Claire Throssell’s two boys Jack and Paul were killed in a house deliberately started by their dad
Claire Throssell with her sons Jack and Paul
It was the only comfort she could offer. Holding the hand of her dying son, Claire Throssell told him his younger brother was alive and safe.
But what brave Jack, 12, didn’t know was that she was hiding a heart-breaking truth. His younger brother, Paul, aged nine, had in fact died five days earlier.
Jack had suffered burns to more than half his body after he and his brother were trapped in a fire deliberately started by their father and Claire’s ex-husband, Darren Sykes, during a court-ordered unsupervised visit.
On October 22, 2014, Sykes lured the boys into the attic of his South Yorkshire home with a promise of a new train set, before barricading them inside and lighting 14 separate fires using Claire’s belongings. Paul was overcome by the smoke from the blaze started by his father that evening – who also took his own life at 44 – while Jack clung on for five agonising days.
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At his bedside, Claire learned her eldest son had desperately tried to save his little brother and – in one final act of love – lied and told him he had saved Paul’s life as he slipped away.
Speaking on episode three of the vodcast Key Witness: Aftermath, Claire, 54, an activist and author, from Penistone, South Yorks, said: “I was told Jack had gone and opened that hatch to get out of the attic and Paul had run, but become overcome by the smoke. Jack took the decision to go back for his brother.
“Gave him his hand, gave him his strength and pulled him to the edge of the hatchway. But because he was going backwards, pulling his brother, he fell through the hatch and that’s how he got burnt in the flames below.
“Most men wouldn’t have run back and did what he did for Paul.”
Claire added: “For five days in intensive care, the police said Jack believed he’d saved the life of his brother – please don’t tell him differently because it could affect his recovery. So I had to talk about Paul as if he was still here.
“And when Jack did lose his life, he died believing he’d saved his brother’s life, because I never told him different.”
Claire was just 24 when she first met Sykes back in 1996.
“I was working for a carpet company and I was working my way up there and that’s how I met him,” she said. “When he asked me out, I said no because he was cocky, confident – a little bit arrogant.
“He didn’t take no for an answer. He sent a single red rose to my work every day for three weeks, saying, ‘I’ll keep sending these roses until you go out with me.’ Like most narcissists, the relationship moved quickly.”
One year after meeting Claire, he proposed. Another year later they married, and at first glance their ‘relationship seemed perfect’.
But it wasn’t until the birth of their first son, Jack, in 2002, Claire began experiencing regular abuse at the hands of her husband, which only got worse when their second son Paul was born in 2005.
“It starts with the odd insult and they say ‘oh I didn’t meant it, you took it the wrong way,'” said Claire. “Everything right from the start was my fault and that should have been the red flag.
“But it was after the boys were born – that’s when the mask slipped and the monster came out. There’d been the odd punch on the arm. He had locked me in.
“It started as a drip and then the tap got tuned on a little bit more. Then all of a sudden the tap was on full and it was gushing.”
Claire finally found the strength to leave Sykes in 2014 after one incident in particular meant she was lucky to be alive.
Claire said: “It was just before Easter and Jack had a lot of homework and he was sat downstairs and his dad was saying, have you done your homework?’. He just answered ‘yes, I’ve done my homework.’
“Now imagine being asked that 12 times over and over again, right up in your face. So Jack went out the living room, went to come upstairs, but he [Darren] followed him and the questioning continued.
“At 12 years old, he snapped – turned around and said ‘I’ve told you, I’ve done my homework’. And then in the next instant, there was fist coming towards him and I just stepped in between.
“The force of the punch spun me around and I ended up falling down the stairs. Darren stood at the top of the stairs and said ‘look what you made me do’. I realised that I couldn’t stay there anymore.”
For the next few months, the boys and Claire stayed at her mum’s and were able to enjoy a normal childhood. But in July that year, Claire soon found herself at court after Sykes filed for custody of their two children.
“I was desperately fighting for the boys,” Claire said. “They didn’t want to see him and I knew that he’d hurt them.
“The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services (Cafcass) talked to Paul, but they never got to speak to Jack. We were invisible throughout the whole process.
“All three of us were silenced and I walked out that courtroom and our lives were changed forever.”
The judge awarded Sykes five hours of unsupervised access to the boys every week. He was even allowed to bring the children to his home 48 hours later – despite Claire noting in her application ‘he was capable of murder’.
It wasn’t until October 22, 2014, when the mum’s worst fears were realised.
She said: “I took Jack to school first and I said to him, ‘I love you’. He replied ‘to infinity and beyond,’ because Toy Story was their favourite film.
“Then I took Paul to school and he said ‘to infinity and beyond,’ and started running down the playground. I’d gone to work and I was doing a training course, so I was late home and I missed them by five minutes.
“10 minutes later, there was a knock on the door and I just knew. I went to the door and there was a police officer stood on the step and I just said, ‘what’s has he done?'”
The officer told Claire there’d been an incident at Syke’s home and that she needed to go with him immediately to Sheffield Children’s Hospital. There, the mum was met by the aftermath of her ex’s evil plan.
He had lit 14 separate fires using petrol and barricaded the doors with the intention that the fire brigade wouldn’t be able to reach the boys.
“He said your boys have been taken to Sheffield Children’s Hospital,” she said. “And I said ‘he’s done it.’
“We did the blues and twos all the way to Sheffield – and I as I ran through the doors I saw Paul, my youngest son, and he was having CPR done. A doctor came and said I needed to go with him.
“As I walked into the cubical, they all stepped back and said, we are letting him go now. They put him in my arms and I’d never held him as tight as I did then.
“He looked at me and all of a sudden the light went out of his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes turned grey and he’d gone.”
Claire was told that Jack, who was 56% burned with third-degree burns, was still fighting for his life.
“I walked around the corner and he just swathed in bandages,” she said. “I told him to hang on and he was going to be OK.
“But half an hour later, they had to do an emergency operation to cut his chest open so he could breathe – and he went to an intensive care specialist burns unit in Manchester. I’ve never chosen between my boys.
“But I had to go and say goodbye to my beautiful boy [Paul] and got in the ambulance with Jack. That was the furthest they’d ever been apart in all their lives.”
During the ordeal, Claire learnt of her eldest’s bravery as he’d tried desperately to save his younger brother. Police told Claire that Jack believed he’d saved the life of Paul, unaware he had passed away days before.
It was a lie she kept up to help his recovery. But eventually, on October 27, Jack went into cardiac arrest from sepsis and died during a 17 hour operation. He had been due to have his welfare interview with Cafcass the day he died.
“I held him in my arms and told him that I loved him,” Claire recalled. “I made him a promise – I said that no other child should have to die at the hands of somebody that has betrayed their trust and live. And no parents should do what I did.”
Since the death of her sons, Claire has campaigned to stop unsafe child contact with dangerous perpetrators of domestic abuse after learning her children were the 18th and 19th to be killed after court had awarded contact with a parent. Claire teamed up with Women’s Aid and launched Child First to repeal presumption of contact – which in the last 30 years has killed 67 children.
“Last year, on the 11th anniversary of Jack and Paul’s murders, I met Keir Starmer,” Claire said. “He promised to repeal presumption of contact.
“He made the announcement and mentioned their names – and for me, that was the biggest point for them to say their names, for them to recognise them and to finally say that this piece of legislation that’s not fit for purpose and has damaged hundreds and hundreds of children’s lives was just incredible.
“The law change will help – not just today, but tomorrow and generations to come. And I want to make sure that they [Jack and Paul] live on forever.”
Key Witness: Aftermath is a collaboration between social producers Creatorville and content agency SWNS. The weekly vodcast is released on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Each week, presenter and journalist Daisy sits down with the people closest to notorious crimes – across the UK and the world – to uncover details never revealed before. Watch every episode of the vodcast here.
