An elderly American
dementia patient who was flown to Britain and dumped in a car park by his
family had previously filed a restraining order against his 'volatile' son.
Roger Curry, 76, was
targeted by his son Kevin who would appear outside his house screaming and
banging on the door until neighbours 'worried for his safety', local residents
told Panorama.
The elderly man was
taken from his home in Los Angeles by his wife, Mary, and son, Kevin, to the UK
where he was abandoned without identification in November 2015.
He was found at
Hereford bus station in the company of two men who flagged down a passing
ambulance.
As paramedics
assessed him, one of the men – described as having an American accent, but
younger than Mr Curry – vanished from the scene, leaving the elderly man to be
cared for at a nursing home while police and social services tried to ascertain
his identity.
'Volatile': The
American dementia sufferer whose wife and son flew him from Los Angeles to the
UK before dumping him in a car park without ID filed a restraining order
against his son for 'domestic violence'.
Protection: Court
records from 2000 show Roger filed for a restraining order against Kevin, because of 'domestic violence' - and it was
granted two months later
Victim: Roger Curry,
above, 76, was found at Hereford bus station in 2015, in the company of two men
who flagged down a passing ambulance. One of the men - who spoke in an American
accent - disappeared as paramedics helped Mr Curry
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Court records filed
in 2000 show that the pensioner filed for a restraining order against his son
because of 'domestic violence'. It was granted two months later.
'Their relationship
has always been kind of volatile if you want to call it [that],' said Zenia
Leon, a neighbour. 'Kevin, you could hear him at all different hours of the
night, just pounding on their door trying to get in, screaming and yelling at
them profanities.'
She added: 'We
worried for their safety.'
According to court
records, Kevin Curry has a criminal record stretching back to 1999.
Mr Curry was finally
flown back to America eight months after being found, and is now under the care
of health authorities in Los Angeles.
According to an
investigation by the BBC1 programme Panorama, being screened tonight, court
papers filed in Los Angeles state: 'In late 2015 Mr Curry was taken
surreptitiously to England by his wife Mary Curry and his son Kevin Curry and
abandoned there.'
The mystery
surrounding Mr Curry's identity led to numerous theories as to how he ended up
in a Hereford car park.
He appeared to have
been well looked after and was dressed from head to toe in new clothes from
Tesco.
As reported in the
Mail last March, he was called Roger by staff caring for him after they heard
him use the name Roger Curry. But police didn't know whether that was his real
name or not.
The pensioner told
doctors and care home staff he was not from the area and had been 'training'
nearby, but said little else.
Police even contacted
veterans' organisations in case Mr Curry was a former serviceman.
Last year Sergeant
Sarah Bennett of West Mercia Police said: 'We have a possible name but we have
nothing else.
'We have no identity
documents, no indication of where he's from or any family.
'We've trawled
through the CCTV. We've also contacted the National Crime Agency. We've gone to
Interpol.
'We've done a
fingerprint search, we've done a DNA search and that hasn't yielded any
results.'
However, the clue to
his identity came following a police appeal on BBC Midlands in March last
year.
After watching the
news report, viewer Debbie Cocker searched the internet and found an old
picture that looked like a younger version of the unidentified man.
The photo came from a
1958 yearbook for Edmonds High School in Washington State and it showed an
18-year-old student called Roger Curry.
Investigators then
tracked down the Roger Curry pictured in the yearbook to a burnt-out house in
an affluent suburb of Los Angeles.
After being shown
photographs, neighbours identified the mystery man as Mr Curry – a former nurse
who is married with two children.
They then told how
his family had been hit by tragedy.
In November 2014 the
family's house burnt down in the middle of the night.
Neighbours did not
see them again until August 2015, when they found Mr Curry and his wife – who
is also ill – camping out in the yard of their burnt-out house.
Their son Kevin had
been bringing them food and they appeared to have been locked in behind the
fence around the house.
Neighbour Zenia Leon
told Panorama that emergency services were shocked by what they found.
She claimed they
overheard the couple discussing what had happened, and said of Mr and Mrs
Curry: 'They were talking together and they said they were here the night the
house burnt down.'
Miss Leon said Mr
Curry was upset about his circumstances, adding: 'He was in tears. This is a
big, burly macho man in tears saying, 'Who does this to their parents?'.'
Kevin Curry told
Panorama, which is being screened at 8.30pm tonight, that he had nothing to do
with the abandonment of his father in England.
He said his father
became ill when they were visiting England on holiday and that he asked a
friend to take him to hospital.
But he could not
explain why he had left Mr Curry in England for eight months without telling
anyone who he was.
Because of the high
cost of care in America, elderly people are sometimes abandoned at hospitals in
a practice called granny-dumping.
A man in his fifties
from Taunton, Somerset, was arrested last April on suspicion of kidnapping Mr
Curry. He is on police bail and has not been charged.
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