Mum 'keeps promise' to killed sons over law change

A mother whose sons were killed by their father has said she has "finally kept her promise" to them after a change in the rules on parental contact moved towards becoming law.

Claire Throssell's sons Jack, 12, and Paul, nine, were killed in a house fire started by their father in October 2014 after he was granted access to the boys.

He was allowed to see them for five hours a week despite Throssell's evidence that he had already threatened to kill them and himself.

The mum, from Penistone, has spent 12 years campaigning to change "presumption of parental involvement", which assumes children benefit from contact with both parents, and on Tuesday saw it go through its final stages in the Commons.

Throssell travelled to London to see MPs pass the Courts and Tribunals Bill, which would remove the presumption of parental involvement from the Children Act, by 301 votes to 193, meaning it will now be sent to the House of Lords for further scrutiny before it can become law.

Throssell said she felt a "mix of emotions" as the bill progressed.

"Elation that we're almost there; pride that we can actually make this change in Jack and Paul's names; sorrow because this year Jack will have been sleeping as long as he was alive," she explained.

"It never feels like a victory because the boys are not here anymore.

"But it does feel like this is a step to the future to give generations of children a safe, happy life, free from fear and free from abuse."

Jack and Paul had been lured to their father Darren Sykes' home with a new model train set, before he set fire to the building and barricaded the boys and himself inside.

"I always have to carry the burden that they only died because he wanted to punish me," said Throssell, who had been divorced from Sykes for two weeks prior to the fire.

"The right thing to do is to take the boys' love and move it forward and share it with the world, make differences in their names and make a legacy that will last.

"I finally kept my promise to them when I held them in my arms as they died, that no other child should have to die at the hands of a parent."

Dr Marie Tidball, Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, who has long backed Throssell's campaign, described her as "an absolute warrior" for her work in getting the law changed.

She said it would be like a "Trojan horse" in changing the culture within the family court system.

"We know that the Harm Report in 2020 said that the presumption of contact created a pro-contact culture in law that left children muted and unheard," Tidball explained.

"This change today changes that. It says that it must be in the child's best interests first, and it doesn't make the assumption that is necessarily for them to be in contact with both parents.

"It puts their safety and well-being first because it recognises that being a parent is a privilege and not a right."

The MP added it would "send a message" that if a parent could not guarantee a safe environment at home, their parental rights would be varied and restricted.

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