‘No excuse’ for authorities after mother daughter suicide

BRITISH home secretary Alan Johnson said yesterday there could be no excuse for failings that led to the deaths of a vulnerable mother and daughter after suffering years of abuse on their Leicestershire estate.

The police complaints watchdog is to investigate officers’ handling of the case which ended in tragedy when Fiona Pilkington, 38, killed herself and her severely disabled 18-year-old daughter in October 2007.

Pilkington had driven her daughter Francecca, who had a mental age of three, to a lay-by near their home in Barwell, doused clothes in the back of the car with petrol and set it alight.