Sajeda Momin

London: Fiona MacKeown, the mother of slain teen Scarlett Keeling, has decided to send her six other children back to UK so they can be “safe at home”. But the ‘home’ they will be returning to is far from the idyll she would have us believe.

‘Home’ for MacKeown’s remaining eight children is a ramshackle collection of buildings and caravans on a plot of land in the heart of the Devon countryside in south east England.

‘West lodge’ as the family likes to call it consists of four tatty caravans parked on a nine-acre plot of land in Bideford. A sign outside the gate reads ‘No trespassing’.

Currently it is lying empty despite the fact that MacKeown’s two older children Halloran and Silas are still in the UK. Empty beer bottles are strewn about and rubbish lies mixed in mud. A mountain of old tyres lie in one corner of the site.

MacKeown, 42, originally from Hertfordshire, struggled for many years to make a living from a stall at Camden market. Failing that, she took her nine children, from four different men, and her 47-year-old partner Rob Clarke to Devon.

The family survived on the only regular income they had- weekly benefits from the government.

They grew their own vegetables, had no electricity and drew water from a borehole on the plot of land. They occasionally sold a puppy or pony they bred to supplement their income. The family's trip to Goa was partially funded by the sale of a pony.

Residents in the nearby village of Bradworthy described the children as polite and wellmannered, but said that sometimes they attended school and sometimes their mother would teach them at home.

"Fiona was very proud of her being a Romany gipsy. It's hardly surprising the way they lived that Scarlett was left on her own," said one of the villagers.

The family flew out to Goa in November with the exception of the eldest son Halloran who is 19 years old. When he was critically injured in a road accident, the family continued to stay in India with the exception of the 17-yearold Silas who returned home.

MacKeown is now sending her other children back to Britain claiming "I am just worried about their safety".

"I am not prepared to take any chances. I know I will miss them but I would prefer knowing they are home safe," she told a British newspaper.

Source : DNA