Mother who killed disabled daughter and herself in car fire 'suffered years of abuse from gang'

A mother died alongside her mentally disabled daughter in a blazing car after suffering nearly ten years of abuse from yobs, an inquest heard yesterday.

Fiona Pilkington, 38, made 21 calls to police in a bid to stop the gang abusing her daughter Francecca Hardwick, but they failed to act. She had even written to her local MP.

On the day of her death she called police to complain of children trampling her garden hedge but was told to ignore them.



Constant abuse: Fiona Pilkington, 38, (R) who was full-time carer to Francecca, 18, was driven to despair by a gang of youths

Pam Cassell, Miss Pilkington's mother, told the inquest the same youths were responsible for all the abuse. They would also urinate in the garden and throw stones and eggs at the house, the inquest heard.



Mrs Cassell said: 'It was Halloween and firework night coming up and Fiona was dreading them because she knew that the children would start throwing things at the house and start putting fireworks through the letter box.

'They would start on Fiona and throw things and then go round the back and do things in the garden. It was always the same group of youths.

'Sometimes they would go round the side of the house and urinate.

'They used to ring on the doorbell and say that she had been hitting her kids. They were petty things like that.

'They used to throw stones at the house and then they threw acorns and flour and eggs.

Blaze: Ms Pilkington and her daughter had to be identified by matching DNA from their relatives

'Frankie was frustrated because she couldn't go out in the garden without being tormented or teased. We used to take her to the park and take her out in the rain because she used to love jumping in puddles.

'Frankie could be genuinely loveable but when she was frustrated she used to pull hair and bite and punch because she couldn't do what she wanted to do.'

Mrs Cassell added that the gang, which often numbered 16, would torment Francecca and her brother before they went to bed. They would throw stones at the window and try and get her to lift up her nightdress.'

The abuse began when Miss Pilkington's dyslexic son Anthony, 19, fell out with a child who lived on the same street in Barwell, Leicestershire, when he was just eight.



In one incident, Anthony was marched at knifepoint into a shed.



Miss Pilkington and 18-year-old Francecca died in October 2007.

Their burnt-out car was found in a lay-by in Earl Shilton, Leicestershire.



Reports at the time suggested the mother poured petrol on clothes on the back seat and lit them.

The inquest was told that the resulting explosion and fire burnt both bodies beyond recognition.



The blazing car was found in a lay-by on the A47 near Earl Shilton, Leicestershire on October 23, 2007, an inquest at Loughborough Town Hall heard today.



Mrs Cassell added that at one point the council imposed a 300-yard exclusion zone for the youths around the family's house but that had failed to enforce it.

She said her daughter contacted the council four or five times and phoned police at least 10 times a year demanding help.

She said the school holidays and the weekends were the worst and her daughter constantly had the curtains in her front room closed.

Mrs Cassell said: 'She was in despair really, nobody did anything and she was just frustrated. She wanted them just to do something.

'Nobody was doing anything to help her, not the police, the council or the Neighbourhood Watch were doing anything.'

Ms Pilkington's mother added that the family had never taken a holiday together and her daughter did not receive respite care because she did not know how to get it.

She also said that the support from Frankie's special school, the Dorothy Goodman School in Hinckley, had failed to take on board the family situation. As Mrs Cassell gave evidence, her grandson Anthony cried.

He was described as being close to his sister, who was getting stronger as she grew older.

The court also heard Ms Pilkington, who had a boyfriend, had attempted to kill herself and her two children before but changed her mind after she failed to find a spot to park and set light to her car.

Asked by the coroner why her daughter took Frankie on the fateful trip, Mrs Cassell said: 'She didn't think anybody would be able to cope with Frankie, she was getting a lot stronger.'

The court also heard that when the family made friends with the paperboy, the gang started abusing him so he stopped being friendly.

The inquest heard that families in Barden Road were still being abused, despite the deaths of Ms Pilkington and her daughter.

The hearing continues.