Back and Next - Back and NextThe tale of a convicted couple
Monday, January 19, 2009
The story of David and Fiona Fulton, the convicted British couple who are serving a one-year jail term for sedition, here in The Gambia, once again takes centre stage.
This time round, it is a British newspaper that has dug deep into the "bizarre" lifestyle of the beleaguered couple. At the beginning of the trial, it had emerged that David had served a term in prison for armed robbery. In fact, it was in prison that he was said to have met his wife, Fiona. In an article, titled: "Missionary sentenced to hard labour in ‘hellhole’ prison had a child by Gambian man" the Mail on Sunday, a major newspaper in Britain, gave account of how Fiona defied her supposed religions teachings, cheated on her husband and had an affair with a Gambian man.
"While evangelists worldwide last week sent messages of sympathy and began raising funds to pay their fine, the Mail on Sunday can reveal the full extent of the couple’s bizarre life as missionaries and how they scandalised the Christian community in The Gambia," the report states.
The two-year old girl the couple brought to their court hearing was described as their adopted daughter, Elizabeth. But it later emerged that Elizabeth was actually the product of an affair Fiona had had with a Gambian soldier. The report alleged that the lawyer of the convicts, their family members and friends have all attested to this.
Her adultery alienated fellow Christians while the couple were working as evangelists, holding prayer meetings, leading bible studies funded from Britain, and converting local people. Young Elizabeth was born at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Britain, on February 11, 2006. Fiona, 46, is named as the baby’s mother on the birth certificate and David, described as a military chaplain, is named as the father.
They had travelled to England during the pregnancy and returned to The Gambia once Elizabeth was born, expecting to be accepted back into the society here.
The Mail on Sunday reported Fiona’s 80 year-old father, Peter McMinn, as saying that the marriage between his daughter and David had been ‘under some strain’ due to her pregnancy.
He added: “David is not Elizabeth’s father. But he loves that child." Mr McMinn is also said to have been paying regular sums of £1,000 into David’s bank account "to help with expenses in The Gambia." The Mail on Sunday also states: "The truth is that David, 60, reinvented himself on arrival in The Gambia in 1999”.
Born in the small Scottish town of Kilmarnock, he spent his early adulthood variously as a golf course green keeper, a manager at a local garage and a mile services supervisor. He married at the age of 24 in 1773, and has an ex-wife, Lydianne, a son, Paul, now 32, and daughter, Lisa, 28. He married Fiona in 1988. When they arrived in The Gambia, the Fultons were a compact family with their children Inoa, then 11, and Luke, seven. They spent a holiday in the country and felt ‘a calling’ to preach here. The couple claimed to be trained evangelists who would show local people the true path to God.
Fiona began to visit the sick and elderly, and took books and sewing material to women prisoners. David joined the Omega Evangelist Church in Latrikunda and announced that he was setting up a Gambian branch of Prison Fellowship International to take Christianity to inmates across the country. He astonished the congregation and Pastor Matthias George with tales of heroic deeds in the British army, of rising to the rank of major, but then extraordinarily, falling into crime and robbing security vehicles ‘all over England’.
Pastor George said: "David wasn’t like other English members of our church. He came here with big stories and I didn’t like that. He wasn’t humble and accepting, he wanted to take over my church and my flock." Later David was to come privately to see Pastor George and tell him of Fiona’s affair and pregnancy. "I was utterly shocked. I remember weeping. David seemed calm but I was shocked to the core.
How could a Christian woman, visiting the sick and preaching from the Bible, go behind her husband’s back and commit adultery? This woman, who had seen the devastation of AIDs, had been having unprotected sex with a Gambian soldier. I told them both that they must confess in public and pray with the whole congregation. They refused and we all got angry.
They left my church and by then I looked on them as cockroaches, dislikeable creatures that do harm and then flee when the light of truth is shone on them," narrated the pastor. David had initially impressed Pastor George by telling him that more than 20 years earlier he had served time in Dartmoor prison for armed robbery but had found God and converted to Christianity. He also said he had met Fiona when she was a prison visitor who helped him pray.
But tales of his dramatic life, including an account of undercover helicopter missions where he took charge, were a fantasy. David had never been in the British army. While awaiting trial last month, the British high commission reportedly sent a consular assistant ‘to clarify matters’. Deputy high commissioner Graham Birse confirmed: "We asked him directly if he had ever been in the British army. He said no."
This time round, it is a British newspaper that has dug deep into the "bizarre" lifestyle of the beleaguered couple. At the beginning of the trial, it had emerged that David had served a term in prison for armed robbery. In fact, it was in prison that he was said to have met his wife, Fiona. In an article, titled: "Missionary sentenced to hard labour in ‘hellhole’ prison had a child by Gambian man" the Mail on Sunday, a major newspaper in Britain, gave account of how Fiona defied her supposed religions teachings, cheated on her husband and had an affair with a Gambian man.
"While evangelists worldwide last week sent messages of sympathy and began raising funds to pay their fine, the Mail on Sunday can reveal the full extent of the couple’s bizarre life as missionaries and how they scandalised the Christian community in The Gambia," the report states.
The two-year old girl the couple brought to their court hearing was described as their adopted daughter, Elizabeth. But it later emerged that Elizabeth was actually the product of an affair Fiona had had with a Gambian soldier. The report alleged that the lawyer of the convicts, their family members and friends have all attested to this.
Her adultery alienated fellow Christians while the couple were working as evangelists, holding prayer meetings, leading bible studies funded from Britain, and converting local people. Young Elizabeth was born at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Britain, on February 11, 2006. Fiona, 46, is named as the baby’s mother on the birth certificate and David, described as a military chaplain, is named as the father.
They had travelled to England during the pregnancy and returned to The Gambia once Elizabeth was born, expecting to be accepted back into the society here.
The Mail on Sunday reported Fiona’s 80 year-old father, Peter McMinn, as saying that the marriage between his daughter and David had been ‘under some strain’ due to her pregnancy.
He added: “David is not Elizabeth’s father. But he loves that child." Mr McMinn is also said to have been paying regular sums of £1,000 into David’s bank account "to help with expenses in The Gambia." The Mail on Sunday also states: "The truth is that David, 60, reinvented himself on arrival in The Gambia in 1999”.
Born in the small Scottish town of Kilmarnock, he spent his early adulthood variously as a golf course green keeper, a manager at a local garage and a mile services supervisor. He married at the age of 24 in 1773, and has an ex-wife, Lydianne, a son, Paul, now 32, and daughter, Lisa, 28. He married Fiona in 1988. When they arrived in The Gambia, the Fultons were a compact family with their children Inoa, then 11, and Luke, seven. They spent a holiday in the country and felt ‘a calling’ to preach here. The couple claimed to be trained evangelists who would show local people the true path to God.
Fiona began to visit the sick and elderly, and took books and sewing material to women prisoners. David joined the Omega Evangelist Church in Latrikunda and announced that he was setting up a Gambian branch of Prison Fellowship International to take Christianity to inmates across the country. He astonished the congregation and Pastor Matthias George with tales of heroic deeds in the British army, of rising to the rank of major, but then extraordinarily, falling into crime and robbing security vehicles ‘all over England’.
Pastor George said: "David wasn’t like other English members of our church. He came here with big stories and I didn’t like that. He wasn’t humble and accepting, he wanted to take over my church and my flock." Later David was to come privately to see Pastor George and tell him of Fiona’s affair and pregnancy. "I was utterly shocked. I remember weeping. David seemed calm but I was shocked to the core.
How could a Christian woman, visiting the sick and preaching from the Bible, go behind her husband’s back and commit adultery? This woman, who had seen the devastation of AIDs, had been having unprotected sex with a Gambian soldier. I told them both that they must confess in public and pray with the whole congregation. They refused and we all got angry.
They left my church and by then I looked on them as cockroaches, dislikeable creatures that do harm and then flee when the light of truth is shone on them," narrated the pastor. David had initially impressed Pastor George by telling him that more than 20 years earlier he had served time in Dartmoor prison for armed robbery but had found God and converted to Christianity. He also said he had met Fiona when she was a prison visitor who helped him pray.
But tales of his dramatic life, including an account of undercover helicopter missions where he took charge, were a fantasy. David had never been in the British army. While awaiting trial last month, the British high commission reportedly sent a consular assistant ‘to clarify matters’. Deputy high commissioner Graham Birse confirmed: "We asked him directly if he had ever been in the British army. He said no."
Author: DO
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