A MINISTER who lost his 19-year-old daughter in the Lockerbie bombing is to speak in York about the positives he took out of her death.

The Reverend John Mosey, whose daughter, Helga, was on the Pan Am jumbo jet that was blown up over the Scottish town on December 21, 1988, will also take questions from members of the public during the Life After Lockerbie event at Foxwood Community Centre.

Mr Mosey, 69, told The Press he was devastated by his daughter’s death and it was an “incredibly difficult” time.

“It’s hard to explain in just a few words,” he said. “We have found amazing strength in our faith and that’s really what’s brought us through. We’ve seen great things come out of it.”

About two years ago, Mr Mosey telephoned convicted bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to tell him he did not believe he was guilty of the atrocity. Mr Mosey told al-Megrahi that only he and God could know for sure.

Mr Mosey said mourners at Helga’s funeral donated about £6,000 and that encouraged the family to do as much good as possible with the money.

In about 1992, he set up a home for abused and abandoned children in a rural area of the Philippines. “We have 286 there, a day school and a nursery school,” he said. “I also have a children’s home in India where we have 32 girls who are destitute. Most of them are just girls off the street who have had no education and no healthcare, but they have a good home now and they do very well.” Mr Mosey, who lives near Kendal, in Cumbria, was invited to the city by Steve Redman, the pastor of the Ark Church, which meets at Foxwood Community Centre, in Bellhouse Way.

Mr Redman has known Mr Mosey since he was eight years old when Mr Mosey was the pastor of the church he went to in Goole.

The event is happening on Sunday, November 8, at 7pm.