Learn From Lammy Tragedy: McGimpsey

The tragic death of an entire family at the hands of their sex offendor 'dad' in the North has prompted a call for a full inquiry and a revision of the way social services deals with such 'at risk' families, writes Carla Liébana.

After the tragic Lammy fire case - in which the sex offender Arthur McElhill burnt his family to death in Omagh two years ago - politicians are now revising measures about child protection in future similar situations. Michael McGimpsey, the Stormont Social Services Minister, has asked the lawyer, Henry Toner to verify whether all recommendations from his original report about the Lammy tragedy have been implemented.


Mr Toner's detailed Independent Review published last July criticized deficits around communication between the different agencies about the problems in McElhill's family.

Following it, he made 55 recommendations and, at the moment, the Western Trust has put 54 of them in practice.

Eight others recommendations from a variety of agencies (like the Department and the PSNI) have also been implemented or are in process of being implemented.

Mr McGimpsey expressed his hope that, although it was not his intention to wait for a tragedy to drive improvement, he hopes at least any lesson can be learned from this.

According to him, the current system of inspection is delivering improvements and that the reports highlighted "some good and even excellent practice" in each Trust in NI.

During the past five years the number of referrals has been increase and some £20 million has been invested in child protection and family support services.

Responding to calls for a Public Inquiry, the Minister said it is not only for him because other agencies that may wish to consider their role in relation to the case.

An Assembly Committee had already said that specific action should be taken to prevent another similar tragedy.

Responding to the evidence from the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority - which found five Trusts failed to reach some of the most basic standards of care - Dr Kieran Deeny said it was no "a time for a witch-hunt".

And he added: "The best thing that can come out of this tragedy is that all of us carers, whether we are in health, social services or indeed as part of this society, we all need to learn from this."

See: McElhill Started Horror Blaze

(CL/BMcc)