Following the sudden death of Scott Caldwell last month, Sam Turton sat down with Scott’s wife Victoria to discover what the martial arts expert was really like.

Scott was born in Scotland before moving to the island with his family where he attended St Mary’s Roman Catholic School and Ballakermeen High School.

Victoria said he was always a keen sportsman, excelling at most sports that he attempted, including table tennis, football, BMX biking and helping his stepfather at stock car racing.

Martial arts was a large part of Scott’s life.

By the age of 39 he was a black belt in Open Circle Fighting Method and also in Urban Krav Maga.

He later developed his own style he called ’REAL Fighting’ and went into business with Bernard De Beer to establish their own academy on Head Road, Douglas.

He and Victoria, who had been married for three years, met at a class he was teaching on self defence for women.

She said: ’Little did I know that the cute bald fella I clocked upon entering the dojo was my soulmate.’

As well as teaching this class, he featured in books such as Martial Master and worked on the quarterly magazine Martial Arts Guardian with his wife and friends.

During his youth, his mother and stepfather ran several guest houses in the island, which allowed Scott to meet many TT riders and where he also worked as a bouncer.

Victoria said: ’His expensive tastes started to form around this time.

’Scott always liked to dress well, but nobody quite knew where such trendy clobber was coming from back then.’

When Scott was 21, he moved to London and had two children with his first wife.

They are Gabriella, who is now 19 and Freddie, 17.

His first wife was from London and it was while he was with her that he got a taste for travelling. They moved to Cascais in Portugal, to Barcelona and Amsterdam before returning to London.

He then worked in the City before returning to the island to help his family when his stepfather was terminally ill.

It was after he returned to the island that Scott served five years of a nine-year sentence for possession of ecstasy, which was later used as the justification behind tougher sentencing guidelines in the island.

Victoria said: ’While inside, Scott made the best of his misfortune and set to work sorting out the prison library, learned about psychology and studied law to degree level.

’In true Shawshank Redemption style, he used these skills to help other inmate with their legal cases and letters, he also, along with international human rights specialist Paul Beckett, championed human rights in the island.’

After his release, Scott ran anti-bullying workshops and fought at Thriller in the Villa to raise money for Rebecca House.

Victoria remembers him going to see the charity and said it left him quite emotional and this is why she asked for donations to it in lieu of flowers for his funeral.

His constant need to try to help others, no matter the time of day is how Victoria wants to remember Scott.

’I Googled him and Manx Forums come up and you see that people thought he was some idiotic thug but he wasn’t at all. He was well written, well spoken and a very intelligent man.

’He was mates with a fair few coppers and the a lot of people who would talk to him and their opinion of him would change once he started talking.’

There is, however, no ignoring the circumstances of Scott Caldwell’s death.

Victoria said that he’d left the house on foot at about 6.30am that morning and rang her later feeling disorientated.

She went out to look for him but was unable to find him, she then returned home to assist police fill in a missing persons form before she later received the news his body had been found in the area of Trollaby Lane, Union Mills.

Victoria said: ’These have been the longest three weeks of my life.

’For the first two, I was keeping busy by organising the funeral as I wanted it to be perfect for him, picking songs he liked, that kind of thing.

’He was an amazing husband and father and stepfather to Zoe and Erin. He took them as his own and offered them fatherly advice, never shying away from responsibility.’

She said she was now planning to return to her work as a graphic designer for her company Caldwell Design and Marketing and wants to find a way to support ’those who need drug counselling so something good can come out of it’.

Victoria asks for anyone wanting to remember or commemorate her husband, they should donate to Rebecca House via www.justgiving.com/fundraising/scott-caldwell.