Clare
Hutchinson is a researcher at Week In Week Out and has followed Darrell’s story
since he was found.
I first
spoke to Darrell Simester’s mum, Jean, in February 2013.
I worked at
a local newspaper and she sent us a long and heartrending email explaining that
she was looking for her son, who had been missing for 13 years. She believed he
was in south Wales.
When I
picked up the phone and spoke to her, I had little idea how far the story would
go.
Jean was
heartbroken, and desperate for someone to help her family in their hunt for
Darrell – a search that had already gone on for more than a decade and had
involved dozens of meetings with police that always ended with officers telling
her he was a “missing ” – not a missing person.
In her words
to me during that first phone call: “He’s not a missing : he’s my son”.
Jean and her
husband Tony described their son, who would now be 43, as “timid” and
“easily-led”. They also told me of their suspicions that he was being held
against his will somewhere in Cardiff. He had gone on holiday with another
family in August 2000, and after an argument had run away.
A few days
later they heard from him: he was working on the roads. For eight years he
would call a couple of times a year, often from withheld numbers, often with
voices in the background telling him what to say.
Then, in
2008, Darrell called his family at Christmas. He promised to speak to them
again in the New Year – but that phone call never came.
We ran a
story in the newspaper in which Jean and Tony made a desperate plea for anyone
who recognised Darrell to come forward.
It was a
last-ditch attempt after 13 years of searching but – incredibly - it paid off.
A few days
later, Jean’s mobile phone rang and the person at the other end told her they
had seen Darrell working on a farm on the Gwent levels between Newport and
Cardiff.
I was in
work on a rainy morning in late February 2013 when I got a tearful phone call
from Jean saying they may have found Darrell – and that they were on their way
down to Cardiff.
I rushed out
and met Jean, Tony and Darrell’s younger brother Duncan outside Cariad Farm just
as the police arrived.
The family
hadn’t known what to expect – or even whether the man would be their son.
Duncan approached him first, but when Darrell told him he couldn’t leave the
farm the family were suspicious enough to call the police.
Officers
arrived a short while later - and wearing torn, filthy clothes, a flat cap and
carrying his worldly goods in a black bin bag, Darrell emerged from the farm.
His face was
dirty and furrowed with deep lines. In Tony’s words, his son looked like an old
man.
The reunion
between the Simester family was emotional, and difficult to witness. As Darrell
walked out of the farm’s driveway, head bowed, Jean ran forward and hugged him.
I later asked her what she said at that moment. She replied through tears, “I
just said, you’re coming home.”
His dad and
brother walked around the farm, taking photos of the dirty caravan in which he
had been made to live.
A short
while later, Darrell and his family got in their car and returned home to
Kidderminster.
Over the
following weeks and months I stayed in with the Simester family, speaking
to Jean and Tony about Darrell’s progress.
The first
shock came when they got home and discovered the terrible condition he was in:
a hernia on his groin the size of a football; a fungal infection that had
turned the soles of his feet green; curvature of the spine and severe weight-loss.
Darrell
would wake up every day at 6am, his dad said. He would fall asleep on the
armchair in the evening, but jerk awake at the sound of a person walking into
the room, or closing a door.
While his
parents believe he had learning difficulties from a young age, he was now
suffering deep psychological problems and has since been seeing a psychiatrist.
And while they
have struggled, the family have continued to help him return to a normal life.
Together they have been on holidays, on day trips to see his favourite football
teams, held a homecoming party and – more recently – helped Darrell move into
his new place.
We went to
visit him for our programme, and Darrell showed us around with pride. There is
a clock on the mantelpiece that used to belong to his grandmother; DVDs and
books donated by well-wishers; and a Manchester United duvet on the spare bed.
His family
have helped him develop routines for cleaning and cooking. When we visited a new
kitchen had just been fitted - and Jean was planning to help her son make a
cheesecake.
The court
case was difficult for them all but, while they feel the four-and-a-half year
sentence handed to David Daniel Doran was not enough, they are satisfied with
the outcome.
As Tony said
to me when we last spoke: “I’ve banned all talk of the last 13 years – we just
want to look forward and talk about the years to come.”
The IPCC is
now also looking at three police forces which had with the family over
the years. All three forces have said they cannot comment while that
investigating is continuing.
Week in Week Out is on Tuesday 4 November at 10.35pm
on BBC One Wales.
