Killer Congers, Kidnap and Memory Loss

So this evening I'm thumbing through a back copy of fortean times (ft 85) and I notice a small article in the Strange Days section of the magazine that I thought would make a good post for this blog.
The story was taken from the Aberdeen Press and Journal and the Daily Telegraph September 2 1995.

Now the story goes that a 32 year old diving instructor by the name of Cameron Bell was on Loch Long, a sea loch on the western coast of Scotland, he was there to give three  of his pupils a lesson on diving at night. when some how he became detached from his group and nothing more was heard of him for a further 9 hours.

He later claimed that whilst swimming into an area 90ft below the surface aptly named Conger Alley,  he was attacked by a giant 6ft foot conger eel. The eel had apparently been startled by the divers light and in the confusion that followed some fishing line that was trailing out of the congers mouth had become entangled around the his neck. Mr Bell then said that he was dragged at high speed a further 60ft into the cold dark depths before managing to use his knife to cut himself free. Unfortunately for the unlucky sub-aqua swimmer whilst he was cutting himself free from his eel led leash, he accidentally cut through his own oxygen line.

With no oxygen Mr Bell was forced to make hast towards the surface, an action that no diver wants to do from such depths in a hurry and the result was a case of the bends or decompression sickness, caused by his rapid assent to the surface. Suffering as he was from the bends he some how struggled towards the shore, where he passed out on terra firma. Luckily some 9 hours later he was found by a passing cyclist and after 4 hours in a decompression chamber at Faslane navel base he was sent home to Glasgow to recover.

Now it was whilst I was double checking the facts of this article that I came across another bizarre chapter in the life of Mr Bell. It seems that a few years later in February 1998 the diver once again found himself in turbulent water.

Mr Bell was attending a conference for divers in Marseilles in France when he suddenly went missing, only to turn up again 5 days later when he staggered into a petrol garage with razor cuts and bruises to both his head and body. Naturally detectives tried in interview him he could only say that he had been held against his will and apart from that he had no memory of any other events.
A spokes woman fr french CID said " He has been injured so something must have happened. He is the only one who can help us."

But it seems that some people who know Mr Bell think that perhaps he might be rather liberal with the truth. An un-named source fro the Scottish diving community was quoted in the Daily Mirror as saying "It sounds as though he's been up to no good. His Loch Long story was a load of nonsense - and didn't do the diving industry any good. In fact I'll give you a tenner for every diver you find who believes the conger man's story."

Also one of the divers who accompanied Mr Bell on his eel fated dive in Loch Long said the the ell story "seemed unlikely" and "He was laughed out of the park by everyone in the industry. He only gained sympathy from people not involved in diving."

Even his ex diving partner Mike Nisbett had this to say  "I have nothing to say about Cameron Bell. I don't want to be associated with the man."

So It looks like poor Cameron has had a hard time which ever way you look at it. Did he encounter an angery eel from the deep? Did he even get kidnapped? Well the only person who knows for sure is Cameron Bell himself........





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