A British family who were expelled from Portugal by locals who branded them “English pigs” were told their situation was “not desperate enough” to deserve help after they fled back to the UK, a friend has revealed.
Lynn and Richard Appleby-Brisco moved to the Mediterranean country’s Guarda district in 2016 with plans to start a more “affordable” life with their two young daughters.
But family, which appeared in Channel 4‘s Our Wildest Dreams, were forced to return to the UK shortly after the show aired when their life in a remote village became their worst nightmare.
Lynn’s close friend Denny Lewis told MailOnline: ‘She landed at Heathrow with her two daughters and had to catch the night bus to Bedford and went to a local Premier Inn.
“I went to see her and we got her clothes that a friend and other people had sent me. But local housing authorities said, and I quote, her situation “wasn’t bad enough.”
Lynn and Richard Appleby-Brisco moved to the Mediterranean country’s Guarda district in 2016, and are seen here on the Channel 4 show before their big move.
Lynn and Richard Appleby-Brisco moved abroad in 2016 to start a more “affordable” life with their two daughters (all pictured together) in the Portuguese district of Guarda.
The family’s move to the remote village was filmed for Channel 4’s Our Wildest Dreams. They are pictured on the show in 2018 here.
Lynn said she was “afraid to be home alone” and “carried a knife” when she went to the farm.
Ms Lewis added: “Apparently he wasn’t in a desperate enough state to get help so he started going to food banks and we have now started a GoFundMe page.”
‘Lynn had no money or anywhere to live and would have been on the streets. The local government would have left her on the street with two girls and they still do not help her.
‘He had paid his taxes for 30 years before going to Portugal. He was literally on the street and with very little money.
“As they didn’t want to help her, a friend and I found her a small place in Kempston. It’s like a small vacation chalet.
‘So she and the girls moved there, but she couldn’t get any help from the government.
“But Lynn is no evasive, so the moment she walked into the hotel, she was scheduling interviews to get a job.”
Mrs Lewis said her friend was joined by her husband, who had made the return journey from Portugal by road and with some of his possessions.
He said the mother-of-two now works as a chef at a pub restaurant and works 12-hour shifts.
“It hasn’t been good, she and Richard certainly fell by the wayside,” he said.
The couple’s harrowing experience in Portugal reached a chilling climax when angry locals attacked the family dog, Cu, a star mountain retriever, who later died at the age of four.
Appleby-Brisco’s ordeal has chilling echoes of that of Orla Dargan, who faced years of threatening behavior from a neighbor and found her rescue dog dead in a shallow well after moving to Portugal in 2016.
The family of four, from Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, say so after their goats were poisoned after a local admitted stealing their cat Ponyo and kitten Bubbles in January.
Appleby-Brisco, 51, said that when she confronted a villager about the mysterious deaths, she told him: “We’ve taken your pets and you’re next.”
She said Sun: ‘I just couldn’t take it anymore and it was my lowest point.
‘I was afraid of being alone at home, so I stayed all day in the biggest city to feel safe.
“It was so bad that when I went down to the farm I carried a knife with me and I consider myself a pacifist.”
The family believes they inadvertently put a target on their backs after their episode aired in 2018.
Orla Dargan in Portugal with her rescue dog Henry, who she claims was “killed” amid an ongoing border dispute
Among the scandalous bullying incidents, the family were spat at and called “English pigs”, while rumors spread that Appleby-Brisco was a devil-worshipping prostitute after she planted flowers outside their home.
The family flew home to the UK in February with a small suitcase containing a change of clothes and pajamas.
Appleby-Brisco and her children, Emily, 12, and Yvie, 10, now live in a one-bedroom apartment, while their father is still trying to sell the property in Portugal and recover all his belongings.
It comes after a former city investment banker who retired in the Algarve told MailOnline about her years of hell after an “aggressive” neighbor seized her land and evicted her from her home, forcing her to hide.
Orla Dargan bought her dream Portuguese villa for around £600,000 in 2016
Orla Dargan bought her dream Portuguese villa for around €600,000 in 2016 and lived there happily for several years before her neighbour, a real estate agent she describes as a “dangerous” man, moved in next door.
The mother-of-two said she was warned about his “bad temper” and faced years of threatening behavior, including an alleged attempt to run her off the road near her home.
Their beloved rescue dog was also found dead, floating in a shallow well with horrific injuries.
Richard is shown building their house in Portugal before they were forced to return to the UK.
The family have raised £3,700 through a GoFundMe page to try to recover from their failed plan to move abroad.
The Appleby-Briscos have raised £3,800 through a GoFundMe page to try to recover from the failed plan to move abroad.
On the page, Ms Appleby-Brisco wrote: ‘We arrived in Portugal almost eight years ago full of enthusiasm to start a new and sustainable life. We were followed by the film crew from Channel Four’s Our Wildest Dreams because we wanted to inspire others.
“At first our lives were great, we wanted to integrate locally, so we didn’t mix so much with the expats, we put our daughters in the village school, we bought a small farm on the outskirts of the village, we started to learn the language better, we didn’t everything we think well.
“We didn’t know there was a storm of resentment in the town towards us, we hadn’t done anything wrong, so why would we question it?”
Channel 4 has been contacted for comment.