Police to be probed over bullied mother and daughter’s deaths

TEN police officers are under investigation for the way they handled the case of a mother and her disabled daughter who were found dead in a burnt-out car after years of abuse from youths, a watchdog said yesterday.

Police were contacted 33 times in 10 years about yobs bullying Fiona Pilkington and her 18-year-old daughter Francecca Hardwick in the street where they lived in Barwell, Leicestershire.

An inquest last September found that, despite pleas for help, 38-year-old Ms Pilkington received only eight visits from police officers.