This is David's story
We left on Thursday evening to catch the 11.30 bus to Heathrow for a long awaited holiday. My mother arrived earlier that day to look after Ben and Tigger, the animals; and she had looked forward to this opportunity to have a break too. She loved coming here to Bradford, taking every chance she could get to go to our church in Bradford, The Abundant Life Centre, as she liked their approach to Christianity.
We arrived at Heathrow about 6 am, just as our house was being raided by the police. Just before the flight, we tried phoning my Mum to make sure everything was OK, but the answer machine was immediately activated. Frustrated we thought that she had done something wrong with the phone, and kept trying till we flew out to our first stop at Abu Dhabi, trying again the moment we got there. As we still got the same response, we were getting really worried; what if something had happened to her? We had an hour to wait for our next flight and spent the whole time trying to get through. Eventually we asked a friend to go round, after work, to make sure she was alright. Little did we know that the police were ransacking our house at the time and my Mother was going through hell having been whisked off to Inverness?
When we arrived in the Philippines some 23 hours later, we tried to contact Mum again. Being very distressed, we phoned my sister in Leicester and asked her to check out what was wrong with the phone or Mother. I felt like crying because I was so worried; but within a half hour of getting to our hotel, we got a text message from my sister to say that Mum had been arrested for child abuse. I was so angry; what can I do from half way around the world? I asked my sister to find out who my mums lawyer was so I could contact him and help put this right. It was obvious to me that my sister, Angela, had been up to her tricks again. She has a long history of making up false allegations about sex abuse. I think it is a mental disorder with the main aim to get attention and/or deflecting criticism when she has a problem of her own; but what ever the reason for her making the claims, the authorities should have known every allegation she made has proven false in the past. Perhaps Margaret Rigg, who knew about past allegations, had left the Social Services in Stornoway, and no one else had checked the records.
I kept thinking "if I could get to the authorities, I could put them right about her with the necessary proof and everything would be sorted in an instance"; but it soon got worse. One week later, we learnt that we were also wanted by the police. Trying to get hold of the lawyer was like requesting an audience with the queen.
I phoned a friend, a Minister in Ness at the church we used to go to when we lived on the island, to see if he would visit my mother when she got to Stornoway. He said he would; then I got a text from him to say the police advised him not to get involved. For some reason we still do not know, he did as he was told.
This came as an incredible shock; but I was grateful that I now belong to a church that does not care where it goes to help people in need. I loved the Island, and it was my heartfelt desire to see a Christian revival there, but more than ever I see that an awful lot of changes have to happen before this can possibly happen. The judgemental religious attitudes, that obviously decided everyone accused was guilty, have no part of Jesus. I think he called them white washed tombs. Religion kills but only Jesus gives true life. Maybe one day things will change. Till then, I just thank God for the minority of beautiful Christian people up there. One good friend did help me by asking a minister from Inverness to visit Mum when she was on remand.
We got a lot of support from our church in Bradford, and our family and friends; but it was not easy for them either.
That first night was spent on the phone to try and sort things out. Our dogs were put in kennels so we had to get someone to get them out. It cost us a fortune for just one night. What made things even harder was that the people who went to collect the dogs got such abuse from the kennel owners and were reluctant to get involved any more. My mother had been so worried about the dogs, not knowing that we were on to it, she made a phone call to a friend who really flipped when they got a call from a prison. Our family took the dogs in but it was hard for them as the dogs were so traumatised by their experience they were sick and would not eat, which upset the person looking after them.
We tried to get a flight home as quickly as we could, but we had to wait for nearly 2 weeks before we could get one, and a year later we are still paying off this extra cost. By this time we had done what we can to discover what had happened, all by phone. We were right. Angela had convinced easily led people at NCH and Women's Aid, who are all to willing to accept abuse allegations because of their beliefs, although the latter had no way of knowing the sort of person Angie was.
The police want everyone to believe that as her claims and the children's allegations fit so they must be true. Yet, although the children were in care and she was not supposed to see them, everyone knows that she used to meet them in town, so it's obviously that she could have influenced them to make similar allegations.
Why would the children do this? We know that it was upsetting for them that we were no longer on the Island, and they feel alone without family even though we phoned occasionally and their father more often. Yet, the reason they were alone was because Angie had made several false allegations against her husband to cover up her own problems and he was kept from the children for that reason.
When we arrived at Heathrow, we got a very good friend to pick us up and take us straight to my sister's house in Leicester, so we could see Mum who was by now out on bail. She could not go home because someone had thrown a concrete block through her window. It was even more difficult for her because she could only stay with my sister as the local social services had banned her from being near her great granddaughter, so it was hard for all concerned.
It was a very tearful meeting and was so upset it broke my heart that she should suffer like this at her time of life. She had gone through an awful marriage and lived for her children no matter what trouble they bought home for her. She did marry again to a man who I was honoured to call dad, but he had died, which is why she moved to Lewis to be near me. She is a great woman and even though all this has taken its toll, her faith in Jesus will get her through.
We phoned the police at Inverness to tell them we were on our way to see them. Incredibly, given we were supposed to be an evil satanic coven, they told us they were too busy and told us to wait till Wednesday. We thought that they may have discovered they had made a big blunder.
We contacted a lawyer who told us that under no circumstances should we answer any questions and to say 'no comment' to every thing because they would not be looking for the truth but would use our words to suit their case. How right that proved to be too.
We arrived on time and were taken into separate rooms and interviewed. It was a really harrowing experience, and the things we were accused of were so unreal: Satanic worship along with wife swapping and raping young girls. How could I worship Satan being a Christian knowing that Jesus has saved me from Satan? We had fostered the girls for a time during their parent's separation and really loved them. To be accused of raping them was appalling. The rape the children suffered was obviously the constant battering by the social services and interrogation by the NCH, all in order to support the word of a known liar because it suited their beliefs. These people had clearly leaned nothing from Orkney.
After the interrogation, we were finger printed and forced to give a DNA sample then put into cells. Jacky was released eventually, but I was kept in over night to attend court the next day.
The next day was sheer hell, all the waiting, pacing the floor of my cell, and eventually taken to the court cells. The distain on the officers faces that handcuffed me and took me there made me feel like dirt even though I knew I was innocent. Again more pacing till taken into the courtroom and given bail, then back in the cells to await the issue of the bail papers.
I was at last released and came out of the courthouse and not a soul around. I got scared. Where were Jacky and my brother-in-law (who drove us up to Inverness)? I walked around Inverness totally lost and disorientated. Where were they? My whole life in ruins. At this moment I would have welcomed death I was crying and hopelessly devastated.
A short while later I found Jacky who was equally distraught looking for me.
It is amazing what one person can do with their lies and the damage their lies can do to others.
I hope that all the hardships we have all been through will not be wasted and we can bring about a change in the way allegations are investigated.