A convicted sex offender killed himself and six other family members in a house Fire in Co Tyrone because his long-time partner had threatened to leave him, a coroner ruled today.
Arthur McElhill (36), doused the hallway of the two-storey terrace house in Omagh with petrol and white spirit before setting it ablaze.
The fire in Lammy Crescent in November 2007 claimed the lives of his partner, Lorraine McGovern (29), and their five children Caroline (13), Seán (7), Bellina (4), Clodagh (19 months) and James (nine months).
On the fourth day of an inquest into the deaths, Northern Ireland Coroner Suzanne Anderson said she was satisfied that the unemployed farm labourer had torched the home after Miss McGovern had threatened to walk out on him.
During the hearings it had been revealed that McElhill had been conducting an illicit sexual relationship with an under-age girl in the months before the fire.
“I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Arthur McElhill and Lorraine McGovern had been up all night and that she was about to leave, taking with her at least some of her children, when the fire was started by Arthur McElhill,” said Ms Anderson.
However the coroner said she could not prove conclusively that McElhill had intended to kill himself, noting that he had broken an upstairs window in an apparent bid to escape the home as the fire took hold.
McElhill, who had previous convictions and was on the sex offenders list, was also using a social networking site under the name of his seven-year-old son to make contact with teenage girls.
PA