Thursday, October 22, 2009

Girl's desperate emergency call heard, as convicted sex-offender dad sets house on fire (Omagh, Northern Ireland)

Convicted sex-offender dad ARTHUR McELHILL was depressed, so that apparently made it okay for him to douse the family home in petrol (gasoline for us Yanks), and set it on fire. The mom had been trying to leave this piece of sh--, and that's what apparently set him off. Mom (who was only 26 and the mother of a teenager! That means she was 13 when the piece of sh-- raped her) and 5 children died.

Oh, yea. The piece of sh-- died too. At least he won't be taking up space in prison.

Burning teen's emergency call revealed
07:30 AEST Wed Oct 21 20091 day 5 hours 17 minutes ago
By ninemsn staff

A girl killed alongside six family members in a fire started by her father made a desperate plea to an emergency call operator: "Help me … I'm burning".

Caroline McGovern, 13, gasped for breath as she pleaded to be rescued from the fire at the family's home in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in November 2007, a local coroner's court has heard.
The fire was started by her father, 36-year-old Arthur McElhill, a convicted sex offender who suffered from depression and had attempted suicide on two other occasions, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

Caroline died alongside her father, mother and the pair's four other young children after McElhill doused the house in petrol and set in on fire.

The tragedy reportedly happened after Caroline’s mother, 26-year-old Lorraine McGovern, threatened to leave McElhill.

In a taped recording played in court yesterday, Caroline was heard pleading to an emergency call operator while her family cried out in the background.

She screamed "help me" and "I'm burning … run", before mumbling the only partially audible "he's k… us".

A phonetics expert told the court he could not be certain what Caroline was trying to say.

The call lasted for almost six minutes but Caroline only spoke to the operator for about 45 seconds.

Gasping noises heard near the end of the call are believed to be the teenager's final breaths.

Caroline was found dead still clutching the phone in her hand near the bodies of her siblings Sean, seven, Bellina, four, Clodagh, one, and James, 10 months.

The coroner's hearing continues.