For My Boys

On October 22, 2014, Claire Throssell's life changed forever after her ex-husband, Darren Sykes, lured their two children, Jack, 12, and his nine-year-old brother, Paul, to the attic of their family home, before deliberately setting fire to the house, murdering his children and killing himself. Claire had been subject to her husband's cruel coercive, physical, emotional and financial abuse throughout their 16-year marriage. After she found the strength to leave her husband, his campaign of brutality didn't end, but the courts ignored her, and their sons' wishes. They gave Sykes unsupervised access to the two boys, despite Claire's concerns that he was very capable of harming them. Her worst fears came true.