Preston became a safe place for Karen to start her new life
Nearly two decades ago, the mum-of-two was living with the abusive individual alongside her children in her native Southport. Violence was an everyday occurrence to her until she reached out to a local women's refuge centre and finally put that part of her life behind her.
Karen says she was "on eggshells" for the whole night before she was due to leave her partner, but fortunately she managed to leave on the allotted day. She was then taken to a safe house in Liverpool where she was allowed to stay for 12 weeks, before finding her accommodation. "Probably two weeks after the children had been taken, they took the house off me so I was then going to be homeless, but in my head, weighing it up the best of a bad situation - am I better to stay in Liverpool where I don't know anyone or go back to where I grew up which is Southport. So I ended up going back to Southport and living on the streets there.
Karen says that on the last sentence she served, she was released on tag and the authorities were forced to find her somewhere to live. Her abusive partner was then taken seriously ill, due to his excessive drug use and shortly after, passed away in hospital. Karen used this as an opportunity to try and sort her life out, by staying on her methadone script and living in her bedsit. She was determined to come off her methadone prescription, which usually takes six weeks to do so.
Karen then was forced to sleep wherever she could find, which would sometimes be in bus shelters, shop doorways, people's garages and under bushes. On one particular night, she recalls finding a "quiet-ish" spot, off the main high street and sleeping in a shop doorway. The night saw a group of men attack her, kicking her in the head while she slept. After realising they had kicked a women sleeping rough, Karen says she was offered a fiver to say sorry.
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