'You can smash my windows but you won't get me and the kids': Facebook message of arson mum Fiona Adams

A mum whose two children died in a suspected arson attack had posted a Facebook message about yobs terrorising her family minutes before the blaze.

Fiona Adams, 23, leapt to safety from an upstairs window on to a trampoline clutching her baby boy Kiernan as the fire ripped through her home.

But as she tried desperately to get back in to save son Cayden, two, and daughter Niamh, five, she was beaten back by flames and the children perished.

Just an hour before police had visited the house after reports of threats made by louts outside. But they left when they found only garden furniture had been moved.

Fiona's defiant message on Facebook to the yobs who were making her life a misery read: "You can smash the windows and the car but you won't get me and the kids."

Less than 45 minutes later the house in Buxton, Derbyshire, was in flames.

Her cousin, Kerry Halsey, said: "Fiona jumped out of the window with her baby and tried to go back for the other children but couldn't get them out.

"Her brother tried kicking in the door to get inside and help. It's just awful."

At the time of the fire at about 11.45pm, the children's father, hotel worker James Maynard, had gone to play pool after finishing his shift.

Close friend Karen Jackson, 29, said: "Whoever has done this deserves to be hanged. They were lovely, brilliant kids, happy and well-loved.

"I've heard someone was harassing Fiona, throwing things at the house. Their dad usually comes home straight after work at 10.30pm, but he had gone to play pool. He is blaming himself

"It's heartbreaking, I'm still in shock now. I just feel numb." Derbyshire police said Fiona's Facebook posting was part of the investigation. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been informed.

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Cotterill said: "My heart goes out to the family, the friends affected by this terrible tragedy.

"It always feels more difficult to me to comprehend when young children are involved.

"We do not know the cause of the fire yet, but we are treating it as suspicious because on the face of it there is no apparent obvious accidental cause.

"We are now looking for any possibility there may be a connection to the first call with the fire that took place an hour later."

Yesterday a 17-year-old arrested in connection with the incident, which left Fiona and eight-month-old Kiernan in hospital with severe burns, was released and ruled out as a suspect.

–nounBritish Slang. a teenage lout or hooligan.


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Origin:
1855–60; a consciously reversed form of boy