Originally published: 2 February 2008
Danielle Heaney couldn’t help feeling an attraction when she met long-lost brother Nick Cameron – and the siblings ended up in court charged with incest.
When Danielle’s five-year marriage became troubled, she turned to her long-lost brother Nick Cameron for comfort. The siblings – who’d been reunited after 21 years apart – spent every moment they could together, making up for lost time.
But their close relationship has now led to outrage and a bitter family rift, after their mother caught them in a passionate clinch. Incredibly, the pair had become lovers and last week they admitted in court that they had committed incest.
Speaking about her shocking relationship, mum-of-one Danielle, 22, says: “Nick and I clicked as soon as we met each other and one thing led to another. “About three weeks after we met, we began having a sexual relationship.”
Reunited
Danielle had been raised by her mother Susan Cameron, 47, while her half-brother Nick was brought up in foster care. They’d met only once as children, but were reunited when Susan invited Nick, now 28, to visit her home in Glenrothes, Fife, in summer 2006.
“The first time I saw Danielle, we got on very well and I thought she was quite attractive,” says Nick, a former security worker. “But I was thinking: ‘Hey, this is your sister.’ It struck me as a bit strange. “There was a sort of need to be together and be close to one another. We’d muck about and carry on as if we were living the childhood we never had together.”
'There was a sort of need to be together and be close to one another'
But three weeks after meeting, playful flirting turned into a full-blown affair as the pair began their illicit relationship. “Danielle’s marriage had not been going all that well. She had problems,” explains Nick. And writing online, he reveals: “About 10 or 12 times over a few days, we looked into each other’s eyes with an intensity that was unbelievable. Eventually, we kissed. It went from there.”
At one point, Nick even moved in with Danielle, living as a lodger with Danielle, her now-estranged husband Steven, 28, and their three-year-old daughter.
“Strangely the biggest barrier was that Danielle had a husband and daughter, rather than the fact she was my sister,” admits Nick.
Caught and arrested
But after weeks of lies and secrecy, their affair was exposed when their disgusted mum Susan caught them in a passionate embrace on the sofa at Danielle’s house. “She walked in on us in a compromising situation,” says Danielle. “She called us scumbags and insisted I told my husband.”
Horrified Susan – who has three sons and a daughter all by different fathers – called the police the next day and the pair were arrested, questioned and later charged with incest.
“My husband was shocked and we are now separated,” says Danielle. “The police charged us with several counts of incest. I admitted that it had happened more than once as I thought honesty was the best policy.”
'The police charged us with several counts of incest'
The pair hoped the case would never reach court and continued to have a close relationship, although insist it stopped being sexual after they were charged.
Branded as criminals
But eight months later, in June 2007, they were brought before Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court and banned from any further contact under the terms of their bail.
At a sentencing hearing last week, Nick and Danielle were spared jail, but put on a year’s probation and banned from resuming a physical relationship. Danielle says: “After we were charged, we still had a close relationship, but not a sexual one.”
And both were angry that the law has branded them criminals. “Some experts think there’s no harm in these relationships,” says Danielle. “I think it would be good for a lot of people if the law was changed. We were not doing anything to anyone else.”