Handful of villagers led man to death
THE mother of a man who took his own life in Garlieston has spoken out about the moment she found her son’s body – and has praised villagers who turned out to offer their condolences amid the controversial background to her son’s death.
Sue Bradley discovered the body of her son, Scott, 36, a father of two, in their Cowgate home in the seaside port last weekend and has blamed some villagers who had lobbied a hate campaign against him over the past year.
But she told the Gazette yesterday: “I’ve been really touched to get so many cards and flowers from locals. Lots of them have passed on their condolences and that’s been comforting.
“Scott had reached a point where the downright lies spread by a handful of villagers became too much and this is what he felt he had to do to get away from them.”
Rumours had begun that Mr Bradley had been placed in the village under a protection scheme as he was one of the the killers of toddler James Bulger, who died in a high-profile murder in Liverpool in 1993.
Mr Bradley was recently featured in a tabloid newspaper in which he claimed he was being made the victim of a vigilante mob in the village who wrongly believed him to be Robert Thompson, one of James’s killers given anonymity after release from jail.
His mum said: “He did a few petty thefts last year but he was punished and spent time in jail.
“But when the community council here began listening to those few villagers who said they wanted us out, he became so hated. What pushed him over the edge at the weekend was that someone started calling him a paedophile and he said to me, ‘Mum, how can I live with being called that on top of a child killer, a bully and everything else?’ ”
Sue said her son had become so anxious about the situation that on Saturday morning, he was walking around their house in an agitated state and told her he was going to hang himself. She said: “I told him to calm down, go and get dressed and we could sit and talk it through. So he went upstairs and I made him a cup of tea and a sandwich. He was taking ages to come back down so I went upstairs and there he was. He’s threatened it before but I never thought he’d do it.”
Sue said Scott didn’t leave a suicide note, as reported in some press, but scribbles had been found in his room outlining his horror at the lies being told about him.
She added: “What disgusted me was when I heard one n Continued on page four
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Weather for Newton Stewart
Thursday 23 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
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