Police Scotland hold a press conference this morning at Livingston Police station after bodies of a 36 year old male and 6year old girl were found yesterday at an address in Harburn Drive, West Calder
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00:00Good morning and thank you for attending the briefing this morning. My name is Greg Banks. I am the Divisional Commander for the Loading of Scottish Borders within Police Scotland.
00:07Firstly, I want to extend the sympathies of Police Scotland to the families involved. Our thoughts are very much with them in this extremely difficult and extremely sad time.
00:15As you are aware, Police Scotland responded to a police class that was concerned for a call on Monday the 20th of January.
00:21That call related to concern from a family member around their child failing to attend school.
00:26This led our officers to conduct enquiries to identify the child's whereabouts and ultimately resulted in them attending at the property at Harborne Drive in West Calder.
00:35On being unable to gain entry to the property, assistance was provided from colleagues at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to force entry and tragically the bodies of an adult male aged 36 and as you know a young female aged 6 years of age were discovered within the property.
00:49Enquiries are clearly still at a relatively early stage, therefore I am unable to go into any detail on the cause of death at this time and post-mortem examinations that are probably undertaken over the course of this week.
00:58We are working tirelessly to understand exactly what happened within the property and to clearly answer questions from the understandably devastated family members and the wider community across West Calder and the West Lothian area.
01:11I want to thank our local partners and residents of West Calder in particular for their support over the last 48 hours of what has been a difficult time and seek to continue to have that support in place as we efficiently but effectively carry out enquiries over the course of this week and beyond.
01:24As a local resident in West Lothian myself, I very much appreciate the tight-knit nature of local communities and the real desire to understand and get answers to what has happened here.
01:32I would ask that people try and avoid speculation at this time, allow us to do our enquiries and undertakings in an efficient and effective manner and we will provide further details as soon as we have them.
01:41I'm sure everyone will understand of the importance to understand the facts, particularly for the families involved.
01:47The shock and sadness felt across West Lothian and further afield is understandable and whilst my words won't take that anxiety and concern away, I would wish to reassure local residents in West Lothian and particularly in West Calder,
01:57that this appears to be an incident within the context of that one property and there's no wider risk to members of the public at this time.
02:04You will continue to see a fairly significant policing presence across West Calder in the days and perhaps even into the next week that lies ahead.
02:12The officers there are your officers, they're your local community policing team and response officers.
02:16They're there to support you so please do come forward if you have any concerns or any questions and of course if you have information, please do bring that forward to us.
02:28Good morning, I'm Detective Superintendent Grant Hendry of the Major Investigation Team at Police Scotland.
02:37Our thoughts remain with the man and girls' relatives at this extremely difficult time and they continue to be supported by their officers.
02:44They're understandably devastated and it's vital we get answers for them.
02:49At this time we have no information to suggest anyone else is involved and inquiries remain ongoing.
02:56I would ask anyone with any information on the matter, how small or insignificant you think it is, please get in touch with us.