About Jack
Jack’s Biography
Jack Jarman lived a life marked by pain, survival, and longing. As a child, he was cast aside by his parents—verbally abused, neglected, and physically tormented. Throughout his life, he struggled with mental illness born from that trauma, culminating in a tragic end in a psychiatric hospital where he was failed yet again. But Jack was more than his suffering. He was intelligent, funny, and full of potential. This page is here to honour the truth of his life and what could have been. This isn’t just Jack’s story, it’s the story of every child who goes unheard.
Jack Jarman was not born broken, he was broken by the people who should have loved him most.
From his earliest days, Jack faced unimaginable cruelty: emotional, physical, and psychological abuse at the hands of his own family. Nicknamed ‘Retard’ by his father and often treated as less than human, Jack’s childhood was a cycle of neglect, humiliation, and pain.
This website and the book it supports ‘The Boy They Called Retard’ are here to tell Jack’s story with unflinching honesty. Not just to remember him, but to spark change, awareness, and justice for the countless others like him.