Theresa Riggi: The mother who doted on her 'perfect children' and the bitter fight for custody

THE three "perfect" children at the centre of a suspicious death investigation in Edinburgh were "absolutely doted on" by the mother who is suspected of stabbing them to death, those who knew the family have revealed.

Theresa Riggi had set up home at a secluded bungalow on the outskirts of the Aberdeenshire village of Skene last year with her three children, eight-year-old twins Gianluca and Augustino and their five-year-old sister Cecilia, after an acrimonious split from her husband, Pasquale, a highly paid oil reservoir engineer with oil giant Shell.

Yesterday their home Mosslea Cottage was completely deserted with every curtain at the windows of the U-shaped building tightly drawn. The only evidence that children had ever lived there were a well-used slide and a large trampoline in the back garden and a basketball hoop facing the main door of the remote house.

But Nick Quinn, the local restaurant owner who befriended the mother and her children after they moved into the area, last night spoke of how Mrs Riggi's entire life had revolved around her children.

Mrs Riggi and her children regularly had early evening meals at the Garlogie Inn on the outskirts of Westhill which Mr Quinn runs with his father John. They began coming to the restaurant last October when the parents split up, beginning the bitter tug-of-love battle that was to end in tragedy in Edinburgh's Slateford Road on Wednesday.

Mr Quinn said: "This is a terrible, terrible tragedy and I have been left completely gobsmacked by what has happened. Theresa absolutely doted on those kids. I would have put her at the foot of a list of anyone that this could have happened to.

"She and the children came in regularly, once or twice a week for an early evening meal. She never spoke about her husband and she never came here with her husband.

"She always had the children with her. They were always spotless. They were as well behaved and perfect kids as you could wish for. They never put a foot out of place. The little girl was always dressed in party mode in big frilly dresses. They were extremely polite and Theresa absolutely doted on them and that is why it is such a shock. I cannot praise them enough as a family."

Mr Quinn said that Mrs Riggi had spoken of being a professional classical pianist in her past and had offered to play at the restaurant.

He said: "She was always immaculately dressed. She was extremely pleasant and just a lovely, lovely woman.

"She just had the kids and the kids only. She never gossiped or lingered at the bar. She would come in with the children, have their meal and they would be away before it got too late.

"You get children who come in and they run around and they want this and they want that. But those children just couldn't have been nicer and they couldn't have been better looked after."

He revealed that he last saw Mrs Riggi some six weeks ago, before she and her children were first reported missing.

"She was looking to make a booking for a birthday party for the twins later in the year. She never mentioned any date. I told her to come in and see me and we would organise it but I never saw her again.

"It's a terrible tragedy and I can't come to grips with the thought of those three lovely children having been killed."

Away from the local restaurant Mrs Riggi and her family had little other contact with the wider community. All three children were home schooled by their mother. But all three also attended Highland dancing classes at a local dance school. The children also occasionally went horse riding at the Hayfield Riding School on the outskirts of Aberdeen.

Their nearest neighbour, who lives more than a quarter of mile away, said she had never once spoken to the family in the time they had lived at Mosslea Cottage. She was also unaware that the parents had split up until she read of Mrs Riggi's disappearance.

The elderly farmer's wife, who did not wish to be named, said: "I didn't know the family at all and I never even spoke to them. They had been at the bungalow for a couple of years or so and I would occasionally see the children out playing, but that's all. If folk want to keep themselves to themselves then this is the sort of place you can do that. They appeared to be quiet folk and there were no comings and goings at the house. It's terrible tragedy."

Local councillor Ron McKail said the entire community of Westhill and Skene had been shocked by the deaths of the three children. "To learn this morning that the children who died in this tragedy in Edinburgh were from Westhill was a tremendous shock and surprise," he said. "I feel a great deal of sympathy for the father and the wider family and the children's friends."

Mark Cullen, another local councillor, said: "This is truly appalling. The deaths of three young children at any time is just terrible. But under these circumstances it just seems doubly appalling. There were three lovely children here yesterday and there is not three lovely children here today."

Mr Riggi works with Shell as an oil reservoir engineer. He has been employed by the company since 1987 and has been based in Aberdeen for the past three years. Mr Riggi has been working for Shell in Europe since 1997 and the bulk of that time has been spent in Lowestoft where Shell controls its southern North Sea operations and in the Netherlands.

.