Three children killed: Toowoomba mother ‘told cops she started blaze’
A Toowoomba mother under investigation for allegedly killing three of her children allegedly confessed to police officers at the scene that she had started the blaze at her family home.
A Toowoomba mother under investigation for allegedly killing three of her children by dousing them in petrol and setting them alight on Wednesday morning allegedly confessed to police officers at the scene that she had started the blaze at her family home.
Ellouisa Brighton Gibson, 36, remained under police guard on Sunday at the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital in Brisbane, where she is in a coma after receiving burns to more than a third of her body.
Sources told The Australian that Ms Gibson had admitted to Queensland police officers who arrived as part of the emergency response that she had started the fire that destroyed her home and in which three of her children died from injuries.
The context of the alleged confession, or whether it will be admissible in a court of law, is not clear.
A spokesman for the Queensland Police Service declined to comment on the alleged confession, saying it might threaten the “integrity of the investigation”.
“All aspects leading up to the incident and after will be investigated,” he said.
The Australian last week revealed that Ms Gibson is alleged to have doused her nine-year-old son and two daughters, aged four and seven, in petrol as they slept in the same room at the family’s Harristown property, 130km west of Brisbane, before setting them alight.
By the time emergency services arrived about 12.30am on Wednesday, the property was engulfed in flames. Neighbours and Ms Gibson’s 34-year-old partner desperately tried to free the children from the fire.
Two other people, an 18-year-old man and 11-year-old boy, were also at the property.
Sources told The Australian that it was the younger surviving boy who allegedly told police that he saw Ms Gibson pour the petrol and set the children on fire. Police are also pooling statements from neighbours to piece together what took place.
The body of Ms Gibson’s son was found in the home after the fire was extinguished, while the two girls were airlifted to Brisbane and died at the Queensland Children’s Hospital overnight on Thursday.
Ms Gibson did not provide a formal interview to investigators, becoming comatose. Detective Superintendent George Marchesini on Thursday said it might be some time before any statement could be obtained because of her condition. She is expected to survive her critical injuries.
The family was not known to Queensland’s Department of Child Safety.
Ms Gibson was, however, known to authorities in Victoria, South Australia, NSW, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, but this was not passed on to Queensland authorities.
It is understood the situation was complicated by Ms Gibson’s use of aliases.
Queensland Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm has ordered the department to undertake a complete and thorough investigation into the case.
“The loss of three lives in Toowoomba is a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family and the community,” she said at the weekend.
On Thursday, a Queensland’s Department of Child Safety spokesperson would not comment as to whether Ms Gibson or the family were previously known to them or the subject of a formal concern inquiry or order.
Superintendent Marchesini confirmed on Thursday that police had previously been called to the property but the family was not on local officers’ radar.
“It certainly wasn’t a premises that police were regularly attending,” he said.
The incident has raised queries about the efficacy of national child safety police information sharing portal Connect 4 Safety.
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