Harry Shortman

Harry Daniel Shortman (né Henry Pearce; September 30 1984-) is the adopted son of Dora Mitchell and Joseph Shortman and the adoptive younger brother of Sean and James. He was adopted at the age of three, after spending a few years in a children's home. His biological parents were Kevin Jones and Nancy Pearce, who were young and unmarried. He was put up for adoption by his maternal grandfather.

Background
Shortman was born as Henry Pearce on September 30 1984 in Derbyshire, England. He was the only child of Kevin Jones (b. 1969) andand Nancy Pearce (b. 1970). Because he was born out of wedlock to teenaged parents, his maternal grandfather put him up for adoption. He spent a few years in Clifford's Orphanage and was adopted at the age of three by Joseph and Dora Shortman, who took him to live with them and their two other adopted children Sean and James in Stoke-on-Trent.

His upbringing was rather anomalous, compared to other children and he was treated different by each parent. However, unlike his eldest brother Sean, he was allowed to attend school, have friends and spend time with his father. His mother was overly protective of Sean, due to losing a previous child, but used to be abusive to her other adopted son James. She always took the side of Sean, whenever the two would fight. His father used to take him and James out to special events and buy them gifts, but would leave Sean out, because their mother never wanted anything bad to happen to him, but was never interested in what happened to Shortman or James. He was seven, when he was told by his father, that he was adopted. Starting at the age of eight, he used to get sent out by his mother, to steal from shops and neighbours and was once caught doing so by a police officer, who brought him back home. The officer never took things any further, due to his mother claiming that she would punish him. One year later, he was told by his mother, that his father had gone away on a "business trip" and that she did not know if he would ever return. Just three days shy of his tenth birthday, his mother became remarried to Michael Barryman. He was sixteen, when his mother was incarcerated for the murder of his father, his stepfather and her first husband and sentenced to life imprisonment. He then never saw her again and went to search for his biological mother.