Looking at this information it is hard for me as a parent and I cannot forget the October 1994 incident where Susan Smith strapped her children in their car seat in the back of her car drove to the lake got on the ramp put the car in drive and watched as the car with her children inside plunged into the lake, then have the unmitigating gall of blaming a black man for her crime.

Having done some research on parents killing their children I was astonished to find that in the US between 1971 and 2005 31% of children were killed by their father and 29% by their mother and these are children that were under 5 years old.

Looking at the statistics for the UK, according to the NSPCC, they stated that every ten days one child is killed at the hands of their parents and in almost two thirds (65%) of all cases of children killed at the hands of another the parents is the principal suspect.

It would appear that current events confirm the NSPCC assessment of this as Mick and Mairead Philpotts have been arrested and charged with the murder of their 6 children by arson