Welfare services involved with the family of a registered sex offender who killed himself, his partner and their five children when he set fire to their home in Omagh were guilty of a series of failings, an investigation into the deaths found today.
Arthur McElhill (36), who doused the downstairs hallway with petrol when his partner threatened to leave him, tried to commit suicide as far back as 1988 before becoming involved in a number of attacks on teenage girls, the report on the Omagh fire tragedy revealed.
Lorraine McGovern (29) and her five children - Caroline (13), Sean (7), Bellina (4), one-year-old Clodagh and 10-month-old baby James - died alongside Mr McElhill when he torched their terraced home in Lammy Crescent in November last year.
An independent review panel commissioned by Stormont health minister Michael McGimpsey to examine the role of the statutory agencies that dealt with the family highlighted a series of shortcomings.
The team, which was lead by Henry Toner QC, noted that not all agencies were aware that Mr McEhill, who was a heavy drinker and suffered depression, had twice been found guilty of indecently assaulting teenage girls in the 1990s, resulting in his imprisonment in 1998.
A failure to share this information undermined the ability of welfare services to assess the potential risk he posed to teenage girls, they said.
This information gap resulted in a teenage girl, who was on the Child Protection Register, being allowed to sleep over at Lammy Crescent in the months before the fire.
This were only highlighted when a radio conversation between police officers dealing with an incident involving the teenager’s mother was overheard by the area’s sexual offences risk manager.
The investigation team examined the role of the Western Health and Social Care Trust, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Probation Service and Education Welfare Services.
Although they highlighted deficits in good practice and management within the relevant areas of the trust and in the other agencies, they noted that there was no indication nor warning of the events of the night of November 13th, 2007.
The review has made a total of 63 recommendations, some requiring urgent attention.
As the events surrounding the fire are still subject to a police inquiry, the review did not touched on the incident itself.
In response, the Northern Ireland Policing Board said it had received the review, and that two of the 63 recommendations relate to the PSNI.
The board noted that the report called for PSNI policies on child protection and domestic violence to be reinforced, and for the force to ensure its sex offenders data base is checked when officers are called to family situations with child-protection issues.
The board also said the PSNI was advised to consider a social services staff member, as appropriate, to each of the eight PSNI Public Protection Units in the North.
The statement added that the recommendations will be reported on July 3rd to the Policing Board, which will then question the PSNI on its response.
PA