The wife of a notorious ex-gangster played a key part in spreading lies that sparked a deliberate blaze at a block of flats in Glasgow.
Linda Dempster, who is married to former underworld hood Bobby 'The Devil' Dempster, shared a series of online posts wrongly claiming that asylum seekers were set to be housed at the empty homes at Stonyhurst Street in Possilpark before a fire took hold at around 5pm on Sunday. Cops have confirmed that the inferno at the £3m refurbishment of the flats is being treated as deliberate as emergency crews battled flames for a second day.
Spread of false claims
The Record can now reveal that glam tanning shop boss Dempster, who married the The Devil in 2018, was involved in the fear-mongering. The 64-year-old, who has been running the Comfort Zone salon on the same street as the flats for 15 years, spoke to a local Facebook page at the start of July and wrongly announced the flats would be given to single men who may have 'arrived in the UK illegally'.
Linda told the page, which has nearly 175,000 followers: "The flats on Stonyhurst Street have been left empty for nearly 20 years and are going to receive massive investment but they will not benefit local people who have been waiting years on housing lists. They're told there is no funding available, yet they can find millions of pounds in funding to accommodate single men who have no ties to the community. In addition, if these men have arrived in the UK illegally without documentation it's impossible to check who they are."
Protest and reaction
Linda continued to spread the rumours and shared a post on her own Facebook page on August 1. It said: "Locals have been told the refurbished houses will be used to house migrants. The community does not support this. These homes should be used for people already on the waiting list."
The self-styled community hero also organised a protest outside the office of NG Homes - the housing association responsible for the flat - on August 3, prompting the group to issue a statement reassuring locals that only homeless people on their waiting list would be allocated the flats.
But Dempster blamed the social housing organisation for not being 'upfront' enough about its new tenants when confronted by the Record on Monday. She said: "I run a business in this community and everyone who came into my salon was talking about how these flats were being given to immigrants. We just wanted answers, but NG Homes wouldn't meet with anyone. People just wanted to be told who would get the housing. We never thought anyone would burn down the building. None of this would have happened if NG Homes would have just been more up front."
Investigation and response
Dempster's 77-year-old husband Bobby 'the devil' made a name for himself as a major figure in the 1990s Glasgow's underworld for being one of the few men who ever stood up to Glasgow Godfather Arthur Thompson. Six fire engines and specialist resources were dispatched to the Possilpark flat fire on Sunday after the blaze tore through the fourth floor of the block. Footage taken from the scene showed flames erupting from the roof of the flats.
Scottish labour politician Paul Sweeney later expressed his outrage over the incident in a post online. He said: "After several months of disinformation about what's happening with the Stonyhurst Street tenements here in Possilpark, we've now had an incident of wilful fire raising in the end close, where someone has clearly climbed the scaffolding here and poured an accelerant onto the roof and set fire to it. Thankfully the fire service appear to have caught the blaze and extinguished it before it could do serious structural damage but this is completely outrageous. This block here will be used to home those on the NG Homes housing waiting list, which is massively oversubscribed. It was never going to illegal immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers. It was never intended for that purpose at all. So anyone claiming that was spreading lies and misinformation to generate clicks on social media and whip up the community, wind people up and this is the upshot of it. We've got a potential massive multi million pound investment being destroyed in the midst of a socially deprived community."
An NG Homes spokesperson said: "We can confirm that a fire occurred yesterday at one of the Stonyhurst Street tenement buildings currently undergoing refurbishment. We are aware that disinformation has circulated regarding the future use of the homes and would once again stress that these claims are false. The buildings are being refurbished to provide much-needed affordable homes and, as we have previously stated, these properties will be allocated in line with our Allocations Policy and Scottish housing legislation from our existing housing list. As a registered social landlord, we do not allocate housing to people who are not legally eligible for it, and all applications are assessed in accordance with the relevant legal requirements. The extent of the damage is still being assessed, and it is too early to confirm the impact on project timescales. Our focus remains on supporting the investigation and progressing the delivery of these much-needed homes for the Possilpark community as quickly as possible."
Police Scotland Detective Inspector Neil Martin said: "The fire is being treated as wilful and we are asking anyone who saw anything suspicious around the time of the incident to get in touch. Fortunately no one was injured but this kind of reckless activity is not acceptable and caused serious disruption in the area. Please also check any private CCTV that you have and let us know if something has been captured that could assist with our investigation. Likewise, if you were driving in the area check dash-cam and call us if you have footage that could assist."
