‘My mum faked my brother’s illness – she should have spent longer in prison’

A woman who gained national attention after claiming her son was “allergic to the 21st century” was later jailed for faking his condition. Lisa Hayden-Johnson was invited to No.10 Downing Street by then-PM Tony Blair, and met with Queen Camilla,after her son became national news. Hayden-Johnson claimed her son Matthew suffered from a range of conditions including diabetes, a neurological disorder which reduced his mobility, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, a metabolic disorder, food allergies and even an allergy to sunlight.

However, neighbours of the family in Brixham, Devon, harboured doubts about Hayden-Johnson’s claims. They sometimes spotted the boy playing football outside and even eating ice cream, but felt unable to speak out because of the national concern for him. When Hayden-Johnson was finally tried in 2020, for child cruelty and perverting the course of justice, prosecuting counsel Andrew Macfarlane told the court that Hayden-Johnson’s “sadistic fabrication of non-existent symptoms” amounted to “24-hour-a-day torture”.

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Speaking in a new documentary about the shocking case, Matthew says he barely remembers that period in his life, and that while he has been given access to his medical records, he has no interest in reading them. By contrast, his older sister Laura remains bitter about her experiences, stating on Channel 4’s Love You To Death docuseries that she believes her mother should have served a longer sentence.

“My brother and I have dealt with things very differently,” Laura says. “But I’m not sure either of us has got it right.”

Matthew told clinical psychologist Freda Gardner that his childhood ordeal isn’t something he likes to think about: “A lot of the time I ignored it. I didn’t want to dig into it and things like my medical records… I have access to them, but to read them is not something I want to do in my free time.”

He added: “I’ve got memories of operations and being in hospital. I spent a lot of time in a wheelchair, but I don’t ever remember struggling to walk.”

When police visited the family home, they said that Matthew’s bedroom was crammed with so much medical equipment, it looked "like a scene from Casualty".

He was made to use a wheelchair and wear dark glasses because of his supposed intolerance to sunlight; he was also fed through a tube – something that Laura says traumatised her because of how much pain he clearly suffered every time the tube was changed.

“I got diagnosed with complex PTSD because I have nightmares of my brother screaming. I still do to this day,” she said.

Laura added that she now believes her mother had also falsified details of her own health status as a sort of dry run for the deception she later wove around Matthew. Hayden-Johnson had told nursery school staff that Laura was prone to seizures: “I was on seizure medication until I was about six or seven. It’s scary to think what else I don’t remember taking.”

Dr Steve Blair, who was an expert witness for Hayden-Johnson’s trial, explained that while there was some evidence that she had also attempted to falsify Laura’s medical history, a decision was made not to pursue the investigation, in order to make the prosecution a clearer case for the jury.

Passing sentence on Hayden-Johnson, Judge Stephen Wildblood described her as “cruel, manipulative, perverse, disordered and pitiful.” He added: “Your son will have to realise the fact that the one person who is supposed to care for and nourish him throughout his childhood was in fact causing him harm.

“Your experience in custody will be that people who behave with cruelty to children are received in prison as they are in society – with utter rejection.”

In fact, Hayden-Johnson now says she felt “safe in prison,” explaining that she “wasn’t judged” by her fellow inmates. She now maintains that she did not, in fact, hurt Matthew. Rejecting a description of her as “evil,” she protested: “How can I be Britain’s most evil mother? I just did my best. That’s all I did. I did my best for my family.”

The three-part series, Love You to Death, kicks off on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight.