Mother of Moira Jones thanks people of Glasgow for helping her through darkest days

BEA JONES remembers an editorial in a newspaper from the week her daughter was killed.

Within 24 hours in May 2008 two women, Bea’s daughter Moira and waitress Eleni Pachou, had been murdered.

The editorial told Glasgow it should have taken better care of two newcomers to the city, as Moira was from Weston in Staffordshire, and Eleni was Greek.

But Bea rejects this, saying Glasgow rallied round and cared for her family in the wake of Moira’s death.

She said: “At the time, I was in huge shock. Moira loved Glasgow and its people and I couldn’t believe that anyone who knew Moira or even just spoke with Moira, would have hurt her.

“When the police told us after some weeks that they knew who they were looking for and that he wasn’t someone from Glasgow that somehow was a wee help to me.

“Once Moira was identified and was no longer ‘a body in the park’ the papers referred to her as an English businesswoman, then Ms Jones, Moira Jones and then, quite quickly, it was just Moira. “That felt warm and close. That comforted me to some extent, made me feel that others knew Moira, that they understood the enormity of what had happened and that they were missing her too.

“And the flowers at the park gates, all the cards and letters…”

Moira, then 40, was raped, robbed and killed in Queen’s Park by a Slovakian national who, it later emerged, had a history of crime.

Bea, her husband Hu, and son Grant, attended every day of the trial at Glasgow High Court and, Bea says, it re-traumatised them.

She said: “Within two or three days of the end of the trial I thought, ‘I can’t take anymore. I’m going to crack now.’ “However, by the time we got home our friends had been to our newly set up Moira Fund PO Box and there was a lot of mail, mostly from people in Glasgow who knew about the trial.

“So we had cards, letters and little cheques from Glasgow mums, from an ‘OAP who cares’, as well as from neighbours and Moira’s friends who had been following the trial from afar.”

Bea is speaking to the Evening Times in Moira’s former flat, where her son Grant came to live with his wife. She still finds it painful to think of her daughter, who she says was her “soulmate”.

But what has helped Bea to keep moving forward is her campaigning and charity work.

In the wake of Moira’s death she has spoken to Met Police officers and Police Scotland officers, politicians and Home Secretaries to have stricter controls on criminals moving around the EU.

Recently, as told in the Evening Times, she was at Holyrood to speak to justice secretary Michael Matheson about improving support for the families of murder victims in Scotland.

Bea, a former English teacher, also set up charity The Moira Fund in the wake of her daughter’s death.

The Moira Fund has since helped more than 700 families who have endured similar circumstances to the Jones’s, an incredible feat given that the small charity is run by volunteers.

Some families will need help with a deposit for a headstone, some will need a break away from living near the scene of the crime, some will be grannies or aunties bringing up orphaned children who need extra furniture.

Bea said: “There are so many different needs and every one is different.

“I read all of their stories and I can cope with them, always want to help.

“This is when I do get emotional, especially when heartfelt thanks come in, when I hear of some desperate mum bursting into tears when she knows her children will have gifts at Christmas, when a granny can’t believe she can plan a wee treat away with her grandson, when a family of six can have their first day out together in two years, when I’m told that a dad actually laughed on the second day of a respite break with his boys.”

Helping others has also helped Bea. The 75-year-old said: “Looking back now I don’t think I would be here if I hadn’t [set up the Moira Fund].

“There have been occasions when I felt I couldn’t go on, that I was on the brink of something, maybe a collapse, maybe insanity.

“I am less frantic now about things, I’m pleased to say, thanks to the efforts of Patrons, Trustees, fundraisers, the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), many wonderful caring people, Hu and Grant and Sharon, my wonderful daughter-in-law.

“There are still wee flurries of hyperactivity, still days when it’s hard to cope but generally speaking I have a sense of security about the future of Moira’s charity and it is very important to me that The Moira Fund lives on.”

When Bea, for the first time, ran the Moira’s Run last year, a 5k in Queen’s Park to raise cash for Moira’s charity, she was spurred on by the number of people wishing her luck and touching her arm, “Come on, Mrs Jones.”

She said: “Moira’s Run is organised for us by the VRU and that means a huge amount to us.

“But Glasgow means a huge amount to us too– how could it not? We have been travelling up and down to Glasgow since Moira moved there in 2003 and it feels like a second home to us.

“I find that I can cast off ‘my armour’ when I come here.”

There are numerous events planned for By CATRIONA STEWART BEA JONES remembers an editorial in a newspaper from the week her daughter was killed.