Lily Smith's Story
On the morning of 3rd of October 2003 my dog, Lady, awoke me with her barking. I was looking after the house for my son who left on Thursday night to go on Holiday to the Philippines. It was 6am in the morning, and there was a load of banging at the front door. I quickly pulled on some clothes and ran down the stairs. The front door was locked and the key was in the kitchen. I got the key and opened the door. Several police officers entered the house and said they had a search warrant to search the house. I was terrified and wondered what on earth was going on. The dogs were barking and very afraid too. Then they asked my name, and said "you need to come with us to Inverness so we can interview you." I thought here we go again, Angela has been up to her tricks. I thought 'oh well, I was going shopping in Bradford but Inverness will be a good a place as any'; so I packed a small case of clothing. I was worried about the dogs but the police said they will put them into kennels for the night; the poor things didn't know what was going on.
On arriving in Inverness I was interviewed and arrested for abuse of my daughter's children. This was hell; I could not believe any of the things I was experiencing or the allegations against me.
The worst thing that I experienced was after I was fingerprinted etc. I was put in a cell. I was 75 years old and never been in police stations and certainly never a cell. I kept thinking it will be over soon because it is obviously a mistake and they will realise this. Then the biggest trauma of it all was I have a bladder problem and need to change my underwear several times a day, by this time I was in desperate need of a change. It should not have been a problem, because I had plenty in my case. But, every time I asked for some out of my case the officers said they could not do so has they did not have a police woman on duty. This was Friday night. Next morning I asked again for some clean underwear only to be told that no police women on duty over the weekend!
I also felt dirty because I could not wash my hands and had to eat with dirty hands. I had to wait till late on Sunday to even get a wash. I felt so much better but I still had a problem of wet underwear, so on Monday morning when I was allowed a wash again so I took my knickers off and washed them in the sink and put them back on wet but at least they were cleanish.
Having been flown to the Island, the ride from Stornoway airport was really frightening because of people bashing the van and shouting obscenities at me.