A woman kidnapped and paralysed by her evil boyfriend has finally been able to give her mum a miracle hug.
Angel Lynn was just 19 when her abusive boyfriend Chay Bowskill, 21, kidnapped her as she walked near her Loughborough home in September 2020.
The brute grabbed her in a bear-like grip, forcing her into a van, then driving away with his friend, Rocco Sansome.
Angel then fell onto the road. Bowskill has stated he is unsure if she fell or jumped and Angel has been unable to give her account.
Angel's brain injuries were so severe, her parents, Nikki and Paddy, 54, were warned she would die numerous times, reports the Mirror.
She has been unable to speak, eat, or walk, since.
For many months, she has barely responded to anything, a state so devastating Nikki admits she wondered if she would have been better off at peace.
Each day her arm would reach around her silent daughter, her hand resting tightly on her back long enough to squeeze every ounce of love she could into the motionless body.
For 18 months, all Nikki Lynn could do was clasp her once vivacious, blonde-haired Angel, hoping the depth of her emotion would stir something locked deep inside. But nothing.
Then around two weeks ago, Nikki felt, for the first time, Angel’s right arm reach around her back in return; her hand lightly press her back, then move to stroke her hair.
She can only nod when I ask if it felt like a miracle. She didn’t believe her daughter would ever hug her again.
“She just put her hand straight around my back and started tapping me,” recalls 47-year-old Nikki, exhausted and barely believing.
“She didn’t hug much before, she was a typical teenager, but she would give you a hug if you were upset. It’s very special to have that hug now.”
In January, Bowskill was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after being found guilty of kidnap, controlling and coercive behaviour and perverting the course of justice, but the Lynns were outraged, and two weeks ago at the Court of Appeal, the sentence was increased to 12 years.
Sansome was jailed for 21-months for his part in the kidnap, which he denied.
It was around that acutely stressful time that 21-year-old Angel began to make incredible breakthroughs.
Revealing them for the first time, the family say not only has she hugged her mother, but she has smiled, attempted to blow a kiss, wave, hold the TV remote, and written words in response to questions, all using her right hand - her left side is more severely impacted.
Incredibly, she has also started to make noises, impressing doctors who have referred her for specialist speech therapy. The family now hope one day Angel might be able to reveal what happened to her.
Beside her, Paddy speaks little, but when he does his overwhelming emotion is clear.
“She has blown me a kiss,” he confides. “She has put her hand to her mouth and holds it there for at least a minute, and then tries to blow. She does try. It means a lot.”
Asking Angel what happened 18 months ago is something for “down the line” they say. Her progress is still painstaking.
This avalanche of small milestones coincided with stopping one medication, Baclofen, an antispasmodic.
They hope eventually further reduction of medication for seizures may allow her to try to eat again. She is currently fed through a tube to her stomach.
Today, Angel lives in a 24-hour care home, although she can make home visits of up to four hours in a wheelchair. She is still at grave risk of pneumonia, and cannot lie flat.
The family supply bedding and towels so the smell reminds her of home; they make sure she has familiar toiletries, Ted Baker body lotion, Angel perfume. They do her nails and hair.
They would desperately like her back home, but need an extension for specialist facilities and a carer, and are fundraising for long-term care.
She is hardly recognisable as the young girl she was. Stunning, stubborn, a teen who loved getting manicures and going shopping with her mum, who adored her little sister and brother, Kelsie, ten, and Jimmy, nine, who has severe autism.
She studied public services at college and had thought of working in forensic science.
But she withdrew when she got together with Bowskill, a criminal who has now got an extra two years added to his jail term for burglary conspiracy, as part of a gang that stole prestige cars.
The road ahead is long for all this family. However, hope grows with the hugs and kisses. Nikki dares to imagine a future.
“She is locked in, but every time I see her I tell her ‘Don’t give up, keep trying, keep telling yourself you can do it’,” she says.
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