Finally some hope after a life of misery
A Shotts man sexually abused as a child by mass murderer Thomas Hamilton could be offered a place in a rehab centre after Scotland’s Drugs Minister personally intervened.
MSP Angela Constance got in touch with Francis McGowan after hearing of his struggle to get proper help for his addiction.
The Scottish Government Minister offered to meet Francis after he provided her with a summary of his troubled life and told how he is “hanging on by a thread”.
The 52-year-old turned to alcohol and drugs to blot out the guilt and shame he felt after being targeted by Hamilton almost two decades before the Dunblane Massacre.
In 1977, aged eight and living in Stirling, he joined a Sea Rovers club Hamilton had set up.
A year later the former Scout leader began sexually abusing Francis, who turned to drink and drugs soon after as he attempted to obliterate what had happened. The abuse would prove the catalyst to a life of crime and addiction for the youngster, who by the age of 12 had already overdosed on pain killers.
Francis said: “I started drinking as a child and I knew I wasn’t doing it in the same way as other boys. I was chasing oblivion.
“I’ve had a chaotic life, utterly dedicated to obliterating the memory of what happened to me as a child.”
Brought up in the Raploch scheme in the shadow of Stirling Castle, Francis’s parents were addicted to painkillers.
After joining his club Hamilton turned up at his home to take him away on camping trips.
Francis said: “Hamilton was a bully, it seems nuts to think of it now, but he’d take us to the range in Stirling and let us fire guns.”
As a 13-year-old Francis found the courage to tell the police about Hamilton’s despicable deeds.
They failed to act and 13 years later 16 school children, all aged five and six, and a teacher were shot and killed in a cowardly attack at Dunblane Primary. Another 15 people were left injured.
“They accused me of making it up,” said Francis. “I’ve spent so much time thinking about how he could uld have been stopped. It is hard ard to take.”
F ra n c i s’s l i f e ha s b e e en n spent battling addiction, n, mostly from behind bars, but despite pleading for help and nd ticking the boxes as a prime me candidate for residential al rehab, he was told it wasn’t n’t available to him.
He has cut down his is Methadone intake to less s than a quarter of what is s was six years ago, and is s totally convinced that rehab b could end his drugs hell l entirely. He has written n to Nicola Sturgeon and begged his MSP and drug worker for help.
The Scottish Government recently announced an extra £250 million for drug programmes, 40 per cent of which has been earmarked for rehab places.
Francis said: “All I’ve ever been given is an hour a week of group therapy. Then I go home in a worse state than when I went in. It’s Methadone or Subutex, no counselling after it, and an appointment every two or three months to get a 10-minute talk to let me pick my script up.”
His life has consisted of a desperate cycle of reoffending and a seemingly revolving door of prison, for a lengthy catalogue of convictions such as shoplifting, housebreaking, and drugs offences. He regrets the effects his offending has had on others.
Francis added: “I look back on my childhood now and think ‘what chance did I have?’
“Crime was a way of life for me. I never considered the effects on other people. I feel ashamed of breaking into people’s houses.
“That’s a crime committed when you have no pride left and are chasing drugs at any cost.”
Francis believes with the right help he could yet steer himself down the right road in life.
He was contacted by a private company after they read of his desperation to get himself help. They provide residential rehab places and he has since passed the details to Angela Constance. He is “grateful” for the politician’s intervention.
“It’s all happening so fast but I’m re ready to get myself into rehab tomorrow if a place is found,” he insists.
The Scottish Government c confirmed that £100 million is being m made available over the next five ye years for residential rehabilitation an and £4 million is to fund Medication As Assisted Treatment standards, aimed at en ensuring people who use drugs receive he help the day they ask for it, regardless of where they live.
A spokesperson added: “We have hu huge sympathy with people who, like Fr Francis, have struggled with a life of ad addiction and the Minister for Drugs Po Policy has offered to meet him.
“Getting people into the treatment an and recovery that is right for them at the rig right time is at the core of our national m mission to save and improve lives.”