Childhood 'taken from me' through fake illnesses

A man whose mother falsely claimed he was suffering from serious illnesses says he will never regain his lost childhood.

Lisa Hayden-Johnson from Brixham won public sympathy for her fight for Matthew Johnson's medical care after claiming he was unable to walk, eat or breathe without assistance - she was jailed in 2010 for three years and three months for putting him through unnecessary treatment.

She has now participated in a Channel 4 documentary, as has her son, his sister Laura, doctors from Torbay, social workers and Devon police who investigated.

Johnson, now 25, said participating in the documentary helped as he "gained a lot of useful information that I didn't actually know".

"Throughout the whole process I never sought information about it because I didn't see the positivity in wanting to know," he said.

"So I just kind of left it there and got on with my life now.

"To be able to actually have a very lengthy documentary that goes through the details, and how it panned out, was very valuable for me to help make decisions going forward."

Johnson was born prematurely and fed with a breathing tube before making a full recovery, but his mother insisted he was still unwell for the next six years until a doctor raised the alarm.

She received gifts from charities and took her son to collect an award at Downing Street where they met the then prime minister Tony Blair, and Matthew was also introduced to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Johnson said his mother had a condition known as fabrication induced illness by proxy.

He said: "I do think that my childhood was taken from me and that's something that you can't go back to, so it is difficult to process.

"You can't really fathom it, it's a really difficult thing to explain. It's such an extraordinary situation.

"I think it definitely impacted me, it's such a key stage of development."

He moved away from Devon when he was eight and is now settled in Chesterfield.

He told the BBC he did not remember feeling unwell but had "quite of lot of medication" and even underwent surgery.

He said his mother said he had difficulty breathing, and added: "There were times she said I was damaged by sunlight and had to wear special glasses and when I needed mobility support, whether a stroller a walker or a wheelchair".

He said the illnesses he was said to have "seemed contradictory".

"It felt like a trail of different ones, there wasn't anything that seemed permanent."

Johnson said hearing his mother's comments on the documentary Love You To Death confirmed he had made the correct decision to cut ties with her.

He has not been in touch with her for two years and said it "puts it to rest that I've made the right decision for me and my future".

He said as he grew up relatives agonised about when to tell him what had happened.

"They didn't want to tell me too early to take me away from the normal life that I was living, but also they didn't want to tell me at a point where I wouldn't fully understand."

He said he processed what happened to him "from things that I had read, from things that people had told me."

Johnson added: "I've just got on with what I've been doing.

"I've looked ahead and didn't want to seek the past because it's not a place that I want to visit.

"So I've always just cracked on with what I want to do for the future."

The documentary Love You to Death is produced by Hugo Pettitt will air on Channel 4 on Wednesday.

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