This is Francecca Hardwick (left) and her mother Fiona Pilkington. Ms Pilkington, 38, is thought to have murdered her 18 year old daughter Francecca after setting light to their car in a lay-by on the A47 bear Earl Shilton, Leicestershire, in October 2007.
At the inquest it merged that Ms Pilkington, Francecca (known as Frankie) and her brother Anthony, now 19, had been subjected to 15 years of abuse at their home in Bardon Road in nearby Barwell.
At Loughborough Town Hall a jury was told their home had been pelted with flour, eggs and stones. The gang, some as young as 10, also shouted vile abuse at her daughter, who had severe learning difficulties, as well as locking Anthony in a shed at knifepoint.
They regularly shouted obscenities at Frankie and Anthony while they were in their bedroom, demanding the teenage girl, who liked to go out in the rain to 'jump in puddles', lift up her nightdress.
At one point they threatened to kill Ms Pilkington's children, while on another occasion they gang beat Anthony, who has severe dyslexia, with an iron bar.
But despite a catalogue of abuse, read out in court, Leicestershire Police failed to prosecute one member of the gang.
Ms Pilkington contacted the police for help on several occasions but the force even failed to send an officer most of the time and most of the incidents were closed after she decided not to prosecute her family's tormentors for fear of reprisals. The children's mother also wrote to her MP asking for help.
I am horrified at this story as I'm sure many of you are. My rage with the police service and the others who should have helped this mother, plus knowing she was driven to such a pit of despair, shows how broken our society has become in recent years.
Oh I know Leicestershire police will have an internal investigation and wrists will be slapped, but not one police officer will lose their job and their handsome pension; while a young lad has lost his mother and sister because of their inability to do the basics we expect from our police - protect the innocent.
The change in the police service has been so gradual I think some of us are only now becoming aware that they are not there to serve us, but to serve their masters. Another of Gordon Brown's legacies.
Source: Telegraph
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14 comments:
There is a thread which runs through all these stories which indicates that there is a strong tendency in pretty well every police force to combine both idleness and stupidity. Private Eye's Neasden police log is too close to what many consider to be the truth to be satire. I did read a comment somewhere to the effect that if someone had said strong words to these wee treasures - let alone laid rough hands on them - the full force of the Leicestershire constabulary would have descended on him or her in short order and they would have been carted off to the cells. The parrot cry then comes we have learned lessons.
This is not to decry the hard job that the police have to do but the reports of cases like this are too frequent to be anecdotal.
This is the same police farce that spent a fortune shuttling between Portugal and Leceistershire investigating the Maddie McCann disappearance.
About three quarters of a million quid I think.
I too read Private Eye's log Richard and agree it's far more fact than satire.
There is something seriously wrong with our police services as they no longer protect those who should be protected but how do we stop the rot?
Ah Rab, well done, I was trying to think what or where I'd heard about them recently.
Good job they did on that case too wasn't it. Expect we paid for their sunblock as part of the bargain.
This is truly breathtaking neglect. As pointed out, "the system" will do nothing.
My view is that those responsible for these failings - and the families whose children harassed thee poor people - should be named and shamed and hopefully the inquest might do this. Then their communities can draw their own conclusions.
http://tvotr.blogspot.com/2009/09/labours-legacy-mother-and-disabled.html
Subrosa,
It may surprise you to learn (although it should not) that police failures to protect people from foreseeable harm engages human rights laws.
Although I'm no expert on the case, Osman v. the United Kingdom from 1998, readable at http://tiny.cc/PmMWU concerned police failures to act on evidence of danger posed to a young boy from his teacher, that failure resulting in the injury of the boy and the death of his father. At issue, as I recall, was primarily the blanket exclusion of police liability to the public.
While I am unable to say confidently whether that caselaw may provide relief to the family of these unfortunate people, it does seem to be potentially relevant in the circumstances prima facie.
I agree with you Jess but as Lallands points out the police are immune from any criticism. If you read the case - see link - all they have to say is they have no recollection or no written evidence.
It seems it's up to the public to ensure they have recordings of all phone calls to police and any contact with them.
Many thanks for the link Lallands. You certainly know how I should spend an hour of my day! Very interesting case though and of course now I know the police are absolved of any inaction or non-action.
As one who has trouble from the little darlings in my area, including £800 damaged to my car's paintwork, every time you phone the cops about trouble, get a crime number from them. That way at least it gets recorded and appears on the stats. When my car was done, nobody turned up - I was just given the number and told the insurance would deal with it. The problem that could arise in future could be the vigilante....What was it Captain Lynch said? If you don't like the my laws then use your own (methods?) I would just like the system to be able to respond promptly. That way we could actually get on top of it, as per New York.
I was taking to a friend last week and she's just been made up to sergeant. In the conversation I mentioned she must feel more a figure of authority now when she's out and about.
Her reply was she never goes out and about. She's too much to do looking after 10 officers from her office.
A sign of the times.
I'm not exonerating the Police here, but I am going to take a guess that this family probably didn't live in a well to do middle class area, they probably lived in a ''scheme'' surrounded by some families who's children are more or less feral.
We've got a lot of that in Glasgow and we have been doing a lot of work between the Police, Housing Associations, the Council, and local tenant groups to work jointly to get the kind of proof you need to get these children and families into Court. We have actually secured quite a few evictions, but much better than that when we have been in the position to do joint visits to parents and tell them that we are going to evict them and they will not be rehoused we have actually managed to change behaviour (although there is a bit of bluffing with the rehousing thing).
You can only do that if you have, as Glasgow Council and HA's and Strathclyde Polis have done, worked out all the legal niceties that means there are no barriers between all the people who have authority to deal with anti-social behaviour as long as you act within the protocol.
I am not for a moment saying that it is perfect, because it quite clearly isn't, but it is obviously a lot better than Leicester - why that family were left in their house unsupported in a situation like that defies belief.
Now I suppose theoretically someone could object to this arrangement as we could be portrayed as big brother watching etc. Literally as we use CCTV and also covert surveillance techniques (for a 3 month period)we can put cameras in coke cans etc down to watch what happens. But then there is a balance to be struck and as long as these methods and the protocols are in place to benefit communities then I think that is acceptable.
Anyway that was rather a long winded way of saying that I don't think we can necessarily expect Police to sort out these kinds of problems themselves, it needs wider action. And resources.
I'm pleased you commented on this post Observer because I respect your knowledge in the field of housing and the issues surrounding them.
I think you're right from the television pictures about the scheme but Glasgow seems way ahead of Leicester and the way the police handled the matter will surely make them question their procedures.
Mind you, did you read the link Lallands posted?
It seems the police can covered their tracks or non-tracks with impunity.
Here's someone resposible:
Council officer Tim Butterworth, who was responsible for dealing with anti social behaviour, said he had "no concerns" with the situation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/8273324.stm
Ms Pilkington's last entry on 2 June 2 2007, said: "They went to number 57, lit a fag and then tried to set fire to fences between the houses."
Reading the entries, Mr Butterworth was visibly perspiring.
He said the council was still trying to deal with a family causing trouble on the street.
Jess, thanks for taking the trouble to post that link.
I agree the council have to accept part of the blame for this. How can they wash their hands in this manner when they actually gave Ms Pilkington a form to complete about the harrassment.
Such a tragedy this is and I wonder how many other cases there are around.
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