diff --git a/HLT/Trigger/TrigTransforms/TrigTransform/python/trigRecoExe.py b/HLT/Trigger/TrigTransforms/TrigTransform/python/trigRecoExe.py
index 90060002ddadaa02bf766150e6862e303befa734..aa89d8f82e7ee031759ba4562880065d4fb615ed 100644
--- a/HLT/Trigger/TrigTransforms/TrigTransform/python/trigRecoExe.py
+++ b/HLT/Trigger/TrigTransforms/TrigTransform/python/trigRecoExe.py
@@ -212,8 +212,8 @@ class trigRecoExecutor(athenaExecutor):
                 try:
                     signal = int((re.search('signal ([0-9]*)', line)).group(1))
                 except AttributeError:
-                    #text signal not found so just return 0
-                    signal = 0
+                    #signal not found in message, so return 1 to highlight failure
+                    signal = 1
                 msg.error('Detected issue with HLTChild, setting mother return code to %s' % (signal) )
                 self._rc = signal