Since the inception of the Savile/Duncroft allegations, one name has been repeated again and again behind the scenes. Fiona Scott-Johnston. This woman has much to answer for. So far, her tarradiddles have cost the British taxpayer in excess of three million pounds - and if Justice Sales doesn't find against NatWest, tort lawyers will drain the Savile Trust resources, and rob the intended recipients of the charity monies. Further, it could cost the taxpayer an additional thirty thousand pounds per claim. This has to stop.
British television viewers will perhaps remember this face from the ITV show - for some odd reason she retained her real name in the show, i.e. "Fiona." But first, let's review an message that many former Duncroft women received from her via Friends Reunited in December 2011, to wit:
"Hi,
I hope you had a very happy Christnas and that you and your family/loved ones have a wonderful New Year.
I am sorry to contact you like this but as you may or may not know a very emminent TV presenter/prog. maker, has been contacting many girls who are aware of what happened at Duncroft. Many of us were interviewed by Police andJournalists, but nothing has been achieved as not enough people would 'speak out'. Most of us have put those awful years behind us and grown on the experience of being a 'Duncroft Girl''. I know Mark, (W-T) has contacted many people directly, he has spoken to those staff who are still living and as he says he has "dotted the i's and crossed the t's". It is now up to us to help him. Many of us know what happened, experienced it or just pretended it is not our problem etc. well, I think it is our problem as most of the e-mails I get from ex-girls concern the offences of past visitors to Duncroft, spanning many years. I was not at Duncroft for many of the years concerned but I am aware of what happened. Being aware and the person concerned giving first hand reports are two different things. I would therefore urge you to take this, our last chance to get the many people who exploited us. We know who they are and if you would rather contact Mark directly then I think that is correct (if you want his email address or further details then please ask me!). Please, please take this last chance to do the right thing. even if you know nothing then that is important as it puts the timeline in perspective.
I know what I am asking is very difficult but many have families and have been told to 'Forget'. I am not certain how we can forget until it is corrected, so, I would therefore ask you, and no one else, to do what is right as we will never have another chance.
I am seeing this man in a few days and as I have much memorabilia from those days I would also ask you to sort out your physical memories and contact either Mark or myself. Please remember that NO ONE else can do this for you and we must speak out if we want to correct history. This is really our LAST CHANCE.
Thank you so much for putting up with my ranting and remember all you have to do is press the reply button even if you think it is not important or anything, we still need to know.
Thank you again and Happy New Year,
Lots of love
Fiona (Scott)Johnston..."
Now this Friends Reunited message contains at least a few lies, i.e. Mark Williams-Thomas NEVER spoke to staff members or other girls. I was not a recipient, but a friend was, and she forwarded it to me, expressing disgust with its motives. Williams-Thomas certainly was not an 'eminent' anything. And why a 'round robin' message on social media, instead of contacting these "ex-girls" that she has received emails from in private as she claims?
Fiona has additionally claimed to be a degreed professor, to be suffering from a debilitating disease and was in a wheelchair (the disease she claimed to be suffering from is a skin disease, and very unlikely that you would end up in a wheelchair as a result) and one lie piled atop the other. She called herself "Susan Melling" which may have been her birth name before she was adopted by BBC power-producer Alastair Scott-Johnston. And that family relationship is the key to this whole sorry mess. Along with Meirion Jones' relationship to Margaret Jones, the former headmistress of Duncroft.
Fiona informed another former Duncroft woman that she used the "Melling" persona because she didn't want her 'pupils' (whoever they might be) to find out she'd been at Duncroft, and admitted she was really Fiona Scott-Johnston. I have an email from that woman to that effect, as well as a copy of the email that this woman sent to Scott-Johnston expressing her disgust with the deception. I've got lots of things in writing, unfortunately for Fiona/Susan Melling.
Although this is hearsay, a Daily Mail reporter told me that Fiona's sitting room was lavishly decorated with fake diplomas - maybe that was when she delivered the forged letter from the Surrey Police to the Mail, but the letter was also a clumsy forgery as everyone knows, and the police of course did not write it.
Back when all this was blowing up, I contacted a Duncroft staff member who knows Fiona well, to try and tamp all this down; this staff member told me that she was very angry that her personal telephone number had been given out without her permission.
Fiona also had possession of a database that contained the contact information of many former Duncroft women. This violates the Data Privacy Act. She further claimed to have gotten it from a 60s woman, yet another lie. She then allegedly created a video of herself burning the memory stick. Never saw that, but you can burn any old memory stick and claim whatever you want.
I suspect maybe Fiona had a bit of a 'thing' for our Jimmy, and he likely rebuffed her. She certainly kept photos of them together in her house, and boasted on line that she had been asked by Margaret Jones to contact him for the purpose of having him come to a fundraiser in 1979, I believe it was. He had not been to the school in several years prior to that, otherwise Margaret Jones would have picked up the phone herself, doncha think?
Notice that Fiona even wears her hair a la Savile, but it's flaming red, like the lies she tells. I don't think she can stop at this point, she's in waaaay too deep. She's lied to the police for a start and because of her lies a nation has gone mad and at least one man has been murdered as a result of the ongoing hysteria. I think we've all had enough of Miss Fiona and her fibs. Time to put an end to it.
Many thanks to Eric Hardcastle, blogger and former consultant in the security field, and private investigator, based in Melbourne. All on his own, he figured this one out in July 2013. I have never communicated with Eric, and didn't know of his existence until about a week ago when he commented on this blog, noting that Maddie McCann's family had asked Mark WT to stop insinuating that he was working for them.
I found this entirely by accident today. Except for a misunderstanding about how Duncroft was run, he's spot on. The Family Ties That Bind.
Fiona has won a bravery award.
http://www.bestdaily.co.uk/your-life/news/a610945/meet-the-best-bravest-women-2014-award-winners.html
Posted by: Cloudberry XXX | 11/21/2014 at 07:53 AM
An ex Duncroft girl who was there in 1972 told me that she knew in 2007 that they (Fiona et al) were going to do this!
Posted by: Ellen Coulson | 03/01/2014 at 06:52 AM
Strange Fiona claims she was still in touch with Jimmy in 1979 - how did she stay in contact with him? Another negation of the abuse claims.
Posted by: Ellen Coulson | 02/28/2014 at 05:10 AM
You're bang on the money Sally, and the Fiona thing would make quite a bang if any UK journalist had the guts to light the blue touch-paper.
"Back in 2010, the same Fiona Scott Johnston had been on Voy Forums, and as suggested by the tone of the Friends Reunited post, she seemed to have genial memories of her old school. On a Post dated 17th March 2010, amongst others comments Fiona Scott Johnston writes,
I also remember many other staff and have stayed in contact with staff from both Duncroft and Norman Lodge. I am sorry that Duncroft does not exist anymore but then we all grow old!!..... I hope things are going well for you and all ex-girls of this one time unique place.
Can Fiona Scott Johnston be the same Fiona as the one who quoted by the Daily Star, speaking of sexual assault? In my enquiries on the web, at first I made a mistake and suddenly noticed how very important is the right spelling."
http://jimcannotfixthis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-navy-lark.html
Posted by: Moor Larkin | 02/27/2014 at 02:28 AM
Wow, Eric's piece sums the whole affair up very nicely. I'm going to send a link to everyone I know.
Posted by: SpectrumIsGreen | 02/26/2014 at 01:30 AM