Council seeking answers on Riggi supervision delay

A child supervision order did not reach Edinburgh social workers until after Theresa Riggi had killed her three children.

The councillor in charge of social services in Edinburgh is looking for answers over why an order for Theresa Riggi’s children to be supervised was delayed.

American-born Riggi stabbed her three children to death at a flat in Slateford before the council was able to intervene.

Riggi is now in prison on remand after admitting the culpable homicide of her children.
Council seeking answers on Riggi supervision delay

The 47-year-old stabbed them to death in August 2010 before jumping from a balcony in an attempt to kill herself.

A day earlier she failed to appear at a court hearing – part of a legal battle with her husband Pasquale over access to their eight-year-old twin boys and five-year-old daughter.

At that point Mr Riggi’s lawyer told a judge the matter had become an emergency and an order was issued for them to be supervised by social workers.

But the council, who had no knowledge of the family, didn’t receive the paperwork until 3.05 the next afternoon – five minutes after the tragic events in Slateford were unfolding.

Council children and families leader Marilyne MacLaren says that if they had known about the situation, social workers would have acted immediately.

She is now demanding to know how and why it took so long for the information to be passed on from the court.

Ms MacLaren said: “It’s ghastly to think about it.

“If we had known about it, social workers would have acted on it immediately.

“I shall be writing, asking for an explanation, as a first step to understanding why there was a delay.”