The family of a man cleared of rape face having to move from their Mearns home at the end of a five-year ‘nightmare’.
Brian Matthew and his wife, Brenda, claim the community of Marykirk has ostracised them since news first emerged of charges being faced by the 60-year-old lorry driver which were the subject of a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.
Mr Matthew was acquitted by a jury of all the allegations, but his wife said life in the quiet village on the Mearns/Angus border has become intolerable and they are now looking to move.
The trial related to alleged historical sexual offences spanning a period of more than 25 years. Not proven verdicts were returned on nine charges and not guilty on a further one.
Two further allegations were dropped during the course of the week-long trial.
Speaking exclusively to The Courier, Mrs Matthew said the family’s troubles began when news of the charges broke last year.
“This has been going on since 2008 but our lives have been hell since that happened in September,” she said. “
“Someone up here photocopied an article from the newspaper and put it up all over the village hall and the bus stop.
“We managed to rip them down before any of the kids saw them.”
The family have four children, aged from two to 15, who Mrs Matthew said they had tried to shield from the spiteful behaviour.
“We had to keep things as normal as possible for the sake of the kids,” she said.
“I sat through every day of the trial. I took my vows for a reason and stuck by him (Brian), but my life was hell.”
She said she and her husband had felt “intimidated” during and after the case.
“All I want is for folk to know the outcome of the trial to clear his (Brian’s) name,” she said.
But Mrs Matthew admitted that the idyll of village life in a community the family loved had been ruined by the case.
“We’ve been married four years in October and together for fourteen years,” said Mrs Matthew.
“We came here because it was better schooling for the kids and were happy, but we’re now looking to move away and have housing and that all completed.
“People will still speak to me now, just a ‘Hi’ in the passing, but they’ll now totally walk past Brian.”
“Everybody was friendly before this. Now they just look at you.”