Soham: Counsellors battle to stem the tide of confusion and grief

Many came to the Cambridgeshire town to express their sorrow; others rang from across the nation and even the world

In a windowless nuclear bunker beneath Shire Hall in Cambridge yesterday, a team of trained telephone counsellors was trying to deal with the outpouring of enraged incredulity generated by the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Parents wanting to know how they could possibly explain such an unimaginable crime to their families, children confused about who they should now trust and concerned callers from as far afield as Australia generated steady traffic to the dedicated hotline.

Some spoke for more than an hour. Others could not bring themselves to voice their thoughts before putting down the phone. In a few cases, all that could be heard on the line was crying.

Beneath the fluorescent striplights that line the low ceiling of a small room at the end of a dim corridor, the counsellors made detailed notes of each expression of outrage, disbelief and desolation.

Sympathetic messages from all over Britain and around the world were logged, forming an impromptu book of condolence.

But it was for the people of Soham – those in the middle of this raging storm – that the advice lines were chiefly set up.

"We have had kids ringing up with their parents' support and those ringing on their own," Richard O'Driscoll, a spokes-man, said. The lines opened at 8am yesterday and will be available 12 hours a day until the surge of grief subsides.

For the people of Soham, still reeling from the news that two dead children found in a wooded area near Lakenheath air base, Suffolk, were probably the missing 10-year-olds, that will take some time.

Robbed of their conviction that the outcome would be positive, they were bereft yesterday – mentally battered by the fortnight's spectacle of watching two of their families go through an unthinkable trauma.

Jenny Pardoe, the counsellors' team leader, said: "The majority obviously feel very shocked and enraged. They want to know how such a thing could happen.

"The most important thing is that they try and talk and get their feelings out. This is a time of shock for many people and their emotions shut down. They feel emotionally frozen and that gets trapped inside them. It gets harder and harder to deal with.

"Some people need support immediately, but others close down for days, weeks, months, even years and then one day they suddenly need to talk to someone."

A little boy of 10 was the youngest to call yesterday. "Children have not got a long life experience and they get frightened of the feelings inside and don't know how to express them," Ms Pardoe said.

"There is a lot of fear, a lot of sadness and a lot of questions. There is a sense of outrage and hurt. We would say it is really important to encourage children to talk and to expect them to feel very upset, very angry and very withdrawn."

Appropriately for what has now become a county-wide crisis, the specially trained educational psychologists and social workers staffing the phone lines are based at Cambridgeshire County Council's Emergency Centre.

The last time that the centre – a bunker behind six steel doors that was designed to withstand nuclear attack – was used was during the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

The walls yesterday were still covered in the maps and charts needed during recent flooding. But the calls coming through were of a very different kind.

Working five at a time in shifts of three hours, a pool of up to 20 counsellors offered consolation and advice – referring those in most need to specialist services such as the Samaritans and Cruise bereavement experts.

Across the country the plight of these two girls and their families has triggered off a "raft of emotions'', Ms Pardoe said.

Even the trained staff were finding it difficult to contend with their own conflicting reactions to the tragedy.

As their team leader explained: "I feel much as anybody else. I feel the same disbelief, shock and anger as anyone. But because of my line of work, I know human behaviour is completely unexpected and unexplainable, and terrible things happen.''