In Summary
After my mother's death, whenever I met Edwin and there were no witnesses about, it was always a grueling experience. Even before my mother's death, I was well aware of his enmity towards me which dated back many years. However, I was unprepared for the depth of his personal hatred of me, which seemed to seethe inside him. I asked him directly why he hated me so much. He had a ready response. He said he did not “hate” me, but that he had “no respect” for me. It was only later that I recalled the manner in which he said this. It was obviously a well-rehearsed line. When talking to him, I was hardly able to complete a sentence before he exploded shouting something like “You f***ing shit, you …...... etc.” These outbursts were often ridiculous, and would be laughable were it not for the glowering menace and threat of violence which accompanied them. He would turn crimson, his eyes bulged, he threw his arms about and spittle would form in his mouth. Psychiatrists refer to this type of behaviour as an “anger management” disorder. Edwin has always been known for throwing his weight around. He has always frightened me, and he has always been aware of this and used it. I have no idea why he hates me as he does.
As just one example, just one of these many supposed crimes and sleights for which I was never forgiven, he seemed particularly exercised to an extraordinary extent by the way in which I opened the plastic wrapper on a loaf of bread. Apparently, I open the loaf wrapper in the middle rather than at the end. This incensed him. This had seethed inside him for, what he told me, was over ten years. It was now pay-back time and I was going to be treated with “no sympathy”. More vindictively, on other occasions, he told me I was personally responsible for my mother's death, on account I was “such a little c***, ….. etc.” At the time I was suffering from depression, and Edwin exhibited a mastery in taking advantage of my being mentally unwell.
His method of bargaining was to state what he said should be done, and then force me to agree and say “yes”, whereupon he would make another further demand, and so on. In this style of “negotiation” he considers himself to be an astute businessman with a talent for making deals. In fact, he is simply a bully. There was no way in which I could stand up to him, which he knew. I suspect he treated my mother in the same way, and I suspect some of his deals forced on my mother probably accounts for my mother's fortune which has gone missing. Edwin was obviously sufficiently astute to get my mother's money out of her years before she died.
When people have asked me about his hatred towards me and its origins, I have been truly at a loss to think of an explanation of it. However, when pressed, I would date the time when his hatred became uncontrolled to about the time that the house at Craig Drive was bought in 2000.
In Summary
In June 2006 my mother died. She died leaving no Will and therefore myself and my brother were her joint heirs. Following her death I had a nervous breakdown, which involved several suicide attempts, and I became ill with clinical depression. Whilst mentally ill and legally incapable I was forced through intimidation by my brother into signing a Contract. I signed the Contract under duress. The Contract was drawn up by my brother's solicitors. I had neither solicitor nor legal advisor. In April 2007 I attended the offices of my brother's solicitors and signed the Contract. I also signed Land Registry transfer documents which were put in front of me. I was mentally ill at the time, and I didn't really understand what was happening. In fact, I informed my brother's solicitor that I had discharged myself from hospital the previous week following an overdose suicide attempt. In the Contract I surrendered title of my half-share of my late mother's maisonette flat in exchange for £10,000 from my brother. The maisonette flat had been valued at £77,000. By rights, my half share in the flat was worth £38,500. As such, my brother took advantage of my mental illness to trick me out of £28,500. The Contract was manifestly one-sided in my brother's favour and transparently unfair. I would not have signed had I been mentally sound. The flat in Egremont had belonged to my youngest brother Stephen, and became the property of my mother as a result of his early death in a car accident. The flat was now Edwin's and Edwin was now to live off it's proceeds. Stephen would have been very sad to see this happen, since he had no liking toward Edwin. When he was small my youngest brother Stephen had been bullied badly by Edwin, before he had got big enough to defend himself from Edwin.
When my youngest brother Stephen died, he left a substantial amount of money in his bank accounts (Stephen had worked many hours of overtime at the Sellafield Nuclear plant), he left a large amount of money resulting from Sellafield's death-in-work employee benefit scheme, and he left his flat at 74 Main Street Egremont with its mortgage fully paid off by the insurance. As a result of Edwin's scheming, trickery and greed all of this was now Edwin's. Therefore, Stephen's death has made Edwin a rich man. This might trouble any normal person, but knowing Edwin as I do, and knowing how greedy he is, I know Edwin won't be bothered in the slightest. For my own part, I am relieved that I have not profited in any way financially, or otherwise, from Stephen's death. When Stephen was young, he and I were very close and we remained so until I left home at age eighteen to go to university.
Having obtained title to my mother's maisonette flat, my brother then proceeded to appropriate all the rest of my mother's Estate, to which I should have been due one half share, without my consent, by force. This was all her property at 8 Craig Drive in Whitehaven. There was no-one to stop him. I was suffering from clinical depression and effectively incapacitated. My brother is a natural bully with violent tendencies and anger management problems. I remained at the maisonette flat which was now my brother's property. At first I stayed rent free as agreed. I was still mentally ill for all this period of time. Then from January 2009 my brother required me to hand over payments of £400 per month in order to remain in the maisonette flat. I was ill and I had no-where else to go. By July 2009 I had handed over to my brother in total £2,390, at which point I ran out of money. On the weekend of 1st August 2009 my brother called round at the flat without warning and he illegally evicted me, making me street homeless. He took all my mother's possessions at the flat. I was forced to leave with "only the shirt on my back" and he then disposed of all my possessions, which I have not seen since.
In all this, my brother has acquired for himself the whole of my mother's fortune. I was still recovering from my descent into mental illness, and now homeless, utterly penniless and again close to suicide. My brother had taken all my possessions. I wandered the country and was of no fixed abode. The injustices done to me by my brother were done whilst I was mentally ill and legally incapable and without support, help or advice.
On 18 December 2009 the house at 8 Craig Drive was sold for £145,000 and Edwin moved into 74 Main Street in Egremont. My brother is now a very rich man. I have been left with nothing.
All of this is a true account. There are no exaggerations or half-truths. This is what has happened to me
The facts set out in the statement are within my own knowledge. Where they are not within my own knowledge I have described the source of the information provided to me which I believe to be true, and these are explained elsewhere on this site.
Nelson William Sharpe