CONFERENCE: Cameron: Pilkington thugs "vile"

By Paul Carter

Conservative leader David Cameron has spoken emotionally about his reaction to the Fiona Pilkington case, describing it as “one of the saddest things I’ve ever read.”

In his speech on the closing day of the party’s conference in Manchester, in which he also spoke openly about the death of his own disabled son, Ivan, Mr Cameron said the issues surrounding the death of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca were deep rooted, and had been “going on for years.”

With his voice at one point appearing to falter, Mr Cameron said: “The instinct to protect the people we love is so strong. Nearly two years ago it was that instinct – that love – that drove Fiona Pilkington to do something desperate.”

“Fiona was so driven to despair by the vile thugs that bullied her and her lovely disabled daughter Francecca and by the police that didn’t answer her cries for help that she could only see one way out. She put her daughter in her car, drove to a lay-by, and set it on fire.

“If no one would protect them then by ending their lives, she was keeping them safe. No one could hurt them anymore,” he said.

He said that Fiona and Francecca had been let down by the institutions that should have kept her safe.

He blamed “a breakdown of morality in the minds of those thugs; a total absence of feeling or conscience. A breakdown in community where a neighbour is left to reach a pitch of utter misery. And a breakdown of our criminal justice system.”

He said that if the Conservatives were elected, they would bring about major reform of the police and prosecution services, although he did not provide specific details.