An abuse victim who developed thousands of personalities as a coping mechanism was so severely abused by her father as a child she required reconstructive surgery.
Jeni Haynes, 49, can present as any one of 2500 different personalities in a single day, including four-year-old ‘Symphony’, and an eight-year-old boy named ‘Little Ricky’.
She is believed to have developed the disorder as a ‘sophisticated’ coping mechanism to deal with the sustained abuse she experienced at the hands of her father Richard, now 74, from the ages of four to 14.
Abuse victim Jeni Haynes (pictured) who developed thousands of personalities as a coping mechanism, was so severely abused by her father as a child she required reconstructive surgery
Ms Haynes (pictured right) was brutally abused by her father (pictured centre) from the age of four to 14 and required reconstructive surgery for the damage done to her
‘He heard me beg him to stop, he heard me cry, he swathe pain and the terror he was inflicting on me. My life has been devastated by his selfishness,’ Ms Haynes told 60 Minutes.
‘I’ve paid an enormous price for his depraved sexual desires. To date I’ve been the one paying the price.’
Her father pleaded guilty to the string of crimes he was charged over for his decade long abuse of his own daughter from when she was just four until she was 14.
He was charged with 25 counts of rape, buggery and indecent assault at their Sydney home in the 1970s and 1980s.
From the witness box in the NSW District Court, the 49-year-old testified against her father’s actions and the long-lasting effect it has had on her mental well-being.
The court heard from ‘Symphony’, ‘Little Ricky’, a bike-loving teenager named ‘Muscles’ and a handful of Ms Haynes’ other personalities.
The court also heard how Ms Haynes underwent multiple surgeries to reconstruct her coccyx, bowels and anus due to the brutality of the abuse she had to endure.
‘My dad inflicted, chose to inflict, severe, sadistic, violent abuse that was completely unavoidable, inescapable and life threatening and he chose to do this every day of my entire childhood,’ she said.
Richard Haynes, 74, (pictured) pleaded guilty to the 25 counts of rape, buggery and indecent assault at their Sydney home in the 1970s and 1980s
Because Ms Haynes was a child at the time of the abuse she was given the chance to remain anonymous during the trial.
However if she did so her father would also have remained anonymous, so Ms Haynes made the brave choice to take the story public.
She said she wanted her father to go to jail with ‘everyone knowing what he did’.
Ms Haynes was finally able to face her father and officially level her accusation at him on February 21 during his trial.
Her personalities were each used as key witnesses, a first in the Australian courts, and Ms Haynes said the feeling of being able to tell her story in open court was one of validation.
In the 60 Minutes interview Ms Haynes admitted she never realised having multiple voices inside her head was considered abnormal.
‘I didn’t know that you’re only supposed to have one personality,’ she said.
Almost 90 per cent of Multiple Personality Disorder cases, now more commonly referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder, involve some form of trauma or abuse.
It is often thought of as a coping mechanism for victims to disconnect, distance or separate themselves from the trauma.
‘Jenny was born and my father started to abuse her. An alter was created who came to take dad’s abuse so Jenny didn’t have to,’ Ms Haynes previously said.
‘Symphony intended to testify in court for the whole thing. When my father raped Jennifer Haynes he raped Symphony. He pleaded guilty because he is scared to death of hearing Symphony testify about everything he did to her.’
Ms Haynes, who now lives in Queensland, said the other egos came along after the abuse became too difficult for Symphony to deal with.
‘It’s not an act of mental illness or playing silly games, pretending to be other people,’ Jeni tells Liz Hayes.
‘You are protecting yourself. You are protecting your soul, and that’s what I did.’
Ms Haynes, who now lives in Queensland, said the other egos came along after the abuse became too difficult for Symphony to deal with
Ms Haynes’ 2500 personalities all have their own voices and characteristics.
He was extradited from the United Kingdom in February 2017 to face multiple counts of sexual abuse against his daughter at the heir homes in Dulwich HIll and Greenacre.
The case was one of the worst cases of child sex abuse ever documented in Australia.
Outside court, a relieved Ms Haynes told reporters she was stunned but thrilled her father had ‘owned up’ to what he’d done.
‘The guilty plea is my father admitting everything he did and I could not be happier,’ she said.
Ms Haynes said she wanted her father to face her in court because he’d previously thought of her as ‘not real’.
‘I am a blow-up doll … and today he had to face the blow-up doll and I hope he enjoyed every minute of it,’ she said.
Ms Haynes urged other child victims to come forward and issued a warning to their abusers.
‘Children remember,’ she said.
‘We will tell and we will put you in a courtroom … and you will go to jail.’
The judge had previously made an order allowing Ms Haynes to be identified after she indicated her consent.
The allegations were so serious that the case was a judge-only trial because it was feared a jury could be left psychologically traumatised.
Haynes will be sentenced on May 31.
Jeni Haynes expressed her relief to reporters when she left a Sydney court after her father Richard pleaded guilty to 25 counts of rape, buggery and indecent assault