James Shortman

James Shortman (ne Ellison; April 15 1981-) is the adopted son of Dora Mitchell and Joseph Shortman and the adoptive brother of Sean and Harry. He was adopted at the age of three, after spending a few years in an orphanage. His biological parents were George and Beverly. He has been working for Staffordshire Police since the age of seventeen and was the only witness to the murder of his adoptive father, for which he gave evidence at Mitchell's trial in 2001.

Backstory
Shortman was born James Ellison on April 15 1981 in Hartford. He was the only child of George Ellison (1945-2006) and Beverley Ellison (1952-1984). His father put him up for adoption, after the murder of his mother. He spent four years in Clifford's Orphanage, before being adopted by Joseph and Dora Shortman, who brought him to live with them and their older adopted son Sean in Stoke-on-Trent.

His childhood differed from his brothers, as he was the only was that was abused by their mother. She would sometimes creep into his bedroom and hit him with belts. She always made it clear that she was not his biological mother and that she did not care for him. However unlike Sean, he was allowed to attend school, have friends, although he always found it hard to make any and spend time with his father, who would take him and Harry to special events, such as football matches and buy them gifts and act fatherly towards them. When he was seven, he ran away from home in the early hours of the morning and was not found for several hours by his father, who brought him back home. Although there was a search party to find him, his mother never seemed interested. At the age of twelve, he was woken up one night, by the deafening sounds of his parents arguing, although this never seemed to wake his brothers. He quietly went downstairs and peered in the living room, at his parents shouting at each other. He was the only witness to his father's murder. Upon seeing his mother violently attack his father with a hammer, he suffered with traumatic flashbacks in later life. In spite of the fact that he tried to remain as quiet as possible, his mother still managed to see him after beating her husband to death and called for Sean to silence him. The following year, his mother became remarried to Michael Barryman, who acted like a father to him and his brothers. He joined the police force when he was seventeen and was disowned by his family and was no longer allowed to live at home. In 2001, he gave evidence at his mother's trial, detailing what he had witnessed on the night his father was beaten to death with a hammer. In 2006, he was reunited with his biological father, who was serving time for murder. He confessed to the murder of Shortman's mother, before he had shot himself in his cell.