Over the coming months you’re going to be hearing a lot about this case. It’s not all that dissimilar to the Eleanor Williams case making false allegations and ending up with a substantial prison sentence.
This story goes back to 2005 and a divorced woman by the name of Angela Smith currently of Langholm had made a number of serious allegations against her ex husband.
One of five Adult Work Profiles
In the coming years those allegations continued but after a police investigation and taking witness statements from her own family members, the claims were deemed to be false. The Procurator Fiscal made the decision to drop the matter as any pursuance would not be in anyone’s best interest. But over the coming years Angela Smith didn’t learn her lesson and her lies and double life would finally come back to haunt her.
ANGELA SMITH
Angela Smith, since 2005, had been an escort; a prostitute. She had advertised her services on a website called Adult Work, invited men to her house in East Kilbride and had sex with them for money. We’ve spoken to several of her ex clients and an ex partner who revealed to us his name was John and was a medical courier. “I lived with Angela in East Kilbride; I met her as one of her clients and we became attached and started a relationship. Despite living at home with her three children they never knew what went on in the house. For me it was purely sexual, it was exciting to get involved. She met men, often with me, we put up pictures on Adult Work and other swinging websites. It all happened during the day when her kids were at school or when they were away with their dad”.
In 2010 Angela Smith met another man and they were married in November 2011, living in East Kilbride before moving to the south of Scotland. Angela continued her escorting work travelling to her clients. How do we know this? A police investigation in 2021 into unrelated matters revealed a very sinister web of deceit. Angela had given a statement to police about her second husband who she had separated from in 2017 and eventually divorced. The statement was disturbing and there was cause for concern. Cumbria Police passed the statement to Police Scotland for investigation. What followed was an extensive investigation which uncovered endless lies. Angela Smith had dug herself a very big hole and there was clearly no way out of it.
Angela had claimed to police that there were serious issues of domestic abuse during her marriage to her second husband. Furthermore she claims of theft from her bank account and physical and mental abuse of her children; Rebekah, Jack and Meaghan who were all in their early teens at the time. She also made a number of false claims about issues with her parents in law. During recorded interview she even suggested that her second husband may have raped her eldest daughter. The allegations came thick and fast. Bear in mind that these allegations were very similar to the allegations made about her first husband.
A spokesperson for Cumbria Police told me “it would have been impossible to ignore these accusations and a decision was made to pass the matter to Police Scotland”. However as time progressed Cumbria Police made further discoveries about Angela Smith and her 15 year secret life as a prostitute. Multiple online profiles were recovered along with 56 images which had been uploaded by Angela Smith to the website AdultWork; many of the images being pornographic in nature. Along with her profiles a number of messages were recovered in which bookings were discussed and there were even reviews of her services.
Initial assessment would certainly reveal that Angela Smith was very much the victim in many ways, but things were about to go very wrong. Police Scotland started a slow and laborious investigation that spanned nearly two years. The allegations of theft from her bank account were passed to Barclays Bank. Angela Smith only operated one bank account during the time she was with her second husband and the matter was passed to the fraud team at the bank. The team were instructed to start in 2010 and work their way up to 2021. The final report by Mr Davies, Fraud Analyst revealed there was no theft, but what was revealed was surprising. It revealed over 120 transactions made by her second husband into her account with an estimate of well over £10K being paid and not a single penny being transferred or being stolen from the account of Angela Smith. This was the first big lie.
Police also uncovered that even after separation that Angela Smith had continuously asked for money for two years, she created scenarios in which she was destitute or her children need help. One payment was paying the deposit and rent for her eldest daughter after being faced with eviction from an apartment; there was a payment for Christmas money for the children on numerous occasions; paying several times for her driving test; paying for carpets. Not only this but her ex husband was being asked to help her with purchases; he paid for a Motorola G6 mobile phone, vet bills, a payment of £500 to a local furniture company on her behalf, a brand new laptop to help with her studies, a substantial sum to help out Angela’s own parents during Covid. It’s a very big list. Angela had even asked for her fees to be paid for a counselling course with Grounded Learning. Despite her claims that money had been left to her by her mother in law, the mother of her second husband who had passed away many months before Angela had even started the course, this also turned out to be a big lie. Police obtained a statement from Linda McLachlan who at the time was part of Grounded Learning; Ms McLachlan clearly remembers Angela Smith telling her that her ex husband would be paying for the course on her behalf and in fact Ms McLachlan remembers a long conversation with Angela’s ex husband in relation to payment. Angela’s second husband was invoiced directly and the invoices were paid direct from his bank account. This was yet another lie in order to discredit her second husband.
After separation and ultimately divorce from her second husband it was revealed that not only had she been “borrowing” money from him, that in fact she had taken large sums of money from her parents in law. Despite her assurances these thousands of pounds were never repaid. Sadly the parents of her second husband died during Covid and in the joint will they made it clear that Angela Smith had been deceptive and taken large sums of money which she had never repaid. On the day of the death of her father in law, it was discovered several years later that items believed to be missing had in fact been stolen by Angela Smith; not only had she taken the cremated ashes of her mother in law but also a valuable vase which was considered to be a family heirloom and left specifically in their will to their only son. But on the day of the death of her father in law Angela Smith had decided to take these items and remove them illegally from the estate. It was revealed nearly a year later that she was in possession of the cremated remains and they were only returned after Cumbria Police stepped in to recover them. The valuable vase had been kept hidden by Angela however a family friend had revealed she had it in her possession and provided a photo as evidence. Angela Smith was then taken to Dumfries Sheriff Court over the matter and yet again was finally forced to return the vase. There are many other valuable items missing from the estate including jewellery. I’m curious, what would possess someone to steal something valuable from the estate of someone who had only been dead a matter of hours? Angela Smith claimed it had been left to her but the last will and testament of her parents in law reveal a very different picture. It seems her mother in law had seen Angela for what she was and did everything in her power to separate her from her son. She had become aware of her work as a prostitute and hoped that by giving Angela a large sum of money that she would go away, however it was not to be.
It’s interesting to note that Angela gave her false statement to police in April 2021, yet in August 2021 after completing the first counselling course which her second husband had paid for, WhatsApp messages were uncovered where Angela Smith started asking her ex husband for more money, ten thousand pounds in fact to complete a further full time course.
Due to the nature of the allegations and involvement of children the investigation was comprehensive. Warrants were obtained for medical files for both Angela and her children who had extensive files with CAMHS Scotland. Files revealed the caring and loving husband; whilst not the perfect step dad to the children they expressed his care and efforts to give them a good life. All three at one point made references to his efforts to buy them new laptops. No mention of anything untoward and certainly no mention of any kind of abuse. Angela’s own records reveal a caring husband who took time out of his own schedule to care for his wife who was suffering greatly from Fibromyalgia. Angela had even claimed in her police statement that her second husband had drugged her and the interview recording revealed that she thought he had raped her. Both medical records and her GP contradicted this entirely and her claims were exposed as lies. It was show that her medication was carefully monitored but despite this Angela Smith claimed her husband was double dosing her own drugs in order to rape and steal from her; facts which we already knew to be lies.
Statements had in fact been sought from both Dr Kate Wrigley AND Dr Jennifer Bowley; both exerted the fact that there was never ANY evidence of any kind of abuse and that in fact even when alone, Angela Smith had referred to her husband as a genuine and caring individual who was looking after her on a daily basis. It’s interesting to note further comments made by Dr Wrigley in her statement in relation to Angela and her accusations; she was aware of the accusations surrounding her first husband and as time developed noted that Angela clearly had developed mental health issues along with her physical illness and had very much developed a “victim mentality”. Both GPs expressed real surprise and concern regarding her police statement of 2021 but both also believe that it was a fabrication.
So what happens now? Well unfortunately things are just going to get worse. A defamation case is underway against Angela Smith; there are 26 witness statements to get through along with 17 witnesses who will be called to give evidence including all of her own family. Documents and evidence that date back fifteen years. It’s likely the case will be transferred up to Edinburgh as the local Sheriff Court is unlikely to want to deal with such a large case. There is of couse an ongoing police investigation into Perverting The Course of Justice.
But the most shocking off all is yet to come. Whether Angela Smith is still working as an escort is unknown however after completing her counselling course she has been in several jobs working with children. A family member revealed she now work with Pebbles Care Ltd who specialise in children in residential care. Issues have been raised over safeguarding and complaints have been made to the relevant authorities. Would you allow your child to be cared for and assessed by someone working in the adult sex industry?
Despite claiming to have a disability in the form of Fibromyalgia, Angela was able to continue her career as an escort for over 15 years all whilst claiming an Adult Disability Payment for her condition. We’ve also discovered that in fact she has a mobility vehicle which was used to get to and from her escort clients. It’s a shocking situation.
In the coming weeks this case will be receiving some very serious media attention.