After years of not being believed, Jeni Haynes opened up like never before about her father Richard Haynes’ years of abuse in Investigation Discovery’s documentary We Are Jeni.
From experiencing the abuse, creating thousands of alternate personalities and finally getting justice, Us Weekly breaks down the biggest bombshells revealed in ID’s We Are Jeni:
Jeni Haynes Details Richard Haynes’ Abuse in ‘We Are Jeni’
Richard, his wife and their children moved from London to Australia in 1974 when Jeni was 4 years old. “By moving us from the U.K. to Australia, he broke contact with mum’s friendship groups and with her family,” Jeni said.
“My father physically abused me with endless beltings and my father raped me almost every day. Sometimes multiple times a day for 14 years,” Jeni claimed. “And then when you talk about it, everyone calls you a liar because there’s no outward sign.”
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Jeni Haynes Became Estranged From Richard Haynes After Her Parents’ Divorce
Jeni’s parents divorced in 1984 when she was 14. She stayed in Australia with her mother, while Richard moved back to England.
Years later, Jeni learned her father allegedly sexually abused someone else in England in 1996. After her “greatest terror had become a reality,” she went to the Australian police — including retired police officer Kim Whitman — to share her own story.
“I told Kim Whitman the barest minimum I could get away [with] because my goal was to provide enough information that my father was dangerous so that the Australian police would be able to let the English police know,” Jeni said.
Jeni Haynes Was Diagnosed With Dissociative Identity Disorder
Another topic Jeni touched on was her dissociative identity disorder diagnosis, which she developed as a way to cope with the abuse.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, DID is “a mental health condition where you have two or more separate personalities that control your behavior at different times.”
Psychiatrist Dr. George Blair-West said Jeni’s condition should be viewed as a “survival strategy.”
“This condition develops prior to the age of 8,” he explained. “It’s designed, it’s built, to help a child get through ongoing recurrent severe abuse.”
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Jeni introduced several of her personalities, or “alters,” during the documentary, including 4-year-old Symphony, 17-year-old Muscles and 21-year-old Erik.
Each alter serves a different purpose, and Symphony is the alter that remembers the abuse Jeni went through.
Richard Haynes Was Arrested for Sexual Abuse
After the unnamed woman in the U.K. and Jeni came forward with their allegations, Richard was arrested and charged with 11 offenses that ranged from rape and sexual assault. Four of the charges involved crimes he committed against Jeni.
Jeni and her mother were subpoenaed to the U.K. to attend the trial.
“On the morning of the scheduled trial, everything went to s**t,” Jeni said, explaining that Richard took a plea bargain and the charges connected to Jeni’s abuse were dropped.
Richard was convicted on charges related to the victim in the U.K. and he was sentenced to serve nine years in prison.
“I came back from England feeling disbelieved. I was devastated by how things played out and I was spiraling mentally,” Jeni recalled. “I could not get it out of my head. We spent three weeks in the psychiatric ward trying to recover from that.”
Jeni Haynes Reconnected With Richard Haynes in 2003
Jeni reached out to Richard in 2003 to wish him a happy birthday.
“I wrote a letter to him saying it’s time we grew up, faced reality, accepted it and put it all behind us and moved on,” she said. “I thought that we could send letters backwards and forwards and if he didn’t respond in the way I hoped he would, I could just cut all ties and disappear.”
Jeni added that she was “desperate to put the abuse behind me” and to “live a life that wasn’t about my abuse.”
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“I wanted my father. We were talking regularly on the phone for sometimes three, four hours. He was caring, considerate, mindful of other people,” she recalled. “He was everything I had ever wanted him to be.”
As their conversations continued, Richard wrote a letter asking to be relocated to Australia in 2003. “I filled in the paperwork to support his application to stay in Australia permanently,” Jeni said.
After spending two months at the family home, Richard seemingly proved to be the father Jeni always wanted. However, that all changed when Richard allegedly raped her on her birthday.
“The whole process was utterly devastating. It was a moment when I realized that my father was still a child molesting b*****d and nothing was gonna change that,” she recalled. “That was the beginning of the end for him. I withdrew my support for his application to stay in Australia and he was taken into immigration detention.”
Richard was officially deported back to the U.K. in 2005.
Jeni Reported Richard Haynes’ Abuse in 2009
In 2009, Jeni went to the Australian police to report the abuse against Richard.
“We’ve struggled so hard and so long to tell our story and we are telling the truth too big to be believed,” she said.
Jeni then wrote a 90,000-word victim statement, in which the alters were “all heard at once.” She added, “Everybody was integrated within one goal. Document everything.”
Jeni Haynes and Her Alters Testified Against Richard Haynes in 2019
After Jeni worked with the Australian police for several years, Richard was arrested in the U.K. in 2019. He was then extradited to Australia and the case went to trial in February 2019.
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“It’s terrifying and good at the same time,” Jeni said of the trial experience, explaining that each alter was allowed to testify and give evidence during the trial.
Inspector Paul Stamoulis explained that Jeni’s diagnosis was the backbone of the prosecution, so things could have “gone wrong” if the court wasn’t willing to believe her. All of the alters even pledged to tell the truth during the trial.
Halfway through the trial, Jeni said “the prosecution suggests we issue him with an offer and nominate those charges that we would want him to plead guilty to.”
While Jeni was upset that Richard wouldn’t be accountable for all of the charges, she ultimately agreed to give him a plea deal.
“He’s gonna get out after five minutes in prison and it’s not fair, but in the end what mattered wasn’t what he pled guilty to,” she said. “What mattered was that he pled guilty to something and went to prison and that’s why I agreed and in the end I said yes to the plea bargain.”
Richard was ultimately sentenced to serve 45 years in prison, which is the toughest penalty for child abuse in Australia.
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Jeni said that the sentencing was a “joyous moment.” She continued, “I told the truth and they believed me. I do not have enough words to express how grateful I am to those people who actually believed us and helped us.”
The documentary concluded with Jeni reflecting on her relationships with her alters.
“I built a choir and every one of those people in my choir are an essential part and I’m proud of them for what they did in the dark times,” she said. “And I am so proud of them for what they are doing now in our days of sunshine. We are not building to be a Jeni. They’re all working to be a symphony. To become part of me. Everybody becoming a symphony, which is really exciting.”
