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"We'd do it again" say Tain mums who saved abducted woman





Nicola Hay and Sharon Burns pictured at the scene where they rescued a screaming woman from the clutches of abductor George McPhee. Picture: Callum Mackay
Nicola Hay and Sharon Burns pictured at the scene where they rescued a screaming woman from the clutches of abductor George McPhee. Picture: Callum Mackay

TWO Easter Ross mums who rescued a hysterical woman from the clutches of her abductor have been left sickened by the thought of what could have happened to her at the hands of a convicted sex offender.

Friends Sharon Burns (30) and Nicola Hay (26) from Tain were this week praised by a sheriff who jailed George McPhee for 27 months for abducting 23-year-old Nicole Calder from the streets of Inverness.

McPhee (47) from Wick had given the vulnerable woman alcohol and food before asking her to go to Nairn, but once in a locked car he told her she was being taken to Caithness.

Miss Calder’s ordeal on January 18 came to an end at Scotsburn junction, outside Tain, when the two friends witnessed her being dragged by McPhee back to the car.

Realising something was wrong, they intervened and took her to the safety of Sharon’s home.

Sharon told the Journal on Wednesday that they were proud they had stepped in and would not hesitate to do it again.

However, she said they were “disgusted” to learn at the end of the trial that McPhee had been jailed in 2007 for two sex attacks and believe his latest sentence should have been harsher.

“I wish he got longer, that was my first instinct, that he should have got a longer sentence,” said Sharon.

“I was absolutely disgusted when we heard over the last day that he was a sex offender and it made me think what if? What could’ve happened to her? It makes me sick to think what she could’ve gone through.

“It’s made me proud that we did it. I’m glad that we did it and I would do it again.”

McPhee was found guilty by a majority verdict on Tuesday of abducting Miss Calder and taking her against her will in a locked car from Inverness to Tain.

The four-day trial at Inverness Sheriff Court heard Miss Calder became alarmed when the car, driven by another man, went north over the Kessock Bridge. She was told she was being taken to Wick and began crying, screaming and sending texts to her sister.

She fled from the car when it stopped in Tain, only to be caught by McPhee. Sharon and Nicola were walking a dog when they passed the pair in a narrow path by a wall.

Sharon told the Journal they knew there was something not right about the situation and Miss Calder seemed reassured to see two women with a dog.

She said they were a bit apprehensive when the woman told them she was frightened McPhee would kill her, but realised there was not much he could as there was “three of them against one guy”.

“We didn’t really think anything of it. We still don’t think anything of it. We took her back to my house and she was really shaken up,” said Sharon.

She added she was “absolutely terrified” when giving evidence at the trial last week as McPhee was very close to her in the courtroom.

Asked if she thought they might receive a commendation, Sharon said they had joked together about “getting a medal” but had not thought too much about what they did.

She said the pair kept themselves to themselves and no-one in the town had really mentioned it, although their family and close friends were proud of them.

They became friends more than two years ago through their children and still go for regular walks.

During sentencing, Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist praised them saying: “I commend the other witnesses for stepping in to stop things - otherwise who knows what might have happened.”


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