HUSH - Book - Page 70
HUSH – Breaking the Silence | Victim Support Scotland
It was Friday the 29th of June 2018, about five o'clock. My
wife was running my other daughter, Dani and her boyfriend Cami to the train station. I was looking about to see
what was in the fridge for dinner. We knew that Grace had
been out all night. We had reported her missing. I wouldn't
say we were desperately worried, but we were worried. We
knew that she had been having a di cult time because
she'd been at the doctor for different things. We just
thought that she might have needed some time, but we
were expecting her to return that day.
The door went. The inspector and the sergeant had
their hats off. They asked if I was Mr Handling and I said
“aye”. They asked if my wife was there. I said she'd just left,
and they asked me if I could get her back, immediately.
I brought them in, sat them in the living room. I was
asking if everything was okay. They said, “We are just going
to wait until your wife gets here.” I was getting a wee bit
nervous, I thought they were going to say she was maybe in
the hospital or something. Lorraine came back about five
minutes after I phoned. Dani and Cami came back as well,
they were outside in the car. She came in and they told us
they had some terrible news. They said they had found the
body of a young girl and they believed it was Grace.
I was in shock. It was just a tsunami of disbelief.
Lorraine was hysterical. I just held her and I don't know,
time just sort of disappeared.
What happened next was the two o cers said, “CID are
going to come in now and they are going to take each of you
into an interview room. We need to do this. It's part of the
procedure. I know it will be di cult for you, but you are
probably better getting this out the road when everything is
fresh in your mind.” It was no messing. It was just, “This is
going to happen.” I just went along with it. We all got taken
into different rooms in the house. It was probably going on
for between two and three hours. I went in the kitchen with
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this big, tall CID guy. He was very good. He said, “Now, I'm
just going to ask you about Grace. We are going to start at
zero up to thirteen and eleven months.”
I said, “Well, why don't we just fast-forward from when
she was born up until primary seven?”. Up until then everything was absolutely… Every kid is special, you know, but
Grace, she had a light about her. She was very easy to love,
affectionate. She could be a wee bugger as well, very stubborn. When she was younger, and we used to leave her with
a babysitter she would tear the house down. She liked her
mum and dad there. But she was extremely well loved by
her friends. That was something that really, I'll not say
shocked or surprised, but it really blessed me to hear.
On the Tuesday me and Lorraine went up to the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital, the mortuary. It was pretty gruesome.
The two CID guys took us up in their car. That was terrifying, it was just about the most di cult thing I have done in
my life. You just get five minutes. You see her wee face. She
looked like a wee girl. They left us in the room, and I just
went to bits.
You are actually formally identifying your daughter, but
they don't actually ask you if that is Grace, it's just obvious
with your behaviour that it is her. They just know that it is.
‘...It was just about the most
di cult thing I have done in my life.
... You see her wee face. She looked
like a wee girl. They le us in the
room, and I just went to bits.’