My mum betrayed me all over again

PAEDOPHILE ring victim Dana Fowley is set to write a second book after her first autobiography about the horrific sex abuse she suffered as a child sold more than 100,000 copies.

The 30-year-old will use the new book to explore her relationship with her mother, Caroline Dunsmore, who joined with a group of men in abusing Ms Fowley and her sister.

The original book, How Could She?, detailed her terrifying childhood and the court cases that eventually saw her mother and two men jailed.

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Ms Fowley will now tell the story of how she kept up contact with Dunsmore, visiting her in prison, and still “loving my mum” despite the ordeal she endured.

But that relationship ended after Dunsmore changed her evidence in a second trial against two more alleged abusers, causing the gang-rape case to collapse.

As well as this “second betrayal” at the hands of Dunsmore, the book will also discuss Ms Fowley’s work as a campaigner to help victims of child sex abuse and her friendships with other victims of the paedophile ring.

Mother-of-two Ms Fowley said: “The first book was about what happened when I was a child up to the trials when my mum was sent to jail. I still visited my mum afterwards because, at the end of the day, I couldn’t stop loving my mum despite what happened.

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“Then when she changed her evidence in court it caused the trial against other men to collapse. That’s when I realised she was a cold person and I felt I was the victim of a second betrayal.

“I had got on with my life and I hoped that she would get on with hers, but nothing could change who she was. But being away from her has been good for me as a person.”

In 2009, two men accused of abusing her walked free after her mother changed her evidence.

Dunsmore first testified that she had watched television as two Edinburgh men abused Ms Fowley in the next room when she was ten-years-old. But she later told the court that she was “mistaken” and withdrew her earlier evidence.

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How Could She? topped the UK’s non-fiction best-sellers list for seven weeks when it was released last year, and Ms Fowley is writing the second book with co-author Jean Ritchie.

The pair have just started research on the untitled book, to be published by Random House, which is likely to be released next year.

Ms Fowley said: “I’ve been contacted by so many people who read the first book who were also victims of sexual abuse. They’ve told me how much it helped them and that’s been great to hear. If the book had helped only one person then I would’ve been happy.

“I hope that writing about the relationship with my mother after the trial and the work I’ve done since will also help people. If someone has read the first book then they might want to know how I’ve got on with my life.”

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Ms Fowley and her sister were systematically raped over the course of 12 years, up to 1997. She was first gang-raped at the age of six in her Muirhouse home by her mother, step-dad Billy King and his parents, Peter and Mary King.

While Dunsmore is serving 12 years for her role, Petch received a life sentence and John O’Flaherty was handed a 13-year term.

Peter, Mary and Billy King all died a number of years before the cases came to court.

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