POTENTIAL key witnesses to an unsolved triple murder have been urged to come forward as detectives assured them they were not being treated as suspects.

Thomas Sharkey, 55, his son Thomas, 21, and eight-year-old daughter Bridget died in a fire at their family home in Helensburgh early on July 24.

Detectives have been trying to trace a man in a grey hooded top and two other men seen near the Sharkey home around the time of the fire.

An appeal on the BBC’s Crimewatch last Thursday showed an emotional Angela Sharkey, 46, the sole survivor of the fire, plead with the public to help bring the killers to justice.

The programme received 20 responses and four names were given in connection with the murder probe.

Detective Superintendent Peter McPike,who is leading the inquiry, said: “The people in the images that we released last week are not suspects and, in truth, they may not even realise they are witnesses.

“The simple fact is they were in the area around the time of the murder and they may have seen something that can help us catch the person or persons responsible.”

Mrs Sharkey was unconscious in hospital for almost two weeks after the blaze at the Scott Court flat.

During the Crimewatch appeal she said: “I have no idea why anyone would want to do this to me and my family.”