A SENIOR detective has ­admitted the murders of three members 
of the Sharkey family in a ­Helensburgh house fire could have been avoided.

Thomas Sharkey Sr, 55, his son Thomas Jr, 21, and daughter Bridget, eight, died in the blaze at their home in the Argyll and Bute town's Scott Court on July 24, 2011.

Assistant chief constable Ruaraidh Nicolson suggested that, had a string of previous fires started by one of their killers, Scott Snowden, 38, been solved earlier, they may have lived.

He made his comments as he announced a review of police procedures in relation to the investigations into five separate fire-raising incidents caused by Snowden between 2008 and 2011.

Angela Sharkey: 'I still cannot understand why they did this to my innocent children'

Speaking at a press conference following the verdicts yesterday, Mr Nicolson said that, while the "thorough and comprehensive" investigation into the fatal fire had resulted in the convictions of Snowden and his accomplice, Robert Jennings, "some of the previous incidents had not been investigated to that high standard".

This, he said, was partly as police did not have the kind of resources available that would subsequently be poured into solving the Sharkey tragedy, and also because of local people's reluctance to speak out against Snowden until his vendetta against Thomas Sharkey went too far.

Mr Nicolson added: "People were frightened to come forward, there was an element of fear 
on the street – until it went 
too far.

"The deaths in particular of Thomas Sharkey Jr and Bridget were too much."

The blaze was the culmination of a reign of terror by Snowden.

The trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard that a partially constructed house in Shandon was set on fire on July 3, 2008, as the builders refused a Snowden offer to provide security.

The Garth Inn in West Clyde Street, Helensburgh, was set ablaze on June 19, 2009, after Snowden was refused service.

A yachtsman had his home in Rhu set on fire on September 6, 2009, after he challenged Snowden's competency as a berthmaster at Rhu Marina.

Richard McKinney, 58, a fellow employee at Rhu Marina, complained about Snowden's performance at work and had his face slashed by Jennings on January 20, 2010.

Another man, Michael ­McGinley, and his family were subjected to a campaign of violence after he punched Snowden in a pub.

Ammonia was thrown in his face, his family home was set alight in January 2011 and an attempt made to ruin his sister's wedding by attempting to set fire to the reception venue in June 2011.

On April 2010 Snowden had also torched the Mariners pub in Helensburgh, which was owned by Mr Sharkey.

Snowden seemed to think he could get away with it. Days after the fire which killed Mr Sharkey and his two children, Snowden said: "It'll all blow over in a month."

It is thought he believed this because no-one had worked out that he was responsible for the fireraising crimewave.

Amid the town's criminal elements there was a dark joke to the effect that, when Snowden left for a few days, a fire was likely to break out.

Detective Superintendent John McGovern, who led the murder investigation, said yesterday the cold-blooded and premediated killing of a family revealed "exactly what kind of people they [Snowden and Jennings] are".

He added that the string of offences carried out by Snowden could not be characterised as revenge attacks because for the most part they were directed at "law-abiding, ordinary people who are no match for Jennings and Snowden.

"I think they [Jennings 
and Snowden] probably knew that".

DS McGovern added: "They are clearly two people who prey on those weaker than themselves."