Cuban lover of Briton at centre of Shakespeare Folio probe tells of her shock at his arrest

The Cuban beauty embroiled in the mystery of the £15million Shakespeare manuscript has spoken of her shock at the arrest of her British boyfriend.

Nightclub dancer Heidy Garcia Rios, 21, clings to the hope that Raymond Scott will return to whisk her away to Tyne and Wear.

When told that the 51-year-old has been quizzed over the historic manuscript by police, she told the Mail: 'Please tell me Raymond is OK, that he is not in trouble. He is a good man and would not do anything wrong.'

The case took another disturbing twist yesterday. Mr Scott claims that he obtained the manuscript in question  -  a copy of Shakespeare's First Folio dating from 1623  -  from a contact in Cuba.

But the Daily Mail has tracked down the Cuban contact. And he declared: 'I didn't give it to him.'

Danny Leon Perez is adamant that what he gave Mr Scott to have valued was not the hugely valuable First Folio, but merely an old, battered copy of Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

Mr Scott was arrested last week at the £95,000 semi-detached home in Washington, Tyne and Wear, he shares with his mother Hannah, 80.

Police were alerted after he handed his document to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. Experts there believe it is the copy of the First Folio which was stolen from Durham University's library ten years ago.

Mr Scott, an eccentric who neighbours claim often emerges in a silk dressing gown and sunglasses to iron the seats of his yellow Ferrari, says his document is not the Durham one.

Back in Havana, Miss Rios described how her romance with the Briton blossomed in October after he watched her dancing in a chorus line at the capital's Nacional Hotel.

Mr Scott immediately fell for her and afterwards he waited patiently by the stage door. 'He asked me for my phone number, then invited me to dinner,' she said.

Flattered by his attention, they met for dinner two days later. Though he is not what you'd consider a classic Romeo, he is 'charming', according to Miss Rios. 'He was always paying me compliments and was very generous towards me.'

The Briton travelled to Cuba three times and on his last visit, in June, he proposed to Miss Rios.

Romance: Raymond Scott with Miss Rios (centre) and her mother Ana

In faltering English she explained: 'He took me to the Cafe Orient and went down on one knee, and told me he wanted to marry me. I said yes because I love Raymond. He is a good man. The age difference does not worry me and my mother Ana approves of him.'

The dancer, who like many Cubans does not possess a passport and would need permission to leave the Castro controlled island, said Mr Scott had promised to take her back to Britain.

'He has told me it is very cold and rains all the time, but I do not mind,' she said. 'I want to be with Raymond , and if I can leave Cuba to be with him then I will.'

But she had not heard from her fiancé since his last visit and, with no access to the outside world, was shocked when the Mail broke news of his arrest while she dined with her mother.

It was Miss Rios who introduced Mr Scott to Mr Perez, a family friend who also collected 'old' books.

'Back in February Danny told Raymond that he had a book that had been passed down through his family and he wanted him to have a look at it.

'It was the only book in Danny's collection that was in English. I did not know what the book was called but it looked very old and a few inches thick.

'Raymond was very interested in the book. He did not discuss it much with me, but when he came back in June he had $10,000 to buy the book from Danny.' But quite what book Mr Scott took from Cuba remains unclear  -  as does whether he paid for it.

Both Mr Perez and Mr Scott said there had been no payments, but that if the book were to be sold the proceeds would be split between the three of them.

Mr Perez, shown a photograph of the cover of the rare Shakespeare manuscript, shook his head and said: 'That is not the book I gave to Raymond.

'I have never seen it before. My book was called Tempest and had the front and back covers missing. Some of the pages were also missing.'

He said the book he gave the Briton was printed on paper. The First Folio, a collection of 36 Shakespeare plays printed seven years after the Bard's death, is printed on goatskin.

Mr Scott, who has been released on bail, insisted Mr Perez had given him a First Folio. He said: 'The Tempest is the first play in the Folio, but I have no idea why he thinks it was only The Tempest and not the entire Folio. Maybe he has got confused.'