“Family fighting for survival”

Christopher Skase is a dying man, frightened and scared, not so much for his future, but more importantly for the future and welfare of his wife Pixie and his family, his daughter Amanda said yesterday. Five months after having to move out of the La Noria home the family shared in the Port of Andratx when the rental lease on the property expired, Skase and his wife are now house sitting a property which, while on the market for one million pounds, they have no financial interest in. Skase has no assets in Majorca, according to his daughter, and because of his ill-health he has been forced to retire from the development projects where he was acting as a consultant. Amanda Larkins, one of Pixie and Christopher's four daughters who has lived with the family in Majorca throughout the 10-year-old Skase ordeal, was left wondering yesterday whether her father “has been tried and found guilty in his absence in Australia...what ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?” “The issues have become so clouded over the years with Australia challenging him time and time again to go back and prove his innocence - he can't, he's legitimately critically ill and we've said it all along. “We've never changed our story...but a death sentence has been handed down to a man, innocent until proven guilty.” Amanda said: “it's become a case of sheer harrassment (by the Australian government and the media) for no apparent gain but to make themselves appear credible.” “Things at the farmhouse (where they live on the outskirts of Andraitx) are drab and lonely - it's just the two of them, my father suffering from stomach cancer and my mother - his nurse,” Amanda said yesterday. “My mother has widely acknowledged that for any couple she and Christopher have had an unusually close relationship for the past 25 years. “They've hardly ever been apart. The only times Christopher has left Pixie's side for any length of time was in 1990 when he returned to Australia on six occasions to defend himself and on each occasion the charges were either dropped or held over. And at the end of it all he was allowed to return to Majorca a free man.” “His greatest fear of dying is that he does not know what will happen to Pixie, they've always been each other's best friend, they've had no great social life over the years, no great circle of friends, content with each other..what happens to Mum is his greatest horror.” “He's not a fugitive - he did not run away,” stressed Amanda Larkins. She also said that the extradition order was issued four months before Skase was due back in Australia, “the order was issued because they did not think he would return.” When the Bulletin spoke to Pixie last Friday, the stress and strain was clearly getting to her and Skase has been ordered by his doctors to stay at home and rest. Amanda Larkins said yesterday that she has not really thought about what the future holds - she admits that she is still having a tough time with “getting her head” around the current situation. But all thoughts and concerns are with her parents. “He's been a wonderful father and continues to be a wonderful father...and grandfather. “He's currently got four grandchildren and a fifth on its way, if he ever sees it...” The family is Skase's main concern right now. Once the move from La Noria was completed and the new temporary home set up, Christopher Skase has had time to think and realise what exactly is happening to his health. “He can deal with anything, but watching Mum suffer,” said Amanda. “His biggest regret is that he has not been able to absorb the full impact of all the pain and suffering himself and watch it being inflicted on his family and friends.” For Christopher Skase “everything, apart from the family, is irrelevant now. “He's always cared for the family, he was never in it for the money or the power,” Amanda said. But Skase has always liked to be in control of the situation, but it would appear that he has woken up to the fact that he is “losing” control over his health and “that scares him.” “As anybody who has lived with a cancer patient in the family will know, it's a day to day situation and we take each day as it comes. Some days he has a good day, others are bad days he and the rest of the family, we're all living for the moment.” “We're a family fighting for survival,” said Amanda yesterday.