BAFTA-winning film 'I Swear' brings closure after 35 year feud
A former Borders man has finally found closure 35 years after a nightclub assault – after a hit film about Tourette’s sufferer John Davidson brought the case back into the spotlight.
Owen Jardine, who was left with a broken nose as a teenager in Galashiels in 1990, reached out to John Davidson after watching the BAFTA-winning Netflix drama I Swear – sparking a conversation between the pair for the first time in decades.
Owen was just 17 when he was struck outside a nightclub in March 1990. The incident later went to court, but over time became something he rarely thought about.
“It kind of just got lost in time,” he said. “I moved to Edinburgh in the mid-90s and never really thought about it much after that.”
That changed when he came across a trailer for I Swear.
“I saw a clip of a fight in a club and a court scene and thought, ‘that’s clearly a spin on what happened to me,’” he said. “I didn’t want to watch it because I thought it would bring it all back.”
After encouragement from friends and family, Owen decided to watch the film – but admits he struggled with it at first.
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t overly impressed. My head was in a negative space,” he said. “There’s a nugget of truth in it, but it’s been spun and it’s not how it really happened.”
He contacted the production company to question how closely the story reflected reality.
“They came back and said it’s not factually correct, it’s just based on a true story,” he said.
As the film gained attention online, Owen found himself becoming increasingly frustrated.
“The more I was reading and seeing, the more irritated I was getting,” he said. “I had to ask myself what I actually wanted from all of this.”
Eventually, he realised the only way to move forward was to contact John Davidson directly – something he hadn’t done in 35 years.
“It was like an itch I’d had for 35 years,” he said. “I thought, how do I clear this? The only way was to speak to him.”
Owen, who now lives in West Lothian, reached out via social media, not expecting a reply.
“Within five minutes he replied,” he said. “We struck up a really good conversation.”
The pair shared their accounts of what happened that night, with Owen saying the exchange helped him better understand John’s perspective.
“He apologised for confronting me and for breaking my nose – it wasn’t his intention,” Owen said. “He gave me his take, I gave mine.”
One detail from the original case had always stayed with him – that he and his friends had been accused of mocking John.
“That was my one gripe,” he said. “It always irritated me because I know I didn’t laugh at him.”
Their recent conversation helped resolve that lingering issue.
“John accepted everything and believed me when I said I didn’t mock him,” Owen said. “You can only speak for yourself, but that was enough for me.”
Looking back, Owen says both were simply young at the time.
“He was 19 and I was 17, we were just young,” he said. “We’ve all made mistakes. We’re adults now. It was a long time ago.”
He now holds no ill feeling towards Davidson and believes he has changed significantly over the years.
“I’ve got no ill will towards him whatsoever,” he said. “He’s a different person now.”
Before speaking publicly, Owen made sure John was comfortable with him sharing his story.
“I told him I wouldn’t do anything if he wasn’t happy because I didn’t want to portray him in a bad light,” he said. “The whole point was to move forward, not make things worse. He said if that’s what I needed, he’d support it.”
The two men have since left things on good terms and may even meet in person in future.
“We said if we’re ever in the same place, we’ll go for a coffee,” he said. “We wished each other well.”
For Owen, the conversation brought something he hadn’t realised he’d been carrying for decades – a sense of peace. What had once been a moment frozen in time, replayed and questioned over the years, has now been put to rest.
The anger and frustration that resurfaced with the release of I Swear have been replaced with understanding, and a recognition of how much both lives have moved on since that night in 1990.
In the end, it was the film that brought the two men back into contact. What started as a dramatised story on screen became a chance for real-life closure, showing that even decades-old conflicts can be put behind you – and that sometimes, facing the past is the only way to truly move forward.