MS sufferers are quizzed after chief of their own charity calls police over egg-throwing

THE director of multiple sclerosis charity MS Society Scotland called the police to its own respite centre after an egg was thrown at him by a carer during a heated debate over its controversial closure.

• Moni Robson, seen outside Leuchie House with fellow campaigner John McCluskie, hit out at the MS Society Picture: Dan Phillips

The incident occurred at a meeting between several MS sufferers, a carer and the charity's Scottish director David McNiven on Thursday night at Leuchie House near North Berwick.

Mr McNiven had been visiting the home regularly for the past two months to speak to groups of carers as they used the facility for what was effectively the last time before it is due to close next month.

The egg was thrown by Chris Carton, 65, from Earls Colne, Essex, whose wife Linda, 61, is wheelchair-bound with progressive MS, and he said last night it had been a "spontaneous act" of frustration.

He said: "I wanted to have a word with Mr McNiven concerning the home's closure, as my wife is regular user of it - it's very important to us because it gives us both a break and if it goes, then she has nowhere else to stay. I had been in contact with him and the chief executive Simon Gillespie previously, but I had got no sense out of them.

"I went in to see him during the meeting and we had some heated words. He showed no humility or empathy with us. He gave stock answers to questions that were no answers at all. He sat there like a pompous prat, he'd got a desk in front of him and he had his arms folded as if he was saying 'Right, there's nothing to get past me'.

"I said to him, 'Don't you think with all the debates and campaigning going on about this, that the society may have made a mistake?'"

Mr Carton left initially to see his daughter and grandchildren, with whom he had been staying at their home in East Linton. He said that in his anger, he got an egg from a bag of shopping in his daughter's car and returned to the meeting and threw it at him.

"It was just a spur of the moment thing," he said. "It bounced off the table, but didn't break. I just said 'you can chuck that Gillespie too'. He said he was going to get the police, to which I said 'fine, get the police'."

Unaware they had actually been called, Mr Carton left before officers arrived and all those who had been present were questioned about the incident, though the three MS patients chose not make any comment.

Moni Robson, from the Save Leuchie Campaign, said of the incident: "We'd heard what had happened and that people had been questioned by the police, and I don't think that was a very wise move.

"It was the guests' last-ever stay at Leuchie House and, for them, it feels like they're losing a big part of their lives - these people don't have the option of going online and just picking their next holiday destination."

Ms Robson said the society's plans to replace it with stays in care homes and nursing homes was not acceptable. "In any civilised society, the strongest look after the weakest members, but that doesn't seem to apply to the MS Society," she said.

Jackie Baillie MSP, Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman, described the decision to call the police as "disproportionate".

"I think when you consider this wasn't an angry baying mob, it was a very small group of three MS sufferers and a carer, it seems totally disproportionate and extraordinary to call the police," she said.

The incident is the latest in a battle to save what is Scotland's only MS respite facility after the MS Society announced in June it planned to close the home along with other centres around the UK to focus on what it claims will be more personalised care. Petitions with tens of thousands of signatures demanding the decision be reversed have been handed in to the Scottish Parliament, and there has been cross-party support for the campaign, with local MSP and Labour leader Iain Gray urging the Charity Commission to intervene and investigate the closure.

The MS Society has found itself embroiled in controversy recently. Harry Potter author JK Rowling quit as its Scottish patron last year after changes in its funding structure had, she said, left it "beyond recognition" from the charity she had originally supported.

Leuchie is not owned by the society, but leased for 1 from Sir Hew Hamilton Dalrymple, who lives in a house in the grounds.

A spokesman for the charity confirmed the police had been called to the meeting: "We can confirm that a member of staff was assaulted at Leuchie House on 4 November and that it was reported to the police, who are now dealing with the issue. We cannot give any further details at this stage," he said.

A police spokeswoman said their inquiries were continuing.