HIDDEN

ONE REMARKABLE WOMANOVER 30 YEARS OF FOSTERINGCARER TO MORE THAN 150 CHILDRENTayo arrives at Cathy s with only the clothes he stands up in He has been brought to her by the police but he is calm polite and very well spoken and not at all like the children she normally fosters The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo s history but apart from his name and age it is blank Tayo has no past Tayo is an invisible child kidnapped from his loving father in Nigeria and brought illegally to the UK by his drink and drugs dependent prostitute mother where he is put to work in a sweatshop in Central London When he sustains an injury and is no longer earning he is cast out When Cathy takes Tayo to school he points out a dozen different addresses where he has stayed in the last six months often being left alone Tayo lies and manipulates situations to his own advantage and Cathy has to be continually on guard Tayo s social worker searches all computer databases but there is no record of Tayo he has only attended school for three terms and has never seen a doctor He and his mother have been evading the authorities by living underground With his mother recently released from prison Tayo is desperate to live with his father in Nigeria b