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Father still seeking the truth

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By Fiona Reid
Front
Father still seeking the truth

FIGHTING for the truth is what has kept Rev John Mosey going in the three decades since his daughter Helga died aboard Pan Am 103.

And he’s determined to keep Lockerbie in the headlines until the full story emerges.

That’s why he agreed to be in the new programme and he this week said: “It’s now 35 years and we are getting older and won’t be around a lot longer and we want to keep this page open because the truth has not yet been revealed.

“In a way it does help, I think, because it gives our lives some purpose.

“The 21st December 1988 was a turning point and pivot of our lives. We often talk about before Lockerbie or after. Speaking about it has become a huge part of our lives.”

Aspiring singer Helga was 19 when she died and was returning from visiting her family to New York state, where she was on a gap year nannying.

She was due to go to university to study music and her proud dad said: “She wanted to sing professionally, classical. She had a very beautiful voice and played piano and violin too. She was very musical, she would have done well.

“She was a lovely, sweet kid, kind, generous and thoughtful. A lovely girl.”

But now all he has are memories and a burning desire to get answers for his beloved daughter, who is buried at Tundergarth, near to where she was found.

“We are trying to keep this thing alive so that eventually, I believe we’ll bring the truth out one day,” he said.

“We would like someone to stand up and tell the truth, that’s our aim: what happened and why. I am hopeful it will one day come out.”

Rev Mosey is the coordinator fo the UK Families Flight 103 group and sat through the trial and appeals with fellow father Jim Swire.

Of that, he says: “It became very quickly clear something not quite right about this trial, it’s difficult to say what it was.

“Certain evidence was withheld.

“Scepticism crept in as we sat there, it did not leave a good impression.”

Flashing back to that dreadful night in 1988, he described how he’d taken Helga to Heathrow to catch her flight but when the news broke it didn’t initially dawn on him until his wife said.

“We watched (the TV) in horror and said poor people,” he recalls.

“There was a stunned silence, I cold not find any words at all.

“I wanted to go there to look for her- I had been a mountaineer and climbed in Alps and Himalayas, but I decided I better stay at home with the family.”

From never previously being aware of Lockerbie, the Moseys have become frequent visitors to the town and to Helga’s grave.

“We thought it (Tundergarth) was such a lovely place. We are going to have our ashes there as well,” he said. “It’s a lovely, quiet, peaceful spot and somewhere we can visit.”

And they have found support locally, as he said: “Her body was found on land owned by the Wilsons and they became very good friends. They were so helpful – and they had had a really traumatic thing happen to them. The Pattersons too and Steven Williams.

“It’s not painful coming back, it’s a joy. The people, they were so kind and thoughtful.”

Out of their ordeal, has also come some good with the Helga Mosey Memorial Trust doing charity work in Asia, India, Libya and Afghanistan.

The Bible passage, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”, sustains Rev Mosey and his wife and he added: “We have had a sense of peace all along, it’s amazing, we can’t quite understand it.

“Our faith, God has helped us. We never had any anger to those who did it, we even prayed for them from the very beginning. Yes there’s been pain but there’s been an unusual sort of peace.”

Dumfries and West, Front

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