A mother and her disabled daughter found dead in a car had faced constant abuse and threats from a gang of youths, an inquest was told.

Fiona Pilkington, 38, and her 18-year-old disabled daughter Francecca Hardwick were found inside the blazing car in a lay-by on the A47 near Earl Shilton, on October 23, 2007, the inquest at Loughborough Town Hall heard.

A jury of four men and four women was told how single mum Ms Pilkington, who was her daughter's carer, apparently carried out the murder-suicide after years of abuse.

They heard how, despite dozens of calls to the police and Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, little was done to help them.

The jury was even told how when things got bad in the street outside, the police told the family to draw the curtains.

Her son, Anthony Hardwick, now 19, who is severely dyslexic, was also abused.

Giving evidence, Ms Pilkington's mother Pam Cassell, 72, said her daughter taped up the letter box of her Barwell home the week before she died, fearing fireworks would be put through it.

Mrs Cassell said: "They would start on Fiona and throw things and then go round the back and do things in the garden. It was always the same group of youths.

"They used to ring on the doorbell and say that she had been hitting her kids. They were petty things like that.

"Frankie was frustrated because she couldn't go out in the garden without being tormented or teased.

The inquest heard that the abuse started when the family moved into Bardon Road, Barwell, but escalated after Anthony fell out with a friend on the same street who was at the centre of the gang.

Asked by coroner Olivia Davison why the family was picked on, she said: "Fiona existed and they didn't like it."

Mrs Cassell said at one point the council imposed a 300-yard exclusion zone against the yobs around the house but failed to enforce it.

She said her daughter contacted the council four or five times and phoned police at least 10 times a year demanding help.

She said: "On the day that they died, Fiona rang up the police and told them about the children who were walking on their hedge and she was told to just ignore them.

"The same girls that were walking on the hedge were taking the mickey out of Frankie and imitating the way she walked.

"On another day it was beautifully sunny and I asked her why she had the curtains drawn and she said the police had told them to do so, so they couldn't see the children walking on the hedge.

"It was going on for so long I thought somebody would have done something. Fiona just gave up.

"She was in despair really, nobody did anything and she was just frustrated. She wanted them just to do something.

"Nobody was doing anything to help her, not the police, the council or the Neighbourhood Watch."

Ms Pilkington's mother said her daughter never received respite care because she did not know how to get it.

She also said support from Frankie's special school, the Dorothy Goodman School in Hinckley, had failed to take on board the family situation.

The inquest heard that families in Bardon Road were still being abused.

Her grandson Anthony cried as she gave evidence.

The inquest then heard that, just hours before she killed herself and her daughter, Ms Pilkington bought a 10-litre can of petrol from a nearby garage.

She then doused old clothes in the back of the car before setting light to it with her daughter and herself inside.