Police probe psychic group's fund-raiser over fake deaths of Scots frontline worker couple

John Sixthsense, whose real surname is Harris, hosted a four-hour online fundraiser to hundreds of followers while telling the "heart-wrenching story" and proclaimed he had raised over £5500 to support the children, a six year old girl, a four year old boy with autism and his ten-month-old baby brother who they said were staying with grandparents.

Now he has promised to pay back all the money after saying they had discovered the information from a fan called Helen was false, and that the police had become involved.

They produced messages to donors from the fan, which stated that the Scots fan from Coatbridge "must have misheard" and that the couple from North Lanarkshire had not been coronavirus victims and were not health workers.

She claimed it was "a story" made up by an uncle to stop talk about the reasons for the deaths, believed connected to drugs.

More than 200 people gave to a GoFundMe Page called 'NHS kids left alone due to Covid19' after it was launched on Wednesday by the wife of one of the appeal organisers and main contact for the event, Dave Denman.

Breaking the news to the Where Spirit Meet Science group, Mr Denman declared: "The family home has been sealed for deep clean so these babies have no clothes, they have nothing. Their lives are upside down. This is heartbreaking."

The appeal launched on Wednesday detailed how the children's mother was a 24-year-old called Lauren.

"I believe they have saved so many lives and unfortunately guys, their babies, will never see their mum and dad again," said Mr Denman.

"So please can we come together, we need to be together for this. Those kids don't deserve any of this.

"This is not for us, this is for them babies and the grandparents to give the best for them children."

Mr Harris announced that "every penny that reaches my Paypal" would go to the fund to help the children and that watching adverts would generate more income.

One user asked the duo that if there was "any sort of proof" before anyone sent any money adding: "It's hard times for everyone and would hate the thought of anyone getting done over."

Mr Harris responded saying: "It's not like that, it's not like that at all. I will make a sizeable donation myself."

And Mr Denman added: "Whether it is a penny or a pound, every single penny is going to help these babies.

"I mean come on guys, I understand where that comment has come from, I really do.

"I can understand with how things are and there are scams going about. This is not a scam.

"I have the inboxes. If Helen [the fan who informed the group] is happy to share the inboxes I [will] share on the ghost hunting page, you will see my comments to her as well.

"Helen has to give me the say so and the family involved. Come on guys, please."

He added: "Guys, it is not a scam. We need to help this family out."

And Mr Harris said it was "absolutely disgusting" after it was suggested in a message to them that no couple had died of coronavirus.

After three-and-a-half hours of the appeal, Mr Denman, who goes by the nickname Denno said: "We have just had an in box from Helen, who is with the grandmother of the two children who has lost the their parents, three children. "She is crying her eyes out, bless here, I think she is watching, she is obviously watching.

But the next day the group had to admit that the thousands were raised "under false pretences", after inquiries were made about the veracity of the appeal.

The group said that they had now been told that the information given to them about the deaths was incorrect.

Messages from Helen were presented to donors in a 'live chat' to try to show where the story had come from.

One message which arrived the day after the fund-raiser said: "Just been told it was drugs they died of and not the virus. I must have misheard. Now they are all going mad here and feel like sh*t.

"Family can't take any more. I feel for them. But I have now got myself into a state. Please forgive me for the wrong information and god bless the kids xxxx."

John Sixthsense

And Mr Harris announced: "She [a grandmother] is devastated to hear that people are talking about her daughter and that the money has been raised under false pretences.

"We are getting blamed for this."

He said that any money from donors that did not want a refund would be "donated straight to the NHS for PPE".

Mr Harris said police had become involved and he felt the incident had "ruined" his career adding: "I hosted this to help people.

"I dont know if I can take any more. I don't know if I can carry on doing this job anymore.

"What did we have to benefit from this. It is not all about money. I think we have purely been victims of something here.

"We have been destroyed today.

"I am sorry I let you all down."

Mr Denman added: "I went forward [with this] and it was me that went forward. John didn't.

"It turned out that wasn't the truth.

"Turned out wires have been crossed. We got the information that we got.

"I apologise. I put my hand on my heart to this mess. But I wanted to do something for those children.

"The refunds are there to go back. No money has gone anywhere.

"I feel you guys have been cheated, but I feel we have as well.

"I don't believe on my part I misled anything to anyone.

"Please guys, we just want to be honest with you. If we were going to scam anyone, we would be running away with the monies.

"We are genuine people. We are Sixthsense family."

Police Scotland when approached about concerns it may be a scam, could not help without details of when the double death occurred.

After the Herald was alerted to concerns about the appeal, the NHS in Scotland suggested contacting the Scottish Government about the concerns and for clarification if this double death of frontline workers could have occurred.

The Scottish Government after several hours of inquiries said they could not help.

When we pointed out the concern Stephen Martin, a spokesman said: "If we have any comment to offer on this, we’ll come back to you."

We asked if he could tell us one way or another. "If we’ve anything at all to say on this we will let you know," he replied.

We added: "Can you [at least] email me if you not able to say anything on this, please. So that I know...."

When we asked Mr Martin how things were progressing in an email, an autoresponder told us he had left the office and he would not be back till Saturday.

Another spokesman Robin Dyet intervened, saying they could not assist and said he could not give the numbers of NHS workers out of nearly 100,000 in Scotland that had died of the virus, "Numbers are currently too low for there not to be a risk of identification. As this changes information will be made available," he said.

When asked how there can be a risk of identification, Mr Dyet responded said: "The lower the number of cases, the more likely that one of the individuals can be identified."

A sample of the initial appeal.

We responded: "I am only asking for a number. Not a grade, not a name. Just a number. There can be no identification from giving a small number of NHS workers out of nearly 100,000 people. And you have not explained how that could be the case.

"If you said, for instance, there were three NHS workers who had died in Scotland from coronavirus, how could that possibly identify anyone? There is no explanation, because it is plainly wrong."

Mr Dyet repeated a previous response and added: "We are not able to comment any further on the specifics of numbers."

And after again seeking an explanation, spokesman Matt Paterson added: "We have no further information to issue on this at this stage."