A father-of-three council worker, 38, faked cancer by walking with a cane and swallowing 20 vitamin pills a day as his ‘medication’ in a ploy to to stop his girlfriend, 50, from leaving him. Kevin Bevis lied about being terminally ill to Karen Gregory, even asking her to travel with him to hospital for fake treatment. The 38-year-old, who worked for Gravesend Borough Council housing department, also convinced Ms Gregory’s friends, who sponsored him in a cancer charity run.
Ms Gregory, from West Malling in Kent, said: ‘I just took his word for it.. He was with me when I lost my auntie to cancer, how can anyone lie about such a thing? It’s hard because people on the outside think ‘how can you be so stupid?’ but he went to such lengths.’ Ms Gregory would drive him to supposed chemotherapy appointments who he would not allow to come in and support him. She also helped Bevis walk around the garden using a cane because he claimed to be too weak to stand unaided. He even pretended to collapse in front on the neighbours when his girlfriend was out.
Ms Gregory said: ‘He would say he didn’t want me seeing him like that. I would pick him up and he would come out with bandages and tell me all about the nurses there. He would have the medication, a box of pills, throughout the day. I found out they were just vitamins and supplements. I found a big bag of tablets hidden in the shed when I was clearing out his things.’
The pair initially met through a Facebook group in 2016 and Ms Gregory was attracted to Bevis after seeing pictures of him doing a charity head shave and walk, and said he behaved like a gentleman. She said: ‘He was really nice. He acted like a gentleman and was old fashioned, it made a change really.’
Three months into their relationship, Ms Gregory wanted to break things off with Bevis due to his ‘s3xual urges’ and them being incompatible. She said: ‘He wanted to do swinging but I’m not into all that. But he insisted he would never make me do any of that.’ But in May 2017, he told her he had stomach cancer. Ms Gregory said: ‘I was speechless. He said ‘aren’t you going to give me a cuddle?’ And then the cancer got worse and worse.’ The mother-of-three had just started spending a lot more time with her teenager daughter and believes Bevis wanted more attention.
Ms Gregory travelled up to Guy’s St Thomas’ Hospital in London under the impression that Bevis could ‘see a consultant’ but again was banned from coming in with him. To be even more convincing, Bevis purposefully would not eat much at the home they shared together and used the cancer as an excuse not to cook. The mass manipulator even lied to his parents about having the deadly disease in order to keep up the charade.
Miss Gregory said: ‘I was standing next to him as he broke the news to his mum and dad. If he can lie like that to his parents, you have got to believe it.’ Bevis escalated his lies, first saying that he also had mouth cancer and later a brain tumour and that he would die in two years.
At this point, Ms Gregory had serious misgivings about their relationships but felt unable to leave him and began booking special experiences and nights away to make his last days better. Her friends even paid for a hot air balloon trip and she started making a memory box full of photos for his mother to keep when Bevis died. She said: ‘How can you leave someone who is dying? I thought I would try and make it the best I could for him.’
Bevis persistently asked Ms Gregory to have s3x with other men as part of his s3xual fantasies and, although she did not want to, she eventually relented and had intercourse with three different men. She said: ‘You do it because you want to make that person happy in their final year, or so I thought. I should never have given in. I did love him but I wasn’t madly in love with him. A friend used to say to me, ‘you don’t love him, you care for him.’
As the lies continued, Ms Gregory stood on the side-lines cheering Bevis on as he completed the Canterbury Half Marathon and Great South Run, raising money for cancer charities. She had begged Bevis not to take part in the events as she believed he had overcome tremendous pain to do so. He stopped running three miles before the finish line in Canterbury, telling a fellow runner about his supposed illness.
Bevis repeatedly assaulted Ms Gregory, each time pinning her down and wrapping his hands around her throat. The last time he said, ‘I could kill you, I’ve got nothing to live for’, in reference to the supposed cancer. He later blamed his violence on the steroids he claimed to be taking as part of his treatment.
The act came to an end in December 2019, when Miss Gregory asked the police about her partner’s background under Claire’s Law and encouraged by her daughter. In a meeting, she told the police he was violent and Bevis was arrested the next day.
He admitted to lying about his illnesses after police looked through his medical records and Ms Gregory was told of the deceit on the phone.
Bevis was handed an 18-month prison sentence and a five-year restraining order to stay away from Ms Gregory at Maidstone Crown Court. Ghulam Humayun, defending, said Bevis was very sorry for taking an ‘extreme measure’ by claiming cancer because he feared losing his girlfriend.
More than six months since the relationship ended, Miss Gregory still has nightmares about Bevis and says she will probably get counselling. She believes if she had never gone to the police, Bevis would still be lying to her now. The courageous mother said she wants people to know how much help was offered to her from the police and witness and victim support after the revelation.
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