Pilot scheme to avoid McElhill tragedy

Published Monday, 25 January 2010
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Senior social workers have been seconded to work with the PSNI in a bid to avert a repetition of the failings which led to the McElhill fire tragedy.


Sinn Fein policing board member Martina Anderson revealed that the pilot scheme will be launched in the coming weeks.

Ms Anderson said she hoped the development will ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.

"This will allow for the ready and continual exchange of information to protect the vulnerable and, hopefully, end the kind of disastrous breakdown in communication which led to the McEhill tragedy.

"The PSNI is also examining the feasibility of an automatic alert system that will flag any call, regardless of nature, to the address of a Registered Sex Offender.

"Again, this will help ensure that people like Arthur McElhill, who was a clear danger to children, are not allowed to slip through the net," Ms Anderson said.

The Sinn Fein MLA said that every agency had a responsibility to ensure that that "the lessons of this tragedy are learned."

Last year, a Coroner ruled that convicted sex offender Arthur McElhill killed himself and his family in a house fire in Omagh because his partner threatened to leave him.

The inferno in Lammy Crescent in November 2007 claimed the lives of his partner, Lorraine McGovern, 29, and their five young children.

© UTV News
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