AN INQUEST will today begin into the suspected murders of a mother and son at their home near Newquay.
Patricia Philpotts was found dead at her Trevarrian home in January 2010 following a fire at the bungalow. Her son Ben was pulled from the blazing building by firefighters but died hours later from smoke inhalation.
It was revealed soon after the blaze that the Trevisker Primary School had suffered severe head injuries before the fire.
His father and Patricia's estranged husband, Harry Philpotts, was the main suspect in the case. He died from severe burns he sustained in the blaze over a week later, at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. He had been detained by police, and not arrested, after the incident.
It was also revealed that Harry had suffered from mental health issues for several years before the fateful incident.
A Serious Case Review (SCR) – compiled by the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) and designed to identify all agency involvement with the family to establish if it could have been prevented – was published earlier this year.
An executive summary of the SCR stated that the fire could not have been foreseen.
The full report is expected to be published after the inquest, which is expected to run for three days.
