By Richard Torné
Some 150 people took part in a demonstration in Vera’s main square last week in support of Len and Helen Prior, the retired expat couple who have been fighting through the courts for more than eight years to be compensated for the demolition of their home.
The protest, organised by the property rights association AUAN, was held just three weeks after it emerged that the local council had lodged an appeal against a sentence ordering it to compensate the Priors €425,183 for the loss of their home.
Mrs Prior, 72, gave an impassioned speech, saying both she and her husband had spent the last 10 years having “sleepless nights” and “continual mental anguish, hoping and praying to have the strength to carry on this fight because Len and I did nothing wrong”.
She ended by describing her experience as “barbaric” as she held up a large photo of her house before it was demolished.
