Bungling health and social care staff have been accused of ignoring cries for help from a family wiped out in a fire started by their sex-offender father.

Heavy drinking depressive Arthur McElhill (36) killed himself, his partner and their five children when he torched the family home in Omagh, in the North of Ireland.

A damning report released yesterday into the handling of the family's case by social workers and other statutory agencies has highlighted a catalogue of failings. Last night Northern Ireland's Children's Commissioner Patricia Lewsley said the repeated failure to act on the warning signs was "horrifying".

McElhill, who had a history of suicide attempts and was twice found guilty of sex attacks on teenage girls, doused the hallway of the house in petrol after his partner threatened to leave him. Lorraine McGovern (29) and her children Caroline (13), Sean (7), four-year-old Bellina, one-year-old Clodagh and 10-month-old baby James died alongside the farm labourer when he set their terraced home in Lammy Crescent alight last November.

Among the shocking findings in the independent review was the revelation that less than a month before the tragedy teenage daughter Caroline had called the police to report a blazing row between her parents.

Investigating officers passed the information to the local health trust but no social care follow-up visit was undertaken.

One week later the family's case, which had been classed as an "orange'' priority after concerns were raised about the risk Mr McElhill posed to his children, was downgraded to "green''.

In a poignant twist, Caroline tried to raise the alarm the night of the fire when she dialled 999.

Rosary

But by that stage it was too late and her badly burned body was later discovered by firemen with the phone in one hand and her rosary beads clutched in the other.

Ms Lewsley criticised the authorities' failure to act.

"Nothing was done for these children,'' she said.

"The report casts a harsh light on how Caroline, Sean, Bellina, Clodagh and James were let down.

"It is clear from this report that agencies were not talking to each other, individuals' concerns were not listened to.''

The inquiry noted that not all agencies were aware that Mr McElhill, who fathered Caroline with Ms McGovern when she was just 15, had twice been found guilty of indecently assaulting 17-year-old 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 McElhill posed to teenage girls, it found.

Senior barrister Henry Toner, who led the investigation, said the failings exposed by his investigation were the source of the "greatest of worry''.

"The essential conclusion we have reached in child protection terms is that the child protection processes did not properly work and that is a source of great worry,'' he said.

He also asked why welfare services closed an initial case on the family in 2001 while McElhill was still subject to a probation order imposed after his release from prison in 1999.

During this period Caroline, who had been on the child protection register, was taken off it.

The investigation team examined the role of the Western Health and Social Care Trust, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Probation Service and Education Welfare Services. Though 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 or warning of the horrific events that were to unfold on the night of November 13.

Review

Stormont Health Minister Michael McGimpsey, who commissioned Mr Toner's review, said he had directed the chief social services officer to ensure all his recommendations were fully implemented.

"While the report concludes there is no evidence that anyone working with the family could have known the fire would happen, there is absolutely no doubt that there were failings on the part of health and social services,'' he said.

 David Young

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/

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