PARENTS OF BURNT TODDLERS UNDER PROBE

Up to press time yesterday, Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson had not yet received a report on last Saturday’s fire in Petit Valley, a fire which claimed the lives of three toddlers. Henderson, when contacted, said the parents of the three dead children, Elizabeth Mohammed and Jason Macintosh, were both still at the Four Roads Police Station, where they were being questioned by police officers in connection with the deaths of their three children.

According to sources, both parents went to the Forensic Science Centre early yesterday where they witnessed the autopsies on the charred remains of their three children.  While both parents seemed to be taking the deaths of three of their four children hard, the father of the dead children is said to have broken down several times during the procedure. After the autopsy, the parents were taken to the Four Roads Police Station, where they were said to have undergone questioning for more than four hours by police officers in connection with the fire, which not only took the lives of three of their children, but completely gutted their home as well. However, sources have revealed that the possibility of charges being brought against the parents for the deaths of their three children depended on the information gathered not only from the police report, but from a report submitted by Officers of the Fire Prevention Department as well. They too, when contacted yesterday, had not yet ascertained the cause of the fire. Depending on the findings, both parents could face charges of gross neglect and child abandonment.

The three  children, four-year-old Alexis Mohammed, three-year-old Leslie Mohammed and two-year-old Jason Macintosh, all perished in the fire at their Petit Valley home last Saturday, mere moments after their parents left home to go to the market to get fresh fruit and vegetables. Elizabeth Mohammed said she left her three toddlers asleep in their bed early that morning as she did not want to wake them up. “They looked too peaceful,” she said. “ I did not want to wake them up.” However, upon reaching the Port-of-Spain market, Mohammed received a call that her home was on fire. But by the time Mohammed and her husband returned, it was already too late. Officers of the West End Police Station are continuing investigations.