‘No child should die like Arran’

WHITE-WASHED walls, a clutch of children’s toys, a line of flapping clothes. From the outside, the home of Gillian and Shane Malley looks like any other family home.

But inside, the owners of this recently built home in Carrigtohill, Co Cork, live with an unbearable burden — the tragic death of their two-year-old son.

A family picture taken on Christmas Day 2008 is perched on a tall, narrow table. Five faces beam back from this altar: mum and dad with children Jude, four, Arran, two, and 10-month-old Alexandria. Less than two months later, on an ice-cold Wednesday afternoon, this happy family was shattered.