NO DIGNITY NO RESPECT NO HONOUR
Daughter tells of her pain ... and pride
Bernard Duffy was a proud, peaceful man who fought for his country and
lived without bitterness. Gary Donnachie is a drug addict who raided his home and left the 90-year-old tormented by fear. Four months later Bernard died and today his family tell of their heartbreak and disgust at the actions of a cruel,
feckless thug
HE was a man who saw the brutality of the war in Burma first-hand and marched hundreds of miles in blistering heat as comrades perished around him.
But Bernard Duffy never held a grudge against his Japanese enemies and even managed to forgive them.
By rights, he would have seen out his final days in peace, a respected Second World War hero who did his duty and came home to build a new Britain.
But instead, he was forced to live in fear – not gripped by the memories of his treatment 70 years ago but by the actions of a near- neighbour who raided his house twice.
Bernard, who barely missed a day’s work in the Inverclyde shipyards after the war, was targeted by his complete opposite – a feckless drug user half his age who has barely worked and has a list of shocking criminal convictions.
In every way imaginable, upstanding Bernard and heroin addict Gary Donnachie were worlds apart – but they lived just two streets away from each other in Greenock, symbols of two very different Scotlands.
Brazen Donnachie first tried to rob Bernard in 2011, then came back in April last year, smashing his downstairs window at 1.15am and careering into the house in search of money and valuables.
Fearing for his precious Second World War medals, Bernard, who was sleeping downstairs, shone the high- powered torch he kept by his bed directly into Donnachie’s face, startling the thief who ran off into the night.
Fiercely proud Bernard said little about the crime and tried his best to carry on living normally. But being violated in the very home he was born in back in 1924 and which was in his family for three generations soon took its toll.
Just three months later he suffered a stroke – and a month after that he died.
Now his daughter Anne, 58, has revealed how the break-in – the second time Donnachie, 42, had targeted her dad – led to the sudden decline in his health.
She said: “The break-in definitely contributed to his ill health.
“Whether he ever got over it or not I’ll never know. He was too proud to say.
“About a fortnight after the attack I asked him how he was doing. I knew he’d been exhausted but I also thought ‘ is he getting over it all right?’.
“And I asked him if he had any nightmares following the attack. He replied, ‘ I’m just trying to forget about it’.”
Retired teacher Anne, who lived with Bernard, said: “I felt really guilty that I was sleeping upstairs while it happened.
“Because I wasn’t there I don’t know the immediate impact it had on dad – probably shock.
“He always had a torch on the table beside him, and I think when he heard a noise his reaction was to shine the torch which scared Donnachie away.
“I’m proud of his perseverance and his resistance, witho u t being aggressive. He fired a gun when he had to, because it was his duty, not through any sense of bloodlust or violence.”
Donnachie, who has 19 previous convictions including a 10-year jail term for a life- threatening assault, left his DNA on Bernard’s broken window and was swiftly arrested.
When he appeared at Greenock Sheriff Court he was jailed for two years for the raid – meaning that legal restrictions preventing Anne from talking about the case were finally lifted.
Anne said: “You’ve got to fight crime, fight the good fight, and my father did exactly that. “As far as he was concerned, he had protected the empire and protected the household. He was very proud of that.
“If anybody asked him how he was doing he would always reply ‘ bearing up’. He knew he was getting frailer and stiffer, so he was being accurate instead of pretending to be fine.” The 2011 raid was virtually identical to the 2015 one – except
that in 2011 Donnachie smashed windows- at the front and back of the house, was disturbed by Anne and her dad and ran off without gettingg in. He got 12 months probation and d had to pay £100 compensation.
Anne said: “Dad was sleeping in the front room the night of the second break- in. When I came downstairs in the morning he was shivering in the back room.
“I didn’t hear him call for me and he didn’t want to cause a fuss. So he had just moved to the back room because it was so cold in the front with the window being smashed.
“I felt really guilty that I hadn’t t heard him call for me, or heard the e break-in itself.”
And yet dignified Bernard boree no malice towards his tormentor, r, having been brought up to forgive.
Anne said: “He never had an ill word to say about anybody – he didn’t speak badly of the Japanese e either.
“He never had any sense of hard-heartedness - or hatred of the enemy.y. Just do your duty, get on with it, and d live your life. And the same with the e man who broke in, he never spokee badly of him.
“My dad was determined not too let that guy defeat him and he managed - to battle on for four months.
“He was very determined for ordinary life to continue.”