‘I created 2500 personalities to survive’: How Jeni Hayes got justice

Dr Jeni Haynes’ landmark case is saving others. Loading the player... Jeni Haynes experienced a childhood characterised by abject terror . The abuse she suffered has been described by Australian police as one of the worst cases in the country but, far from blocking out what happened to her like many abuse survivors, Jeni remembers in minute detail every moment of it.

‘I created 2500 personalities to survive’: How Jeni Hayes got justice. Dr Jeni Haynes’ landmark case is saving others. Loading the player... Jeni Haynes experienced a childhood characterised by abject terror . The abuse she suffered has been described by Australian police as one of the worst cases in the country but, far from blocking out what happened to her like many abuse survivors, Jeni remembers in minute detail every moment of it. Her brain developed an incredibly complex way to cope and, in the years since, it’s provided the key to jailing her abuser and father, Richard Haynes, for a record 45 years. “Symphony was the first ‘alter’. The original child was terrified and Symphony sang for her,” Jeni, now 56, tells Woman’s Day , explaining how, throughout her childhood, her mind used an extraordinary tactic during her abuse. It create...