‘No more children are going to die like you’: how Sheffield mother kept her promise to boys killed by father 11 years ago

Claire Throssell has been central to the campaign to repeal parental contact laws following the deaths of her two sons at the hands of their father in 2014

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hen Claire Throssell held her dying son Jack in her arms, she made him a promise: that no more children would die in the circumstances he had – at the hands of a violent parent, on a court-ordered unsupervised visit.

Jack and Paul, then aged 12 and nine, were killed by their father 11 years ago, when he lured them into the attic with a new train set, barricaded the house shut and used Throssell’s possessions to set 14 separate fires.

“When I held him in my arms, just like I did Paul,” she said, “I made him one last promise. I said to him: ‘No more children are going to die like you.’”