Fiona Pilkington

I came to light a candle for Fiona (38) & her daughter (18) but could not find a memorial so decided to create one. This is a terrible case of neglect of the vunerable and we should all feel the burden of how our actions shape the society we live in. I know nothing of this mother and daughter so the following extract is taken virtually verbatim from the mirror.co.uk & telegraph websites, whom I hope do not mind given such circumstances.

{I dont know her birthdate so just tried make sure the age is right} Apologies to her family.

The family lived for more than 10 years under siege. A 16-strong gang of yobs regularly pelted Fiona’s house with eggs, they set fences on fire, pushed fireworks through the front door and taunted Francecca.

In the end, she was driven to such despair that she drove her car to a lay-by and set it alight while she and her daughter Francecca Hardwick, 18, sat inside.

Their bodies were found in the family's Austin Maestro at the side of the A47 near Earl Shilton on October 23, 2007.

Some of the most heart-wrenching and harrowing evidence heard during the inquest into the deaths Fiona Pilkington and her disabled daughter Francecca came from the single mother herself.

Despite 33 heart-rending calls for assistance her pleas were ignored. The extent of police indolence is laid bare in a heartbreaking diary kept by this lonely, helpless mother whose grip on life was loosening with every fresh assault on her home. Only now can the inaction of the Leicestershire force be explained. Mrs Pilkington’s dilemma was not a priority.

Ms Pilkington, her relatives and neighbours, phoned Leicestershire Constabulary on 33 occasions according to the force's log, but little was done to stop the abuse.

In her desperation Ms Pilkington wrote twice to her MP David Tredinnick, the Tory member for Hinckley and Bosworth, pleading for help

During the inquest the letters were read to the court.

In her first letter written in April 2004, she said: ''The children in my street seem to think they can do anything they want.

''We called the police but by the time they arrived they had scarpered, only to come back later. I really am getting to the stage where I am at a loss as to what to do about things.''

Although Mr Tredinnick's intervention brought a speedy response from the police, the family's ordeal continued and in February 2007, the full-time carer to her two children wrote again to her MP.

She said: ''I don't really know how to handle things anymore. How can I protect my teenagers from this sort of abuse? No-one can help.

''I have had 11 years of misery. My hair is falling out. What do you do? Do you just let them take control of this lovely street? The kids on the street stop everyone living their lives.''

The inquest also heard how Ms Pilkington was given an anti-social behaviour log, a diary in which she could document the abuse and reveal how she felt about it.

The harrowing diary was only discovered after she killed herself and her daughter, who was known as Frankie and had the mental age of a four-year-old.

In her first entry on May 10 2007, she said her son, a severe dyslexic, had become restless because of the noise outside the family's home late at night and started pacing up and down the stairs.

In another entry dated two days later, she said she sat in her lounge in the dark until the early hours listening to the abuse.

She added: ''I drew the curtains and sat in the dark until 2.30am, stressed out.

"Learn from experience that no-one is available on Fridays to Mondays as it's busy elsewhere and this is low priority."

A day later she wrote: "I am cheesed off and fed up. Why can't they just walk past without doing anything? Why don't they walk on the other side of the street?"

In an astonishing admission, senior cop Superintendent Steve Harrod told the inquiry how low-level anti-social behaviour is now a local council’s responsibility. And the objective of British justice is to avoid criminalising young people.

So rather than jail sentences they get lessons in good behaviour. Ye Gods. I’m not the first and won’t be the last to ask if that’s the case then exactly what purpose do our police serve? Today, enraged Home Secretary Alan Johnson will use his Labour Party conference speech to criticise the police for failing to help a patently desperate family.

Too little too late for Fiona Pilkington. But those like her – the old, the lonely, the desperate and disabled, who are scared to cross their front step after dark, need to know someone is putting their interests above the scum who British law have made untouchable.