Fiona Cooper Helen

[FCHelen]

Whilst bored and alone tonight I came accross this site with it's speculations about the model Helen used by Fiona Cooper. Well, that's me. I met Phil Sutcliffe when I was 17 (I'm now 46) in a nightclub in Halifax. He had a black tuxedo and fedora hat on. He worked shifts for a sock manufacturers off Gibbet Street in what's now 'Paki-land' just out of Halifax centre. He lied to me about what his intentions were and I ostracised my family & friends because of him. I was beaten up by one of his other (mature)models very early on as she thought she was in a relationship with him when I was living with him. Like a fool, I still went back.

If you've got any questions, apart from the screamingly obvious: can I have a freebie, will you do a shoot for me......., just ask and I'll be as honest as I can.

[andy at handiwork]

Halifax? Night club? Early 1980s? It MUST have been Clarence's, surely? We probably passed each other on the way to the bar. Cant sat I remember Sooty, but back then a black tux and a white fedora wasn't that uncommon.

Welcome to BGAFD, by the way.

[FCHelen]

I never heard of a place called Clarence's. Not in Halifax, W Yorks. There was the Candle Light U18's twice a week in foggy's. I met PJS at what used to be Tiffany's on Broad Street. It was called 'Somewhere Else' when I went and played ealy 80's Electro Pop & New Romantic stuff.

To a little 17yr old he stood out in his 'trying to pass off as Bryan Ferry' look. The fedora was dak grey, not white.

[andy at handiwork]

My mistake then. Clarence's was in Crown Street (and had probably closed by the time we are discussing), just round the corner from Tiffany's which was I think in Broad Street. My musical tastes at the time would probably have meant we would not have passed on the way to the bar. Which is a pity, 'cos just having looked at an old FC catalogue as to who you 'were' in those days I remember having a definite thrill on seeing your pics back then. Great school girl look, but then you probably had been shortly before meeting 'FC'. Cant say I ever went to Foggy's. Still drop into the Big 6 occasionally though when in Halifax.

[FCHelen]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PJS owned the two little houses next door and next door but one to the Big 6 in the few years before I met him, making that about 77 - 81. If you drank in the Big 6 then, you'll have seen him. He'd have been with his 2 stooges. Kev & Chris, non identical twins who's parents were eastern european. They were about 5'4" with pale swarthy skin, black hair and bottle bottom specs.

[andy at handiwork]

I dont recall him/them but I'm sure my very long time mate round the corner will. Dont know a local guitar player called 'Shirty' do you?

[FCHelen]

No, I didn't know him til I was 17 so it was post Big 6 days, tho we went in occasionally.

The sock place I've remembered was called Reliance Hosiery. He drove a falling to bits Fiat 132 which I helped repair. We took a rear axle from a scrap yard in Sowerby Bridge. I was a Girl Guide and had learned how to hot-wire a car at District Camp one year (which seemed to impress him when not much of me did) and as I pointed out there wasn't much point in being able to start a car we couldn't get into in an emergency, they taught us how to break in too. I was a headstrong little girl.

Actually, he never asked me to wear my Guide uniform. He had a mate called Peter (NOT a Sutcliffe) who was done for paedo stuff too. I think he had a film processing business in Leeds.

He started out selling sets of 20 photos of one 'model' through contact ads in a type of fraud where he got unsuspecting 'partners' to enter into a 'relationship', then just before agreeing to meet, asked them as a show of faith to buy the pics. He was sucessfully prosecuted a couple of times. Once, a guy actually showed up at the house when I was home alone. I was only 17, VERY naive, and very frightened by the experience. He was more concerned about the fact that the guy had managed to track the address down rather than what it had medant to me.

[william]

Could be the start of an interesting thread - There is so much out there about FC that is an institution in its own right !

[Bill Malone]

Hi Helen

Much of what we've heard about the man himself is rumour. He appears tow be a Svengali figure who pulls models in to his confidence with promises of stardom and he obviously does something right as he's worked with thousands of girls, aome of whom keep going back. However, the bad experience stories are legend...and yet he can't be treating all the girls the same or else he'd have. Een banged (or beaten) up years ago. The thin line he's walking with his behaviour and his business seems to baffle the law and his critics and yet he's done very very well out of it.

So my question to Helen would be: What is he doing right? And what is he doing wrong? What were the good bits that kept you returning and what were the worst bits that made you stop. I want to finally get to the bottom of what the man is about - why does he have a constant supply of fresh meet if he's such a turd to everyone?

Also can you prove you're Helen? A similar thread popped up with 'you' on the Vintage Erotica forum and promptly ended when someone questioned you're authenticity? How about a recent photo? Sorry to call your bluff but it seems pointless continuing until we know.

[FCHelen]

Hi Bill

I'm not willing to post a photo as I value my anonymity these days. I lost countless office jobs in Halifax when I was younger when I'd been recognised for my alternative profession. You'll just have to take my word for it. As it happens, I do remember the Vintage Erotica site. I was trying to exorcise a few ghosts at the time and thought it would be good place to start. I am in a stable relationship now so can only post when my other half is not around so there may be a gap now as he's arrived for a few days stay at my place.

My experiences with PJS are a little different to the models he gets in because I was firstly in a relationship with him that ended with my living with him. At just 17, I was bowled over by the attention of what I thought were a sophisitcated older man who took me to mhy first restaurant and treated me like the adult I thought I was. When he got round to suggesting he took some pictures of me I was flattered that he thought me so attractive. He didn't want me for a girlfriend but as I was thrown out by my father the minute he laid eyes on my 'boyfriend', he was left with little choice. That's how I came to be beaten up by Shirley. She came round and let herself in one morning when I was getting ready for college and PJS was at work at the sock factory. I was doing A Levels in Pure & Applied Maths, Physics and Biology at Percival Whitley College, Halifax. I hadn't heard anyone come in as I was drying my hair. When I saw her in the mirror, I turned the dryer off. She asked if I was the old school friend Phil had gone out with last night, I said 'No, it was Donna or Debbie or something like that.' She then said 'But you stayed here...?' I answered rather petulantly to this woman who'd previously been introduced to me as his cousin, 'Well yes, of course I did. I live here!' She then set about me in a viscious fashion which resulted in my having both eyes blacked and 5 stitches in my face and accross my lower lip where she'd kicked me in the mouth and caught a metal tipped stilletto heel. I was a mess. I ran down the little street to the post office at Scar Bottom (closed years ago now) and frightened the lovely gay man who ran it and who was dispensing pensions to amazed little old ladies. The police were called but I was advised to run for the hills, not press charges and put it down to experience. She ripped my clothes up and threw my cosmetics out of the bedroom window. Like a fool, I went back to him a few days later.

At the time I was with him, he also photographed weddings. He did Kenny Carters. He was the Halifax Speedway King who shot himself later. I know the he is currenly married. I think his wife is called Giselle! Yes I laughed too. He always liked the exotic. He was always a very vocal pacifist but I came accross him last year on a web site that is about re-enactments of WW2. He dresses as an American soldier, complete with his own jeep. They go to Haworth every May so if you want a good laugh it's worth hunting the internet for. Also, they made some reportedly crap gardening/cooking DVD's from their own garden at Throstle Nest Farm. They were advertised in Amateur Gardening magazine. He always fancied himself as lord of the mannor. He is afraid of water and can't swim but had an outdoor pool built! I don't know if it's still there or been filled in. You can see the farm from the road when driving from Stump Cross up towards Northowram. There's a pylon quite close to the house if you want to be nosey.

More another time. I need some tea and to wake my man who came over when he'd just finished his night-shifts this morning.