Teale, Jean

Born deaf into a dysfunctional family; attended an oral school in Bradford but never developed oral communication skills, becoming frustrated in communication. Won swimming competitions at school, but otherwise did not excel in anything. After leaving school, went to work in a clothing factory and began a series of unstable relationships, drifting into drinking, prostitution, drugs and domestic violence, her life entering a downward spiral. In 1975, after a drunken party, a friend of her pimp started molesting her, and she lashed out with a knife in self-defense, not realizing until later that she had fatally stabbed him. Tried in 1976 for murder, she was instead convicted of manslaughter, serving 2 years in prison.