Robert Hendy-Freegard - First Victims

First Victims

In 1992 Robert Freegard was working in The Swan, a pub in Newport, Shropshire and befriended two women and one man, three agriculture students of the Harper Adams Agricultural College in Edgmond.

First, he told the man that he was an MI5 undercover agent who was investigating an IRA cell in the college. He forced the man to let himself be beaten up to prove his loyalty and to show that he was “hard enough”. He also convinced him to behave in a bizarre manner in college to prove his loyalty and to alienate him from friends. Then Hendy-Freegard told him his cover was blown and both of them had to go undercover. He told the women that the man had cancer and convinced them to accompany them in a “farewell tour” all over England.

Later he let them in on “the story”. He told them to sever all contact with their families because they were in danger just through being associated with him. They moved to Sheffield and gave him all their money. The three spent five months in a Sheffield flat because Hendy-Freegard had forbidden them to go out.

The group eventually split up, others took jobs — still handing most of their money to Hendy-Freegard — and one of the women became his lover. She gave birth to his two daughters. When she eventually found out about his other affairs and confronted him, he beat her up and threatened to kill her before he told her that she could not talk to anyone for “security reasons”.

Hendy-Freegard convinced the man and his parents to give him £300,000. He was put into “training”, performing spurious jobs. Sometimes he would have to wait for days in a certain place for a non-existent meeting. Eventually, he told his sister that the IRA was pursuing him, and the tale began to unravel.