'My beautiful little angels': Agony of mother of two children 'gassed by estranged husband on Father's Day'

Brian Philcox, 53, drove Amy, seven and Owen, three, to a remote country lane on Father's Day.

Once there he attached a hosepipe to the exhaust, fed it through the window and left the engine running.

Tragic: Amy, seven, and Owen, three, died together in their father's Land Rover. Below, Brian Philcox, who is believed to have gassed himself and the children

Their bodies were found huddled on the rear seat of the Land Rover parked in the isolated lane in Tal-y-cafn, North Wales.

Yesterday the distraught mother of the children, Evelyn Philcox, 37, spoke of her horrendous loss.

She said: 'My family and I are absolutely devastated about the loss of Amy and Owen.

'They were more than everything to us - they were our world and a reason for living.

'Amy was a very artistic child and was labelled by her teachers at Windmill Hill Primary School as exceptional.

'She was a strong-willed little girl and loved to be in the middle of whatever was going on.'

She said: 'Owen was very loving little boy and very affectionate. He would always play with my hair which he found comforting.

'Owen loved playing with his Thomas the Tank engine and Lazytown toys.

'Every night they would both get into bed with me and we would read books and sing together. The children loved story time in bed with me at night.

'We cannot believe what has happened and how they have so unfairly and tragically been taken away from us.

'They are our beautiful little angels and will be greatly missed and they will always be in our hearts.'

Mr Philcox, who was chairman of the Federation of English Karate Organisations (FEKO), and his wife were going through a bitter divorce and he had been due to attend a court hearing this week at which his estranged wife was seeking possession of the family home.

Tributes: A policeman stands guard outside Mr Philcox's home in Runcorn today, where friends and well-wishers had laid flowers and cuddly toys

He had told neighbours he would rather burn the four-bedroom maisonette down than hand it over to his wife.

In the weeks leading up to the Father's Day tragedy he had contacted pressure group Father 4 Justice to tell them of his desperation over the divorce.

On Friday Mr Philcox, who saw his children regularly, picked them up from their mother and was seen playing football with them in a nearby park.

Scene of the tragedy: The country lane in North Wales where he parked his car. Below, forensic officers investigate dense woodland

On Saturday he took them to Llangollen in North Wales where they visited the miniature railway.

When he failed to return from the scheduled contact visit on Saturday evening Mrs Philcox alerted police who launched a hunt for the missing children.

The three bodies were found on Sunday afternoon down an isolated country lane.

Post mortems were carried out and revealed all three had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

A message left by Mr Philcox - in which he told her he had left her a present - sparked a bomb scare.

A suspect package found at his home proved to be a hoax but Army bomb disposal teams were called in the carry out a controlled explosion on a parcel sent to Mr Philcox's stepson Ryan McAuliffe.

The tragedy happened in the picturesque Conwy Valley

Last night neighbours said the community was still reeling after the loss of the popular young children.

One man said: "I will never forget hearing their mother cry 'My babies, my babies,' after police had broken the news to her that her two lovely young children were dead.

"She was absolutely hysterical and I never want to see anything like it again. It was horrific and the whole community feels for her at this time."

Coroner John Hughes opened and adjourned an inquest in Wrexham into the deaths of the two children and their father.