Chapter Twenty-Eight #3
I wanted him dead. I wanted to kill him with my bare hands.
Not only had he destroyed her hopes and shattered her dreams. Not only had he humiliated her in front of her friends and family.
Made her a laughing stock among her neighbours.
Betrayed her trust, robbed her of thirty thousand pounds, run up huge debts on her credit card and left her with a huge mess of a wedding to cancel and committed to a house she no longer wanted to buy.
He’d also broken her heart.
And you want to know the worst thing? He’d done it intentionally.
You don’t know my mum, Emily, but everyone who’s ever met her will tell you she’s the kindest, most loving person you’ll ever meet.
She trusted Ernie Devlin, and she was willing to give him the whole world, yet he cold-heartedly set out to destroy her with his greed and selfishness.
As if she meant nothing. And to him, she didn’t. She was just a means to an end.
I wish I could say that was the end of it, but there were more shocks to come.
Six weeks later Ernie was arrested when he tried to return to the UK.
Turns out that Mum wasn’t the only woman he’d duped.
Dozens of women had come forward. They all told the same story – he was a widower, they were supposed to get married, they were buying a house together but he didn’t have his share of the deposit .
. . Well, you can see where this is going, can’t you?
Mum didn’t attend his trial, but I did. But if I thought I was going to see some remorse, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
He didn’t apologise to his victims, ask for forgiveness, or show any shame for what he’d done.
As he left the court on the first day he even had the audacity to smile for the photographers.
That’s when I hit him.
I couldn’t help it. Something just snapped inside of me.
After everything he’d put my mum through, to see him smiling was just too much.
I jumped in front of the reporters and wiped the smile off his face.
I was promptly arrested, but because of the circumstances, the police let me off with just a caution.
I’ve never been in trouble with the law my whole life, apart from a few parking tickets, but I still don’t regret it.
I’m not defending my actions, but as far as I’m concerned, after what Ernie Devlin did, he got off lightly.
On 24 May 2003 he was found guilty and got six years for deception and theft. He was ordered to pay Mum back all that money, plus legal costs, and also had to repay the money he’d stolen from the other women. He declared himself bankrupt. Eighteen months later he was let out for good behaviour.
They say time heals, but I don’t think my mum will ever get over what Ernie did to her.
And I know I’ll certainly never forgive him.
When I saw him again on the tour after all this time, I admit I wanted to kill him.
Or at least beat the living daylights out of him.
But we know how the legal system works. I already had a caution.
If I laid a finger on him, I’d be the one going to jail.
Personally I wouldn’t have cared, it would be worth it to wipe the smile off his face, but Mum’s had enough upset in her life.
She didn’t need to see me in court, to have it all dragged up again.
So I decided to just ignore him. To avoid him. To pretend he didn’t exist.
But then, that night, I saw him with Maeve.
The way he was, all laughing and jokey, showing her pictures of his grandchildren, I realised he hadn’t learned his lesson.
That’s exactly how he was with Mum. (By the way, just for the record, they’re not his grandchildren.
He doesn’t have any. Neither did he ever have a wife who was tragically killed in a car accident.
And that engagement ring that was his mother’s?
Stolen from one of his ‘ex-fiancées’.) I couldn’t bear to see him doing it again. Taking advantage of someone like Maeve.
So that morning on the coach on the way to Winchester Cathedral, I decided to tell her in confidence about my mum.
She was shocked. Who wouldn’t be? She was probably disappointed and upset too, and for that I’m sorry.
But the way I see it, I saved her from getting a whole lot more hurt in the long run.
This way, Maeve will never have to go through what my mum and all those other women had to go through.
To this day, my mum’s never seen a penny of that thirty thousand pounds. She’s due to retire soon and it was meant to be her nest egg, but to be honest, it was never about the money. Money is just money, but you can’t put a price on a broken heart, can you?
I know what you’re thinking right now. It’s my word against his, right? And he’s the kind old man and I’m the arsehole. Which is why I’ve included some press clippings from the time. I don’t expect you to believe me, Emily, but it’s there in black and white – so you decide for yourself.
But before you read them, I’ll say bye. For what it’s worth it was good meeting you. And if you’ve made it this far, thanks for listening.
Spike