QC: 'I have never experienced tragedy like this'

DONALD Findlay is one of the country's most experienced QCs but he admitted the case of Theresa Riggi had troubled him like few others. "I have never experienced tragedy like this. If ever someone deserved as much compassion as public condemnation, it is her."

Theresa Butimore married Pasquale Riggi in 1989. They enjoyed a wealthy lifestyle through his job as an oil executive. The children were all born after IVF treatment.

Mrs Riggi had been told after the birth of the twins that she would not be able to conceive again, but "stubbornly" refused to heed the advice and had the daughter who would complete the family.

By 2007, they were living in Aberdeenshire but their marriage was in ruins and Mr Riggi moved out of the family home. He began a court action to gain unsupervised contact with the children. During the case, Mrs Riggi and the children disappeared from Aberdeen, and police traced them to Edinburgh. On the evening of 2 August, Mrs Riggi took the children bowling and to a restaurant in Dunfermline.

At 11:30pm, she phoned her husband, made random allegations about him and repeatedly asked if he was going to take the children from her. She was told she had left him with no choice. She stated: "Say goodbye then" and hung up.

It was the next day that the awful truth was revealed. A gas explosion at the house was followed by Mrs Riggi jumping from a second-floor balcony. She had already tried to stab herself and cut her neck and wrist.

The children's bodies were found lying side by side on a bedroom floor. Cecilia was between her brothers, and Luke had his arm over her. Music, like that at a church service, was playing from a laptop.