A group of friends who were “rescued” from Loch Leven last year when their innocent camping trip was mistaken for a suicide pact have still to receive compensation for car windows smashed by police during the operation.
David Henderson, Panadiotis Filis and Ross Anderson had taken children Natalia Teo, Jude Anderson and Andrew Vassiliadis on a “heavy metal camping trip” to Reed Bower island on Loch Leven last April. Their night was interrupted by a full-blown rescue attempt by Police Scotland.
More than a year later, Mr Henderson said the group has still not received compensation or an apology from the police for their broken car windows which officers smashed while trying to find a suicide note.
Mr Henderson, a modern languages teacher from Glasgow, said: “You would think you would get some compensation for them smashing up our car windows for no reason or some compensation for having to sleep in the cold cars.
“I just think we were really hard done by by the cops and that they should compensate us.
“It’s been over a year now and they’ve just been fobbing us off, saying I’ve to phone this department and that department.”
Mr Henderson, who is also the singer with black metal band Nyctopia, said officers smashed one window in his car and two windows in Mr Anderson’s car.
He said: “Why would you have to smash two windows for getting into one car?
“They’ve never apologised for it – if anything they said that we were lucky for not putting the children in danger.”
The teacher claims the group is out of pocket for having to replace the broken windows and also for having to call out the AA before they could drive home and then losing their no claims bonus on their insurance.
The group also want an apology as they had to sleep overnight in their cold cars overnight which were covered in broken glass.
Mr Henderson said: “Because my car only had one smashed window we had to put the kids in there because it was slightly less cold.
“Myself, Pan and Ross had to sleep in his car which had two smashed windows because apparently smashing one wasn’t enough.”
Despite the experience the group have continued their heavy metal camping adventures.
Mr Henderson said: “It hasn’t stopped us, we’re still wild camping, we’re still playing in the band.”
Police Scotland said they were unable to comment on the case.
