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Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday November 18, 2007
The Observer
Women's rights campaigners are calling for an inquiry into the extent to which police had monitored a known sex offender who died in a fire along with his family at their home in Omagh, Northern Ireland.
The campaigners from the Rape Crisis Centre in Belfast were backed in their demand for an investigation by Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness.
Arthur McElhill, 39, who was on the sex offenders register, died along with his partner Lorraine, 30, and their children Caroline, 13, Shaun, 7, Bellina, 4, Clodagh, 19 months, and six-month-old James in the fire at their house at Lammy Crescent, Omagh, last Tuesday.
Forensic officers found that every room in the house had been doused in petrol, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland has said McElhill was the only suspect in the case.
The house, which is now a charred shell, remains sealed off. Neighbours reported a fracas between McElhill and his wife at the door of their home at around 3am on Tuesday - two hours before the fire. But the PSNI denied this weekend that police had received any calls about a disturbance.
None of McElhill's neighbours had been aware that he was a convicted violent sex offender. One neighbour, Stephen Mullan, 21, raised the alarm when the fire broke out.
Describing McElhill as a 'family man and a good father', he added: 'He was excited about the car he had bought. It was an old Mercedes that had been used as a taxi but if anyone could fix it Arthur could. He was a genius with engines and could fix anything, cars, lorries, the lot.'
According to Mullan, McElhill was also generous to his friends. 'When I crashed my last car I was told that it was a write-off, but Arthur had it back on the road in a couple of days.'
But one of his victims, a 31-year-old woman who had been sexually assaulted by him in 1993, said this weekend that she had always been concerned for his family. 'When I heard the news I felt sickened. It is horrendous. He was capable of it... I'm so sad for the lady and the children,' she said.
McElhill received a two-year suspended sentence for that attack, but was eventually jailed in 1996 for indecently assaulting another woman.
Eileen Calder, director of the Rape Crisis Centre, raised the question as to why McElhill was able to live beside a school - the family's home looks onto St Conor's primary. 'We have said time and time again that the monitoring of sex offenders in Northern Ireland is not adequate. Now we have this horrible tragedy confirming our worst fears. He was clearly not properly monitored,' she said.
'How was man who sexually and violently attacked a young woman able to live right beside a school? Who was meant to be checking up on him in the social services, the probation service, the police?
'There now has to be a serious inquiry which looks at all the statutory agencies and asks if that woman and her children were let down by them.'
The campaigners from the Rape Crisis Centre in Belfast were backed in their demand for an investigation by Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness.
Arthur McElhill, 39, who was on the sex offenders register, died along with his partner Lorraine, 30, and their children Caroline, 13, Shaun, 7, Bellina, 4, Clodagh, 19 months, and six-month-old James in the fire at their house at Lammy Crescent, Omagh, last Tuesday.
Forensic officers found that every room in the house had been doused in petrol, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland has said McElhill was the only suspect in the case.
The house, which is now a charred shell, remains sealed off. Neighbours reported a fracas between McElhill and his wife at the door of their home at around 3am on Tuesday - two hours before the fire. But the PSNI denied this weekend that police had received any calls about a disturbance.
None of McElhill's neighbours had been aware that he was a convicted violent sex offender. One neighbour, Stephen Mullan, 21, raised the alarm when the fire broke out.
Describing McElhill as a 'family man and a good father', he added: 'He was excited about the car he had bought. It was an old Mercedes that had been used as a taxi but if anyone could fix it Arthur could. He was a genius with engines and could fix anything, cars, lorries, the lot.'
According to Mullan, McElhill was also generous to his friends. 'When I crashed my last car I was told that it was a write-off, but Arthur had it back on the road in a couple of days.'
But one of his victims, a 31-year-old woman who had been sexually assaulted by him in 1993, said this weekend that she had always been concerned for his family. 'When I heard the news I felt sickened. It is horrendous. He was capable of it... I'm so sad for the lady and the children,' she said.
McElhill received a two-year suspended sentence for that attack, but was eventually jailed in 1996 for indecently assaulting another woman.
Eileen Calder, director of the Rape Crisis Centre, raised the question as to why McElhill was able to live beside a school - the family's home looks onto St Conor's primary. 'We have said time and time again that the monitoring of sex offenders in Northern Ireland is not adequate. Now we have this horrible tragedy confirming our worst fears. He was clearly not properly monitored,' she said.
'How was man who sexually and violently attacked a young woman able to live right beside a school? Who was meant to be checking up on him in the social services, the probation service, the police?
'There now has to be a serious inquiry which looks at all the statutory agencies and asks if that woman and her children were let down by them.'
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