Mother of two boys murdered by father after divorce calls for end to unsafe contact

Claire Throssell, whose children were killed by her abusive ex-husband in 2014, lays 20 teddy bears in Westminster symbolising the children who have died as a result of unsafe child contact with a parent who is a perpetrator of domestic abuse, after she delivered a petition to Downing Street. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday January 24, 2017. See PA story POLITICS Violence. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Claire Throssell, 44, said she felt “very emotional” as she delivered the 40,000-signature petition but that “hopefully now children’s voices will be heard.”

The petition calls for an end to unsafe contact.

Ms Throssell urged officials not to assume that all contact by someone who is accused of domestic abuse will be safe.

Jack and Paul Sykes with their mum, Claire Throssell

Her sons Jack, 12, and Paul, nine, were killed by their father in October 2014 after he was granted unsupervised access to them.

Ms Throssell, of Penistone, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, also helped to lay a memorial tribute of 20 teddy bears in Parliament Square.

It was to remember the children who have been killed through unsafe contact with an abusive parent in England and Wales since 2005.

Ms Throssell had promised her dying boys that she would work to try to keep other children safe.

Picture shows Darren Sykes with his son Paul Sykes (L), who died in a house fire in Penistone, South Yorkshire. 12 year old Jack (R) has died following injuries sustained in the fire also. See Ross Parry copy RPYFIRE : A heartbroken mum has blasted her estranged husband as a "murderer" - after their two sons died alongside him in a house fire ruled to be started deliberately. Devastated Claire Sykes posted a heart-rending message online just hours after her 12-year-old son, Jack, died in hospital following the inferno at the family home in Penistone, South Yorks., last Wednesday. Jack's little brother Paul, nine, perished in the blaze last Wednesday along with his dad Darren, 44. But Jack clung to life for another five days before succumbing to his horrific injuries on Monday night, when he died in his mum's arms.

She said: “No other child should have to suffer in the way that they had and also that no other parent should have to hold their child in their arms and watch them die, knowing it had been at the hands of someone who should have cared and loved them. All we have got is hope. If we do not have hope we have nothing, and then how can anything change.”

Her boys were killed in a fire set by their father, Darren Sykes, at his home in Penistone.

During divorce proceedings he had been granted access to his children for five hours a week, despite Ms Throssell’s evidence that he had previously threatened to kill them and himself. Sheffield coroner Christopher Dorries recorded a verdict that Mr Sykes, a 44-year-old salesman, committed suicide and that the two boys were unlawful killed.

The inquest into the boys’ deaths heard they had been lured to their father’s home with a new model train set before Sykes set fire to the building.

Sykes and Paul died in the fire, while Jack died in hospital six days later.

Ms Throssell is backed by Women’s Aid.

In a statement, actress Julie Walters, who is a Women’s Aid patron, said: “It is deeply shocking that the deaths of all of these 20 children were avoidable.

“The safety and well-being of children should be at the heart of every single decision made by the family courts. Unsafe child contact with unsafe parents must end.”

Louie Herbert, of the 38 Degrees campaign which helped set up to the petition, said the issue “has to be addressed, and quickly before another child dies in these horrific and avoidable circumstances.”