Sex, child abuse and betrayal… the dark secrets of feelgood movie A Street Cat Named Bob revealed
Lover betrayed Street Cat Bob's pal by sneaking off to bonk his stepdad
IT was a story with such a happy ending that Hollywood could not resist it — a homeless busker whose life is turned around after he adopts a stray moggy.
But behind the cuddly warmth of A Street Cat Named Bob is a dark secret of betrayal, paedophilia and a family torn apart.
The moving story of ex-drug addict James Bowen and Bob the ginger cat has sold five million books and is now a major movie, released yesterday.
In his books, James, 37, pays glowing tribute not only to the valiant, scarf-wearing Bob but also to his girlfriend, Belle. Without her, he said, he’d be lost.
But when James and Bob rubbed shoulders with the Duchess of Cambridge at the film’s premiere in London on Thursday, Belle was not there.
That is because Belle — real name Kirsty Shirley, 33 — has left James and run off with his 58-year-old stepfather Mark Ludemann in Australia.
And The Sun can reveal that Ludemann is now on bail awaiting sentencing after being unmasked as a paedophile who preyed on an eight-year-old girl.
He is expected to be jailed at a hearing on December 2 after recently pleading guilty in a Sydney court to four sex assaults on the child.
The crimes came to light after James’s mum Penelope Hartford-Davis had broken up with Ludemann when she found her husband of seven years in bed with Kirsty at her home in Hobart, Tasmania.
In an exclusive interview, Penelope, 64, who moved from the UK to Australia with James when he was five, says: “It was Mark’s affair with Kirsty that was his downfall.”
The four-times-wed mum also claims the affair has ruined her relationship with her son, as he blames her for Kirsty’s cheating.
And she says James, who has made an estimated £1million from seven Bob books and film rights — refused to invite her to this week’s royal premiere.
She claims: “I’ve been in hospital three times since Kirsty cheated on us both and he hasn’t once contacted me to find out if I was OK or sent me flowers for my birthday. Nothing.
“Until that time he would always send me birthday cards or flowers and books.
“But since then, somewhere in his mind, he believes I was responsible.”
However, last night a spokesman for James insisted: “It is not true that James has cut her off. She has been demanding money off him.
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“The reason James has had psychological problems was because of what happened when she took him to Australia.”
Penelope says the build-up to the affair between her husband and Kirsty began in July 2014 when, she was seriously ill in hospital. James sent Kirsty to Hobart to care for her while IT specialist Ludemann was at work.
A couple of weeks later Kirsty flew home and James headed to Australia to visit before returning to London.
Penelope said: “Kirsty rang just after James got back and asked if she could she come out again. I couldn’t see a reason why not.
“Then she said, ‘Don’t tell James because he thinks I’m going to be with my parents in Spain and I haven’t told him I’m going to Australia.’ I agreed not to say anything.
“It was the worst mistake I could make. I didn’t realise I was being set up.
“What really upsets me is that, yes, James was hurt and would have felt betrayed by Kirsty, but he has not once considered what I went through.
“You can’t imagine what I felt like when I saw [her and Mark] in her bedroom.”
She recalled of that terrible day: “I got up in the morning and he wasn’t in bed and I thought he must be on his rowing machine. I went in to her bedroom and I just stood there and said, ‘Don’t you two look pretty together’. When I look back on it now, I wish I’d got a knife or a pot of boiling water.”
James was born in Surrey and was five when his parents split up. Penelope took her son to Australia, where she became a top saleswoman for photocopier giant Xerox.
They lived in a posh house and went on expensive holidays.
Penelope freely admits she lavished gifts on James, who is played by Luke Treadaway in the film, rather than love and attention.
But she says: “People need to understand that James was never badly treated as a child. He was spoilt.
“He went around the world three times with me, first class. He had nannies. He had everything.”
In 1997, aged 18, James moved to London, became homeless and lost contact with his mum. He slept in the streets or shelters and began taking heroin. Back in Australia, his frantic mother called in the authorities to find him.
She says: “The police found him and James was very angry with me because the police turned up and he had dope.
“I don’t think he got busted but he was pretty angry I’d done it.
“When he was so poor he was living on the streets, any time he came to me to ask for something I would help. I’d have been on the next plane over there if he’d asked.”
Instead it was Bob who came to the rescue.
In 2007, after enrolling in a methadone programme and being given a flat in supported housing in North London, James found the stray ginger tom.
The cat then “adopted” him, following him everywhere including the streets were James busked. They have been together ever since and after a local newspaper ran a story about them in 2010, James was offered his book deal.
But Penelope claims that James has given her little financial help since her split from her husband.
When Ludemann left with Kirsty he stopped paying the mortgage on her £184,000 home in Hobart, so Penelope asked James for help.
She claims he gave her £5,000 as a loan. Penelope says: “I’ve got to pay him back. It’s a loan. Not a gift. That’s the only help I’ve had.
“I asked him for help with my medical bills and he’d say things like, ‘I can’t Mum, one of the cats needs an operation’. There was always an excuse.
“But he’s always got enough money to travel first class.”
This week Penelope watched on TV on the other side of the world as her son — and Bob the cat — met the Duchess of Cambridge at the premiere.
She says: “I’d have loved to have been there, because I would have loved to see his success and be proud of him. It’s awful that he hasn’t included me. The problem is that James doesn’t want to share his success with anybody.
“I suppose, deep down, I really try to keep thinking that he has a good heart.
“But I sometimes wonder, I really do. He’s just too wrapped up in himself.”
Last night James’s spokesman said the writer had paid medical bills for his mother.
The Sun has been unable to contact Mark Ludemann or Kirsty Shirley for comment.