‘I didn’t say anything, I didn’t scream. I just got up, went to the sink and washed it off.’
That was how BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire reacted after her abusive father threw scalding soup over her as a child.
The broadcaster has spoken of the traumatic abuse she suffered at the hands of her father which included her being beaten with a wooden spoon and hit with a belt.
She described her reaction while being covered in scalding soup, saying: ‘I just looked at him with contempt in my eyes – and he could see it.’
She said the abuse would mean that when he would get home, her and her siblings would ‘dash to our bedrooms and shut the door’ when they would hear their father’s key in the back door.
After having scolding soup thrown over her: ‘I didn’t say anything, I didn’t scream. I just got up, went to the sink and washed it off.
Derbyshire said that despite the abuse she would try not to flinch when her father struck her
Derbyshire said that despite the abuse she would try not to flinch when her bullying father struck her
In an interview with The Independent, Derbyshire said that despite the abuse she would try not to flinch when her bullying father struck her.
‘It was my way of showing him that I couldn’t be riled,’ she said.
In another shocking revelation, the Newsnight presenter recounted the time her father put his hands around her throat in front of her best friend.
She said: ‘He got me up against the pantry door, his hands around my neck. My best friend was there, shouting at him to get off me.’
The abuse that her mother would be victim was so severe that on one occasion she broke a rib – with the doctor’s note simply reading ‘husband trouble’.
Despite the horrific abuse they faced, she said it was her mother’s love and the sibling bond which allowed them to maintain normality, saying: ‘Despite our experience, we’re pretty normal people. And that’s all down to her’.
She explained they did move out to live her with mum’s sister but said this didn’t work out as she lived quite far and it was inconvenient to go to and from school everyday.
‘We had to go home eventually’ she added ‘School, pets – life kept drawing us back.’
Her father, who died in 2020, denied hitting his children.
Victoria Derbyshire (pictured) was praised for sharing a domestic abuse helpline while presenting BBC News
Derbyshire acknowledged much progress has been made since then and how domestic abuse is handled by the police.
In her career she has been a vocal campaigner against domestic abuse.
In 2020, she was praised when she hosted the BBC News while having the domestic abuse helpline on her hand.
She told the newspaper telling her story ‘doesn’t bring up trauma’ and said domestic abuse can happen to anyone.
‘And it’s nothing to do with class or your job or money. If it helps to talk about it, then absolutely, I’ll talk.’