Mother to hold vigil for sons killed by father

A mother is holding a vigil to remember her sons, 10 years after they were killed by their father in a house fire.

Claire Throssell, from Penistone, has spent the past decade campaigning with the Women's Aid charity after the deaths of Jack, 12, and Paul, nine, at the hands of her ex-husband, who also died.

The candlelit vigil will take place at Barnsley Town Hall on Tuesday at 18:00 BST.

Ms Throssell said the event would not only remember the boys, but "every victim who has paid the ultimate price to domestic abuse".

On 22 October, 2014, Darren Sykes lured his sons to the attic of his home to play with trains he had bought them, before setting fires around the house.

He joined them in the attic and closed the hatch, trapping them.

Paul and his father died in the house. Jack was taken to hospital but died on 27 October.

Ms Throssell said: "Nothing can prepare you for walking into an empty flat.

"I’d do anything to be tripping over their shoes that they just left at the door, picking up their school bags that they’d just thrown down after a day at school."

She has campaigned with Women's Aid to stop dangerous perpetrators of domestic abuse being given unsafe contact with their children.

"I knew he was a danger to the boys," she said. "I’d repeatedly told the court, I’d repeatedly told Cafcass [the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service] and social services.

"I take every day as it comes and I hold on to hope that we can make this world that we don’t like a better place for other children."

She said the vigil was also about keeping the memory of the boys alive.

"The last 10 years, I’ve built up a way of carrying on for them, to give them a legacy so that nobody ever forgets their names, because once we stop saying their names, that’s when they truly die."

Her campaigning led to the passing of a domestic abuse bill in 2021 and she was awarded an MBE.

"It’s taken 10 years for Parliament to name Jack and Paul, and there are so many other children who have been murdered who are simply As and Bs on a serious case review. That has to change," she said.

"All those deaths were avoidable. In all those cases, one of the parents was a known perpetrator of domestic abuse and yet courts hand children over to these abusers because of parental rights.

"Children and victims become invisible."

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