Legal News

Mick Philpott the father has been accused of being the prime suspect in a scheme to start a blaze which killed his six children. He is being accused of starting the fire to frame his ex girlfriend after becoming locked in a custody battle with her, a court heard.

He wanted to set up his former mistress and reduce her chances of winning an upcoming residency court hearing involving their children.

Jurors at Nottingham Crown Court, where he and his wife Mairead are on trial for the manslaughter of the youngsters, heard that Philpott was angry when Lisa Willis left him three months before the blaze.
He was not able to digest that she had left him and got on with a plan to set her up and point the finger of blame at her for setting fire to the family home in Victory Road in Allenton Derby it was claimed.
The court heard after Ms Willis ended her 10-year relationship with Philpott, he began making reports to the police that she had threatened him and the family.The pair had been due in court the morning of the fire to discuss residency of their children.
Richard Latham QC told the jury that they should not be surprised that the prime mover and dominant player in the unlawful and highly dangerous enterprise that, in the end, went so horribly wrong was Michael Philpott.
Part of his motivation may also have been to get a bigger home for the family, which in turn may have persuaded Ms Willis to come back, the court heard.
Mr Latham went on saying that Philpott wanted better accommodation from Derby Homes, and the fire was a way of achieving that end. This was a three bedroom house, he wanted all 11 children to continue living with him.
Philpott has denied six counts of manslaughter in relation to the deaths. His 31-year-old wife and a third defendant, 46-year-old Paul Mosley, also deny the same six charges.
Mick and Mairead Philpott's children - Jade, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, Jayden, five, and Duwayne, 13 - all perished after the fire which engulfed their home as they slept in their beds upstairs in the early hours of May 11 last year.
A total of 11 children also lived there until February - six were those of Mick and Mairead Philpott, while four were his children with Ms Willis. Another child was Ms Willis's with another man.
The trial continues.