Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Mum seekingi demolition n of Strathmartine fears tragedy of Jonathan’s death could be repeatedd
“I’VE lived this for 18 years, I’ll never shake it off and I’m a sad, sad person. People say I changed,” Gaynor Robertson said.
Her son, Jonathan, died after falling 30ft from the walls of derelict Baldovan House in 2002.
The tragedy took place on June 10 and the 13-year-old died five days later, on his mother’s birthday.
In the months following Jonathan’s death, Gaynor aggressively campaigned to have the ruined 18th Century farm house, near Strathmartine, demolished.
The 50-year-old was successful in her efforts and one year later it was torn down.
Later she turned her attention to Strathmartine Hospital, which closed its doors in 2003.
The building, which is thought to have been Scotland’s first and oldest institution for people with a learning disability, has been repeatedly targeted by vandals in the years following its closure.
Just last month, fire crews were called after a blaze broke out in the building, which has been branded a “death trap” by campaigners.
Now, as Gaynor marks the 18th anniversary of Jonathan’s death, she is renewing her plea for the former health facility to be razed.
Gaynor says that her “biggest fear” is waking up one day and reading that a child has died there.
“I don’t want another person to go through it,” she said.
“I was at the house when the paramedics were trying to deal with Jonathan, so I saw how he fell.
“I saw the injuries and that’s impacted on my brain and that never goes away.
“Even speaking to you right now I can see that, like it just happened yesterday.
“Jonathan fell 30ft from a structure. The head injury was what killed my son. It’s so easy to do it – and his friends, who I’m still friends with now, still remember it.”
In February plans were unveiled for “a full restoration of the listed buildings”, with Scottish-based developers,
Chamberlain Bell Developments, outlining its vision for the hospital site’s future. However, Gaynor remains firm in her belief it should be bulldozed.
Responding to the suggestion that plans to develop the site were in the pipeline, she said: “I think the more damage that gets done to it, the more the need for the building to be bulldozed will be.
“The only ones who say it needs to stay there have never lost a child. “That’s exactly how I feel. “Everybody in that area knows what happened in Baldovan House. It was the fire brigade that came up when my son fell, so they don’t know what they’re going up to.
“Some of them may have been at Baldovan House and are having to relive this again, not knowing if they’re just going to a fire or if they’re going to find a child.
“It’s got a lot of bad stories and it’s got a lot of good, but do they want it remembered as a place where another child died, 10 minutes away from where a child died 20 years before?
“It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Alan Bell, of Chamberlain Bell
Developments, said: “To confirm, the site does not belong to Chamberlain Bell, we are merely the party interested in purchasing it and are in contract to do so once certain conditions have been purified.
“I know the current site owner has a local security guard who does the best he can, but it’s a large site.
“The local council also visits the site regularly but I’m not sure when the last inspection would have been.
“Our current estimate is, if things go well, we could be on site in spring next year.”
Following the latest fire, demolition crews bulldozed some of the buildings, including the engineers’ workshop and laundry rooms, but the rest of the site has not been touched.
A spokesman for Angus Council said: “Building standards officers were in discussion with the owner and Police Scotland on June 3 after a fire caused significant damage to one of the buildings there.
“At that time, the owner stated his intention to demolish the building, for which a demolition warrant was already in place.”