Post date: Apr 27, 2011 6:32:40 PM
A mother who killed her three children is sentenced to 16 years in jail.
GRAMPIAN POLICE HANDOUT - A mother who stabbed her three young children to death in a "heinous" attack after fearing she would lose them in a bitter custody row was beginning a 16-year jail term on Wednesday (April 27).
Theresa Riggi, 47, showed a "truly disturbing degree of violence" when she killed her eight-year-old twins,
Austin and Luke, and her five-year-old daughter, Cecilia, at their Edinburgh home last August, a judge said.Her "abnormal and possessive love" for her children led her to stab them each eight times, before trying to take her own life, in the belief that all four would be together forever in the afterlife.
Their bloodstained bodies were found lying side by side at a townhouse in Slateford Road following a gas explosion at the building.
Their grief-stricken father, Pasquale Riggi, said on Wednesday that no sentence could make amends for his "overwhelming" loss as he spoke of his pain at being unable to protect his "wonderful, energetic, bright and happy children" from their mother.
Riggi, who watched proceedings at the High Court in Glasgow from the public gallery, wore a trio of ribbons - red, yellow and pink - one for each of his dead children.
In a statement read on his behalf by David Sinclair of the Victim Support charity, Scotland, he said afterwards:
"The horrific manner in which my children died will leave an indelible mark on the rest of my life. As a father, my natural instincts were geared towards safeguarding my children from the dangers of this world.
"It pains me to the core that I was unable to protect them from the selfish, brutal and murderous acts that ended their lives so unfairly.
"There is no justification for this heinous crime, repeated three times, nor is there any sentence that can provide justice for the overwhelming loss of three lives and the subsequent painful grief and devastation caused to surviving family and friends alike."
Riggi was initially charged with murder but previously admitted three counts of the reduced charge of culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Passing sentence, Judge Lord Bracadale told Riggi that her actions had caused a "devastating family tragedy".
The judge told Riggi, who is originally from the US, she would be deported after she has served her sentence. As the judge spoke of the degree of violence inflicted on the children, Riggi, who sobbed openly throughout proceedings, cried out: "No. No."
Pale and dressed in the same white suit she has worn for every public court appearance, Riggi clutched a tissue and had a string of rosary beads wrapped around her wrist.
All three children were found stabbed to death on the afternoon of August 4 last year.
Riggi was seriously injured after plunging from a balcony in an attempt to kill herself; a fall broken by a neighbour who had rushed to her aid.