Brit family hounded out of Portugal told their situation 'wasn't desperate enough' for help after returning to UK
16 April 2024, 01:47 | Updated: 16 April 2024, 02:00
A British family that fled Portugal after locals allegedly killed their pets and sent them death threats were told their situation "wasn't desperate enough" for help after returning to the UK.
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Lynn and Richard Appleby-Brisco from Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, moved with their two young daughters to Portugal in 2016.
However, the family's move to a small village in the Guarda district soon became a nightmare when a group of local villagers started a campaign of hate against them in a "storm of resentment".
The family - which featured on Channel 4's Our Wildest Dreams - said their dog Cu died after being attacked. They also said their goats were poisoned and a local admitted stealing their cat Ponyo and kitten Bubbles.
Ms Appleby-Brisco, 51, said when she confronted a villager about the deaths, she was told: "We've taken your pets and you're next."
Read more: 'They would be begging us to come back': Brits vow to ‘boycott Spain’ over new £97 daily rule
“I just couldn’t take it anymore, and it was my absolute lowest point," Ms Appleby-Brisco told the Sun.
“I was scared to be in the house on my own so I would hang around the biggest local town all day to feel safe.
“It was so bad that when I would go down to the farm I would carry a knife with me, and I consider myself a pacifist.”
She added she had a breakdown and tried to take her own life.
Some of the harassment from locals involved being spat at, being called “English pigs” as well as rumours being spread that Ms Appleby-Brisco was a devil-worshipping prostitute.
The family decided “enough was enough” and returned to the UK in February.
Ms Appleby-Brisco and her children Emily, 12, and Yvie, 10, are currently living in a "little holiday chalet".
Her close friend, Denny Lewis, told MailOnline: "She landed at Heathrow with her two young girls and had to get the night bus to Bedford and went to a local Premier Inn.
"I went to see her and we got her some clothes sent down by a friend and by other people. But the local housing authorities said, and I quote, that their situation 'wasn't bad enough'.
"She wasn't in a desperate state enough to be helped apparently, so she started to go to food banks and we have now started a GoFundMe page.
"Lynn had no money, nowhere to live and she would have been on the streets. The local government would have left her on the streets with two young girls and they still won't help her now."
She continued: "She had paid her taxes for 30 years before she went to Portugal. She was literally on the streets and with very little money.
"So as they wouldn't help her, a friend and me found her a little place in Kempston. It is like a little holiday chalet.
"So she and the girls moved into there, but she couldn't get any government help."
Ms Appleby-Brisco is now understood to have got a job as a chef in a pub.
Meanwhile, Mr Appleby-Brisco stayed in Portugal to sell their property before driving back on his own with some of their possessions.
“We couldn’t make it work, no matter how hard we tried," Ms Appleby-Brisco previously said.
“The worst part in this is that I am so happy to be back in England even though we have literally lost every penny we spent our lives working for but I am constantly afraid to let my guard down.
“You need time away from England to realise just how lucky we are."
