Susan Wynne-Willson (file picture) allegedly waged a campaign of physical and mental abuse
The daughter of a Pink Floyd lighting engineer ran screaming ‘no, no, no’ from court after her mother was cleared of child cruelty charges against her and her brother.
Susan Wynne-Willson, 69, had been accused of a campaign of physical and mental abuse against two of her children which began in 1979 when they were living in North Yorkshire.
It was claimed Ms Wynne-Willson punched, kicked and bit the children when the family moved into a ‘filthy squat’ in Soho where legendary Floyd frontman Syd Barrett also lived.
The mother-of-five, known in her 60s heyday as the ‘Psychedelic Debutante’, was accused of assaulting Rosa and Dan over 14 years.
Her children alleged ‘sick’ daily abuse included stuffing soiled underwear into her children’s mouths and wrapping them in urine soaked sheets if they wet the bed.
She was accused of bouncing Rosa’s head of the inside of a toilet bowl, poured cleaning products in her face and shoved her face in food.
Dan, now 40, said he was treated ‘like a slave’ around the house, had his head held underwater to stop him crying and was so savagely beaten he would soil himself.
Rosa claimed her mother was a ‘monster’ who told her children she would kill them in their sleep if they told anyone.
The children said they were so scared that when they were still aged under 10 they tried to eat plastic beads to kill themselves.
Former Pink Floyd and U2 lighting technician Peter Wynne Willson, 71, sobbed in court as he described how the children tried to do ‘everything they could’ to stop their mother’s demeaning assaults.
Daniel Wynne-Willson (left) and Rosa Aguelo de Guero (right) are seen leaving Blackfriars Crown Court earlier in the trial
Peter said he was ‘enthralled’ with his ‘tyrannical’ former partner and regretted not doing more for his children when he was away touring.
He told Blackfiars Crown Court he still has ‘actual scars’ from when Wynne Willson was violent to him.
But a jury of six men and six women took three hours to acquit Wynne-Willson of five counts of child cruelty and three of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to Rosa and adopted son Dan.
Wearing a grey jumper and purple jacket, she was ordered into the dock before being told she had been acquitted of all charges as Rosa and Dan watched on in the public gallery.
Rosa gasped, then screamed, then ran out of the court shouting ‘no, no, no’ on hearing the verdict.
Wynne-Willson took deep breaths, held her head in her hands, and looked over at her children when the verdicts were announced.
Peter Wynne-Willson (file picture) was away with Pink Floyd during the alleged incidents
The couple lived with Syd Barrett in a squat in Earlham Street, Soho and Wynne-Willson would play board games with the musician who created the psychedelic sound that made Pink Floyd famous.
After they had children they moved to large house in Yorkshire but had to to abandon their ‘idyllic’ and ‘privileged’ rural life and return to the squat with the children in 1981 when Peter’s business got in financial difficulties.
During this time the couple lived next door to each other but with new partners and their life was ‘complete chaos’.
As the family drama unfolded in the court, as eldest sister, Alice, who works for Greenpeace, after studying at Cambridge, said their childhood was ‘dramatically different’ from her siblings account.
Alice rounded on Rosa, calling her ‘intimidating’, ‘bullying’, ‘manipulating’ and a drug addict.
Wynne Willson said she found soiled pants in washing and claimed that she accidently fell forward and underwear went into Dan’s mouth.
She admitted slapping Dan and throwing a toy elephant and biting at another daughter Poppy, who was not named as a victim on the indictment and throwing water at her kids.
But she denied the extent of torment Dan and Rosa were alleging.
She wept as she told jurors she was left ‘alone’, ‘isolated’ and depressed’ by her husband’s long absences and lack of involvement around the house.
‘I was out of control. I was completely on the verge of insanity,’ she said.
She said the allegations were ‘beyond commenting on, ‘absolutely ridiculous and extreme.’
She denied she was ‘frequently violent’ to Daniel and Rosa, claiming that her daughter was ‘fantastical’ in her allegations.
‘No there was not frequent violence and Rosie has made a lot of very very damaging, exaggerated and fantastical allegations,’ she said.
‘I am really sorry to be here in court, it is not what I wanted to be doing.
‘I just wanted my children to be happy and okay’.
There are no records of the children being treated in hospital for any injuries, no record of concerns at their school, no police reports from the time and Wynne Willson has no previous convictions.
Judge Rajeev Shetty told Wynne-Willson: ‘You have been acquitted by this jury of all charges, you are discharged and free to go.’
Wynne-Willson, of Gospel Oak, was found not guilty of five counts of child cruelty and three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm between 1979 and 1993.