Damn......


Arson attack that orphaned girl 'was part of bullying war'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/19/narson19.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_19012006
By Nigel Bunyan
(Filed: 19/01/2006)


An arson attack that left a couple dead and their 16-year-old daughter fighting for her life was the culmination of a long-running bullying campaign, the girl's family claimed yesterday.

Maureen Cochrane, 45, and her husband, Alex, 54, perished when petrol was poured through the letter box of their home in Brooklands, Wythenshawe, Manchester.

 
David Cochrane yesterday

Their daughter, Lucy, was carried clear of the blaze but is still seriously ill in a hospital burns unit.

Yesterday, as relatives prepared to tell her that she is now an orphan, it emerged that police had failed to respond to an incident at the same house five days earlier. On that occasion petrol was poured on the family's doorstep but not ignited.

Mrs Cochrane reported the attack to police but officers failed to call at the house to investigate. Her son, David, 25, criticised the inaction by Greater Manchester Police, saying: "My mum was left on her own with it."

Senior officers have apologised to the family and referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Mr Cochrane, a freelance artist who now lives in London, said he would be seeking a full explanation of why there was no investigation and why his parents and sister were not offered police protection.

He claimed at a press conference that the arson attack was the result of "sheer victimisation" against his sister.

"This was targeted at Lucy," he said. "It wasn't a feud because for a feud to happen you need both sides to be fighting. My mum and dad didn't fight, they took it all in and didn't fight back.

"This was completely one-sided, it was sheer victimisation for being slightly different and for being happy in a s*** social situation. These people couldn't deal with the fact that my sister was a very happy girl who didn't let things get her down."

His sister had been beaten up and verbally abused, he said. "She took to hiding in the toilets at school because she has special needs and she thought this was the only place she could go."

Mr Cochrane said: "The school didn't deal with it straightaway. My mum had to keep writing letters and contacting the relevant authorities"

The bullying is believed to have persisted for almost 18 months while Lucy, who has learning difficulties, was a pupil at Newall Green High School, Wythenshawe.

Her tormentor, a girl of the same age, was disciplined by staff but not expelled. When the two girls transferred to City College, Manchester, details of the conflict were passed on so that the situation could be monitored.

The arson attack on the beleaguered family was carried out soon after midnight last Thursday. Mrs Cochrane was pronounced dead at the scene, while her husband survived for three more days. Their daughter is said to be in a stable condition at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorks.

Detectives investigating the double murder have arrested four members of one family: a man aged 39, two women aged 39 and 65, and a girl aged 17.
5.30pm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police failed to act before murder blaze

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,1689467,00.html?gusrc=rss

· Arson attack killed mother and father
· Police were told of earlier incident
· Bullies targeted daughter, 16

Riazat Butt
Wednesday January 18, 2006


Photographs provided by Greater Manchester police of Maureen Cochrane, 45, her husband Alex, 54, and their daughter Lucy, 16



An arson attack that killed a mother and father and left their bullied daughter, 16, critically ill might have been averted if police had acted on an earlier complaint, detectives admitted today.
Maureen Cochrane, 45, and her 54-year-old husband Alex died when a blaze swept through their Manchester home early last Thursday.

Their daughter Lucy, who has learning difficulties, survived the fire and remains in hospital. She is unaware her parents have died.


Five days before the fatal fire, someone poured petrol on the Cochranes' doorstep. Although Mrs Cochrane reported the incident to the police, nothing was done.

Today Detective Superintendent John Dineen admitted that the second incident might not have happened if officers had taken action in response to Mrs Cochrane's request for help.

He said: "In relation to the incident on January 7, I'm investigating that as part of the murder inquiry. The lack of action is being referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, who will hold a separate inquiry.

"The apology is there. The second incident may not have occurred if something had been done about the first."

Det Supt Dineen said that four people - two women aged 65 and 39, a 39-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl - were being questioned in connection with the double murder. No one has been charged.

Mr and Mrs Cochrane's 25-year-old son David, who was also at the press conference, linked the arson attack to a campaign of bullying against his sister, 16-year-old Lucy.

He said: "We will be launching a full investigation about why my family didn't get police protection. They were let down. Nobody came to check or corroborate what my mum had said. Nobody came to see if there was any evidence."

Mr Cochrane, who lives in London, said he would be telling his sister her parents were dead, her pet dog was dead and that the house had been destroyed.

"I'm going to have to tell her as bluntly as possible, drop her in at the deep end."

He revealed that Lucy had been bullied at school for 19 months before the attack.

"She was badly beaten up and verbally abused. She took to hiding in the toilets. The school didn't deal with it straight away. My mum had to keep writing letters and contacting the authorities. She wrote things down in log books and diaries. They've all gone up in smoke."

The Cochranes lived in Wythenshawe, one of the most deprived areas of Manchester.

The people of Wythenshawe were, said Mr Cochrane, "good people" who had been "deeply moved" by the tragedy.

However he said that Wythenshawe was not a nice place to live and that there were a lot of people in a "shitty situation".

"My mum and dad and Lucy were a happy family and I think that's what it was. You can either get angry and take it out on the people around you or you can do what my mum and dad did and get on with it."

He added: "My mum, being the sort of person she was, didn't tell me a great deal about it. None of us knew exactly what was going on. Mum just battened down the hatches and tried not to worry anyone with it."

He said of the murderers: "These people don't have any moral sense. Nothing my family did deserved this."
...............................................

Three charged over arson deaths  
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4629536.stm

Three people have been charged with murder of a couple who died in an arson attack which left their teenage daughter fighting for her life.
Maureen Cochrane, 45, and husband Alex, 54, died after the blaze at their home in Brooklands, Greater Manchester.

Michael Connor, 39, of Stockport, Jane Connor, 39, and a girl, 17 - both from Wythenshawe - are accused of murder and attempted murder.

All three will appear at Manchester Magistrates' Court on Friday.

Another woman, Margaret Robinson, 65, from Wythenshawe, will also appear in court charged with perverting the course of justice.

The Cochrane's 16-year-old daughter Lucy remains critically ill in hospital after the fire at the house on 12 January.

   


 


 

Damn....just damn

Horrible, horrible incident.  I cannot believe the inhumanity of some people.

Holy shit. Too bad you can't execute them since it happened in the UK. Death by burning them alive in the house would be appropriate. That's got to be one of the most horrible ways to die, being burned alive.

I just love news from the UK.

If  any idiot tells me how much more civilized the UK is because of their gun ban, I'm going to have to really resist the urge to go ballistic on them.

Freaking horrible. The people who did this need to be put down like dogs. .22lr to the head, let the animals in the forest deal with the remains.

Kill them, just fuckin' kill them.

Period.

Public hanging, then dismember them and place the parts in baskets and hang them around town, like they did in the Middle Ages....

Of course they won't, some liberal British faggot attorney will blame society for making them bullies, and they'll get a light sentence, and early release for good behavior.

Good thing all those guns were banned, people might be able to protect themselves from marauding bullies looking to burn them to death.....

Quoted: Damn...... Arson attack that orphaned girl 'was part of bullying war' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/19/narson19.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_19012006 By Nigel Bunyan (Filed: 19/01/2006) He claimed at a press conference that the arson attack was the result of "sheer victimisation" against his sister. "This was targeted at Lucy," he said. "It wasn't a feud because for a feud to happen you need both sides to be fighting. My mum and dad didn't fight, they took it all in and didn't fight back.

Here is the problem with liberals (not saying these people were liberals, I don't know, but this is the general feeling of liberals).

If they did fight back, maybe this could have been avoided....

I don't care where you live or what your level of arms, you can't shoot people for bullying you in school and you can't shoot a fire to death.  The evil of that act simply can't be overstated.  Pure fucking evil and I wish they could be burned at the stake, every one of them,  so they would understand just before they died in agoney.

Very sad.

What the fuck are people thinking sometimes?  What drives somebody to dump gas into somebody's house and light it on fire?  At what point during a conversation about dumping gas into somebody's house do you look at the other person and say "that's a fucking good idea... Let's go do it."  

I just don't get it,
~Dg84

That's just awful

Quoted: I just love news from the UK.

This could happen here, too. And in some of the nicest neighborhoods.

Quoted: What the fuck are people thinking sometimes?  What drives somebody to dump gas into somebody's house and light it on fire?  At what point during a conversation about dumping gas into somebody's house do you look at the other person and say "that's a fucking good idea... Let's go do it."   I just don't get it, ~Dg84

That’s a good point. More realistically it would have probably went like this. “Hey honey, our little princess is having a jolly good time torturing that little slow girl at school! We should show her some positive reinforcement and have some quality family time together and head over to her house and burn it down with her and her family inside!” “Yeah that sounds fab dear! You grab the keys to the lorry. I’ll get the petrol container! We can stop for a bite to eat on the way home and celebrate as we watch the news on the Tele!"

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Wythenshawe is a cesspit, social housing, lots of drugs, it's often called Gunchester. I own my own home, I'm armed to the teeth....they didn't, they weren't... ANdy That's the point isn't it pal?  Killers get damn creative when they don't have guns. Difference is TJ, if I was pretty sure of the ID of someone that had tried to commit arson on my home their remaining life would be short but very exciting. ANdy

The unfortunate part is that yours would then become long and closterphobic.  

Damnation!

At least on this forum folks are calling this 'evil' instead of 'sick'.  "Sick" people may wear tinfoil hats and talk to the little green men residing in their light fixture, but only the Evil do this.  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Difference is TJ, if I was pretty sure of the ID of someone that had tried to commit arson on my home their remaining life would be short but very exciting. ANdy The unfortunate part is that yours would then become long and closterphobic.   When my life or those of my family are threatened I would not care.. I'd rather spend 25 years sitting in a cell knowing I saved my wife, than spend the rest of my life wishing I'd done something to protect her... ANdy

I don't disagree.   I said unfortunate....   We have a system of laws that allows threats to be made and a person must choose to ignore and face the possiblility it will be made good on or act and almost certainly be sent to jail.

Quoted: Here is the problem with liberals (not saying these people were liberals, I don't know, but this is the general feeling of liberals). If they did fight back, maybe this could have been avoided....

Based on what I have seen over there, if they had fought back they probably would have been locked up as a "danger to criminals".

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Wythenshawe is a cesspit, social housing, lots of drugs, it's often called Gunchester. I own my own home, I'm armed to the teeth....they didn't, they weren't... ANdy That's the point isn't it pal?  Killers get damn creative when they don't have guns. Difference is TJ, if I was pretty sure of the ID of someone that had tried to commit arson on my home their remaining life would be short but very exciting. ANdy

Exciting is one way of putting it.  Kind of like how there is always someone having a good time in the movie HOSTEL.

Quoted: I don't care where you live or what your level of arms, you can't shoot people for bullying you in school and you can't shoot a fire to death.  The evil of that act simply can't be overstated.  Pure fucking evil and I wish they could be burned at the stake, every one of them,  so they would understand just before they died in agoney.

IIRC, attempted arson of an occupied building is a justifiable shoot in many places.

Kharn

Quoted: Quoted: I don't care where you live or what your level of arms, you can't shoot people for bullying you in school and you can't shoot a fire to death.  The evil of that act simply can't be overstated.  Pure fucking evil and I wish they could be burned at the stake, every one of them,  so they would understand just before they died in agoney. IIRC, attempted arson of an occupied building is a justifiable shoot in many places. Kharn

Yeah, if you caught 'em in the act.  If they are running off or have already gone then what's there to do?  You'll be a revenge-killer.  

Quoted: Quoted: I don't care where you live or what your level of arms, you can't shoot people for bullying you in school and you can't shoot a fire to death.  The evil of that act simply can't be overstated.  Pure fucking evil and I wish they could be burned at the stake, every one of them,  so they would understand just before they died in agoney. IIRC, attempted arson of an occupied building is a justifiable shoot in many places. Kharn

This happened after midnight.

Even if the parents had an "arsenal" of automatic weapons - they were asleep then and they'd still be dead now.

This didn't happen because of any gun-ban.

Quoted: When my life or those of my family are threatened I would not care.. I'd rather spend 25 years sitting in a cell knowing I saved my wife, than spend the rest of my life wishing I'd done something to protect her... ANdy

+ 1

I know which would be harder to deal with.

You alright ANdy...

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I don't care where you live or what your level of arms, you can't shoot people for bullying you in school and you can't shoot a fire to death.  The evil of that act simply can't be overstated.  Pure fucking evil and I wish they could be burned at the stake, every one of them,  so they would understand just before they died in agoney. IIRC, attempted arson of an occupied building is a justifiable shoot in many places. Kharn This happened after midnight. Even if the parents had an "arsenal" of automatic weapons - they were asleep then and they'd still be dead now. This didn't happen because of any gun-ban.

Exactly.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Wythenshawe is a cesspit, social housing, lots of drugs, it's often called Gunchester. I own my own home, I'm armed to the teeth....they didn't, they weren't... ANdy That's the point isn't it pal?  Killers get damn creative when they don't have guns. Difference is TJ, if I was pretty sure of the ID of someone that had tried to commit arson on my home their remaining life would be short but very exciting. ANdy The unfortunate part is that yours would then become long and closterphobic.

Not if done correctly.