good so I wanted to know what happened next . It also took me a minute to figure out that getto was actually “girls”. So I think if you can tolerate the narrator the story is good!

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Wow

The strength of this woman is amazing. I experienced many emotions along the way and even cried. I wanted to tear into her brother and parents so many times. Excellent!

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A true test of mental strength against unbelievable abuse.

A small child become a remarkable survivor then a speaker of truth to help others

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Good from EVIL… Carol CHOSE happiness, and isn’t that the BEST REVENGE of All…?!

There is so much to say, I hardly know where to start. I suppose I’ll start by saying I absolutely LOVED the narrator. As a second generation Scottish American, the Brogue IMMEDIATELY brought me back to my childhood❣️ Thank you!

Carol is from Scotland — readers who had a problem with the accent…it is authentic. Perhaps the problem is YOURS, not the narrator’s. To those of us who are Scottish, the American accent (depending on where you are from in the States, can be hard on the ears). Let me clarify that by saying I LOVE the U.S. with ALL of my heart and would not live anywhere else, but the sounds of my grandparent’s and parent’s homeland will ALWAYS be beautiful to me.💕

I became more and more ANGRY as I listened to Carol’s story, and to be truthful, I can’t tell you with whom I’m more angry — her SICK, SICK brother, her hateful, useless mother, her father who chose to bury his head in the sand and pretend there was nothing going on under his own roof or the very social system that was supposed to PROTECT people like Carol. The whole bunch of them made me want to vomit, then scream! Where were the safe guards, the checks and balances? I simply cannot fathom a system that so completely ignored not only what Carol tried to tell people over and over, but also ignored all the red flags along the way.

Her brother, Ian, was the one who deserved to be in a mental institution, not Carol! I simply cannot understand the thinking of Carol’s parents, that it’s better to take the side of and protect a sick rapist than that of an innocent young girl who showed ALL the symptoms of se*ual abuse? At the tender age of 11, how could she POSSIBLY make all those details up? What kind of mother does not listen when her daughter comes to her and says she is being se*ually abused?! How do you turn a blind eye and deaf ear to that, blame the DAUGHTER, and give the son a free pass, especially when he already has a bad reputation?! Can you say “utter denial?!”

Her mother treated Carol like DIRT. She was nothing more than a child care person and house cleaner. The mother was a very poor excuse for a “mother.” She had a serious gambling problem. She would rather gamble what little money the family had away than feed her TEN children! A mother like Carol’s should have stopped having children after two of them as she obviously had NO interest whatsoever in actually caring for and raising them. And the father? What a totally useless WUSS! That is the nicest thing I can think of to say about him…

The social system…what a joke, except there was absolutely NOTHING funny about any of the people or the system who were “supposed” to be in place for people like Carol. The people back then were an absolute DISGRACE to the entire profession, as was that disgusting PIG of a “doctor” (that’s a euphemism for RAPIST) who was supposed to help the young people who passed through the corridors of that hospital.

I am SO glad that Carol found her husband Sonny. They didn’t have nearly enough time together before his death, but the years they had were GOOD years. Sonny taught Carol that she did have value as a person and that she should love herself. He helped Carol learn to use her voice in her own defense. Most of all, for the first time in her life, he taught Carol what it was to feel truly safe and loved. That man had a beautiful heart and gentle soul. He was exactly the kind of man Carol needed.

Carol, thank you for finding the courage to speak up despite the pain it must have caused you to dredge up all those awful memories. Because of your courage, systemwide changes began falling into place. to help protect children who have no voice of their own. The system is far from perfect, but because of you, it’s BETTER!

Please continue putting all your energy into being happy! Stop questioning yourself about what YOU did wrong. You did NOTHING wrong. Your brother, your parents and the “system”…THEY were wrong. YOU were a child! The fact that you have come as far as you have is testament to the fact that you ARE a survivor and always will be. God bless you!💕

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Excellent book and excellent narrator

so many people complained about not being able to understand the narrators thick Scottish accent....I disagree. she was easy to understand. I almost did not buy this book due to the negative reviews. so glad I didn't listen!

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Fantastic book. Couldn’t stop listening.

Really enjoyed this book. So tragic what happened to all involved. Thanks to Carol for sharing her story.

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A brave story to tell

It is unbelievable how failed the system was all those years ago in protecting those that needed protecting. In this young girls case it was her leaving a desperate situation and then throwing her to the wolves. A story where so many turned their back on a vulnerable young girl.
Heartwarming that she was a survivor.

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Family Betrayal

The graphic and honest story of social dysfunction and the causes of behavioral problems in a girl betrayed by her family and then by social services.

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