Paranoid killer mother fitted her three children with electronic tags



Youngsters also given mobile phone to call her if estranged husband said anything they didn't like

Used three separate knives to stab each child eight times



She attempted suicide leaping from second floor balcony

Defence barrister says 'most tragic case' he's seen in 35 years



Killer: Theresa Riggi, 47, who admitted killing her three children, is driven away from the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday

A mother who killed her three children following a custody battle was so paranoid that she made them wear locator tags when they were with their father.

Theresa Riggi did everything she could to stop Cecilia, five, and twins Augustino and Gianluca, eight, having contact with her estranged husband Pasquale.

She even gave them a phone so they could call her if the oil engineer said anything they did not like.

The 47-year-old became obsessed with the idea he wanted to take the children away, a court heard yesterday. When he confirmed he wanted full access, she ended the telephone call with the words: ‘Say goodbye then.’

She used three separate knives to kill the children, stabbing each eight times. Church music was playing in the background when their bodies were discovered.

All three were laid out in bloodied clothing on the bedroom floor before Riggi tried to kill herself by jumping headfirst off a second-floor balcony at their Edinburgh home. In custody in hospital, Riggi told a chaplain: ‘I’m not meant to be here.’

She said she had to protect the children and get away from ‘the evil’.

When staff accused her of stealing a knife Riggi returned it, telling them: ‘I just want to be with my babies.’

Advocate depute Alex Prentice QC told the High Court in Edinburgh: ‘She stated that she had a second chance and God had saved her in order to make her husband pay for what he did.’

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Mother Theresa Riggi with eight-year-old twins Austin and Luke and their five-year-old sister Cecilia

The court was told the American couple’s children were born through IVF treatment and, straight away, Riggi became very possessive. In a desperate attempt to gain access to his children Mr Riggi started the legal action which was to lead to their deaths.

Riggi was originally charged with murdering the children but the Crown yesterday accepted her guilty pleas to culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility.





Donald Findlay QC, defending, said: ‘Theresa Riggi is not evil, she is not wicked, she is not a monster. If it is possible to love one’s children too much, she loved them too much.

‘They were a part of her. She was a part of them. She believed she and the children were safer together in death than they ever could be in life.

Grief: Pasquale Riggi, the father of the three children stabbed to death by their mother Theresa Riggi outside the High Court in Edinburgh

Dead: (From left to right) Luke - or Gianluca, eight, Cecilia, five, and Austin - or Augustino, also eight, were all stabbed by their mother

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WHITE SUIT? Theresa Riggi appeared in court yesterday wearing the exact same white suit she had worn to two previous hearings.

Mrs Riggi was seen being led away in handcuffs from Edinburgh's High Court in the black-trim two-piece cream suit on February 5, above.

In September last year she arrived at Edinburgh Sheriff Court straight from hospital - with her left arm and leg in plaster, and walking with the aid of a crutch - wearing the same smart outfit.

A photo of the mother wearing the tailored suit at a function alongside her twins sons and daughter has also been released, prompting some to ask whether the outfit reminds her of happier times spent with her three young children.

‘It wasn’t the children who were to die that day. It was all four of them who were to die that day.’

He said a space had been left by Riggi beside her children where she was to take her place.

Psychiatrists who examined her found she had narcissistic, paranoid and histrionic personality disorders, he said. At the time of the killings, she was suffering from an ‘acute stress reaction’.

Adjourning the case for further reports, Lord Bracadale told her: ‘Your husband has been left bereft.’

He said psychiatrists agreed she was suffering from a personality disorder, but he added: ‘You do still have responsibility for your actions and I must impose a sentence on you to reflect that.’

The Riggis married in 1989 in the U.S. and moved to the UK in 1997.



The twins were born as a result of IVF treatment and other embryos were cryogenically frozen.



One of the embryos was later implanted on her insistence, resulting in Cecilia’s birth.

Mr Prentice said: ‘After their birth the accused was very possessive with the twins and would accept no help or visits.



'She insisted on sleeping with the babies in her bed and would not allow Mr Riggi to sleep in the same bed with them and insisted he move into another bedroom.

‘Eventually the babies moved into the nursery and were followed by the accused who slept in that room with them. It was at this time that the physical side to their marriage ended.’

Following the birth of their daughter and an unsuccessful bid to have another child by IVF, the relationship deteriorated and Mr Riggi moved to Aberdeen where he started to seek a divorce.



Mr Prentice said their relationship worsened in 2009 and she began to stop her husband seeing his children. Finally, Mr Riggi, 46, started court proceedings for unsupervised access.

After the children failed to attend a meeting with their father in Aberdeen on July 12 last year, he alerted Grampian Police that they were missing.

Family: Theresa Riggi, centre, with her twin boys Augustino and Gianluca Riggi, eight, and daughter Cecilia, five

Explosion: A blast tore through the flat in Edinburgh after mother Theresa Riggi had stabbed to death her three children

The mother and children were later traced to the house in Edinburgh. Messengers at arms later arrived with a warrant to seize the children’s passports and told Riggi of the next court date. On August 2 – the eve of the scheduled court hearing – Riggi had the final telephone conversation with her husband. She was not present in court the following day when Mr Riggi’s lawyers told the judge, Lady Clarke, ‘there is a real emergency in this matter’. She ordered social workers to supervise the children – but the faxed instruction was not received for 24 hours – five minutes after they were found dead. The case was adjourned to the High Court in Glasgow on April 26. Mr Riggi, 46, described his loss as an overwhelming tragedy, saying: ‘My intention is now to seek to move on, which will not be an easy task.’ Tragic: Mrs Riggi's three young children, who were all killed

Rest in peace: A message of sympathy left near the scene following the explosion in Edinburgh last August