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'No excuse' over mother and daughter deaths
Source: Agencies |
September 29, 2009, Tuesday
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BRITISH Home Secretary Alan Johnson said today there could be no excuse for failings that led to the deaths of a vulnerable mother and daughter after suffering years of abuse on their Leicestershire estate.
The police complaints watchdog is to investigate officers' handling of the case which ended in tragedy when Fiona Pilkington, 38, killed herself and her severely disabled 18-year-old daughter in October 2007.
Pilkington had driven her daughter Francecca, who had a mental age of 3, to a lay-by near their home in Barwell, doused clothes in the back of the car with petrol and set it alight.
"There are no excuses for what happened to Fiona Pilkington," Johnson told Sky News.
"This is an example of a situation where there wasn't a response often enough, where they couldn't identify a vulnerable person like Fiona Pilkington, and where they didn't work together in a concerted way to tackle the problem.
"This has to be a wake-up call that we need to ensure that we have consistent standards for tackling anti social behaviour wherever somebody lives.
The Conservatives said the case had horrified the nation.
"In Britain at the moment the troublemakers just seem to get away with it," said Conservative shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown will address the issue of anti-social behaviour later in a speech at the Labour party conference in Brighton.
"We will not stand by and see the lives of the lawful majority disrupted by the behaviour of the lawless minority," he will say, according to speech extracts released in advance.
An inquest jury on Monday said police and local councils had not responded adequately to dozens of pleas for help from Pilkington.
She had suffered more than a decade of abuse and bullying from local youths, who threw stones and bottles at her house and set fire to her gate, as well as attacking her severely dyslexic son Anthony, 19.
Despite making more than 30 complaints to police, she received little response.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is to examine the case.
"We will be looking at all the reports made to the police of anti-social behaviour, nuisance and abuse, to see how the police responded to them and whether it was appropriate in all the circumstances," said an IPCC spokeswoman.
Leicestershire police offered "unreserved apologies" to Pilkington's family.
"We recognise that we need to have a better response to low- level anti-social behaviour," said acting Chief Constable Chris Eyre.
The police complaints watchdog is to investigate officers' handling of the case which ended in tragedy when Fiona Pilkington, 38, killed herself and her severely disabled 18-year-old daughter in October 2007.
Pilkington had driven her daughter Francecca, who had a mental age of 3, to a lay-by near their home in Barwell, doused clothes in the back of the car with petrol and set it alight.
"There are no excuses for what happened to Fiona Pilkington," Johnson told Sky News.
"This is an example of a situation where there wasn't a response often enough, where they couldn't identify a vulnerable person like Fiona Pilkington, and where they didn't work together in a concerted way to tackle the problem.
"This has to be a wake-up call that we need to ensure that we have consistent standards for tackling anti social behaviour wherever somebody lives.
The Conservatives said the case had horrified the nation.
"In Britain at the moment the troublemakers just seem to get away with it," said Conservative shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown will address the issue of anti-social behaviour later in a speech at the Labour party conference in Brighton.
"We will not stand by and see the lives of the lawful majority disrupted by the behaviour of the lawless minority," he will say, according to speech extracts released in advance.
An inquest jury on Monday said police and local councils had not responded adequately to dozens of pleas for help from Pilkington.
She had suffered more than a decade of abuse and bullying from local youths, who threw stones and bottles at her house and set fire to her gate, as well as attacking her severely dyslexic son Anthony, 19.
Despite making more than 30 complaints to police, she received little response.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is to examine the case.
"We will be looking at all the reports made to the police of anti-social behaviour, nuisance and abuse, to see how the police responded to them and whether it was appropriate in all the circumstances," said an IPCC spokeswoman.
Leicestershire police offered "unreserved apologies" to Pilkington's family.
"We recognise that we need to have a better response to low- level anti-social behaviour," said acting Chief Constable Chris Eyre.
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