He wanted a house full of kids and the benefit cash that brings': Prosecutors verdict as father of 10 goes on trial over blaze that killed six of them

A father killed six of his children in a house fire that was part of a ‘plan’ to frame his former mistress, a court heard yesterday.
Michael Philpott, 56, is accused of hatching a plot to set up Lisa Willis, 28, just hours before he was due to contest her application for custody of their five children in court.
Prosecutor Richard Latham QC said: ‘Michael Philpott did not want to work. He just wanted a house full of kids and the benefit money that brings.

On trial: Michael Philpott (left), his wife Mairead (centre) and defendant Paul Mosley (right) have been accused of starting the fire which killed the children

 

Accused: Michael Philpott pictured with the six children who died in the house fire

‘We say this was a plan that went horribly wrong and resulted in total tragedy.’
The petrol-fuelled blaze broke out in the hallway of the home where Philpott lived with wife Mairead, 31, and their own six children – all of whom perished as they slept.
The court heard that until three months before the blaze last May, ‘highly controlling’ Philpott shared his cramped three-bedroom semi-detached home with his wife, mistress and all 11 children he had with both women.
The court heard he also fathered five other children from two other women.
Philpott, his wife, and his friend Paul Mosley, 45, who the court heard had visited the house earlier that evening, are charged with manslaughter of the Philpotts’ children Duwyane, 13, Jade, 10, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jessie, six and Jayden, five, on the basis that they took part in a ‘joint enterprise’ to frame Miss Willis.
The court heard that in the days after the fire, Mosley visited the couple while they were being housed in a hotel by police.

 

In the dock: Michael Philpott jumps up in court and covers his ears so as not to hear recording of 999 call

The children, five boys and a girl, aged between five and 13, died in the fire at their house in Derby, pictured. Flowers were left at the scene

The room had been bugged by police and Philpott watched as his wife performed a sex act on Mosley. Afterwards he praised his wife after acknowledging that she did not want to perform the act.
Mr Latham told the jury they ‘may conclude’ the sexual favour was carried out to keep Mosley ‘onside’.
The court heard Philpott controlled all aspects of the family finances, with all benefit money paid towards the children’s upkeep along with the two women’s meagre part-time income paid straight into his account – the same arrangement he had instigated with both his first wife and another woman he then left her for.
Mr Latham said it was only after Miss Willis left and was rehoused by the local authority that she discovered she had been entitled to more than £1,000 a month in benefits to help look after the children.
As a harrowing 999 call made by the Philpotts from the garden of their Derby home was played to the court, Philpott shouted ‘I can’t listen to it’ and attempted to leave the dock, but was subdued by security staff.

 

 

Mick and Mairead Philpott, pictured with five of the six children who died in the house fire. The other identities have been obscured for legal reasons

Towards the end of the call, his wife, who dabbed tears from her eyes in the dock, could be heard wailing uncontrollably in the background of the call.
The court heard that after tiring of Philpott’s ‘domineering’ behaviour, Miss Willis decided to leave him.
Exactly three months before the blaze, she walked out without warning, taking the children first to her sister’s home, then into a women’s refuge before she was eventually rehoused by the local authority.

The family shared an unconventional lifestyle - Philpott (right), 56, his 31-year-old wife Mairead (left), and his mistress Lisa Willis, 28, all lived in the same house together

The couple became involved in a bitter row over the residency of the children, with Philpott telling friends Miss Willis had made threats against his home and children, something he would ‘use in court to get his children back’.
Mr Latham said Philpott was deeply troubled by her leaving, to the point that he had become depressed and even tried to take his own life.
He steadily became 'obsessed with getting Lisa and the kids back' and part of his distress was because of the simple fact that Miss Willis had left him.
'He is very controlling and very manipulative, he will do anything to get his own way. He simply will not tolerate dissent,' jurors heard.
When Miss Willis returned to the house with a friend on February 14 to collect clothes for her and the children, she was challenged by Philpott.
'There was an incident on the doorstep, Philpott manifesting huge aggression and the police were called,' Mr Latham said.
Less than a fortnight before the blaze, he told police Miss Willis, a cleaner, had made a telephone threat to kill him and demanded that she be arrested.
Mr Latham told the jury of six men and six women: 'By May 1st Mick Philpott was reporting to the police that Lisa Willis had made telephone threats to kill him.
'The police visited him, he was at times highly emotional and made it clear that he wanted Lisa arrested.
The court heard that on April 6, Philpott received a call from his wife while taking friends to a darts game in his minibus.
Philpott told his friends: 'Sorry guys, someone is threatening to torch the house with the kids in it,' Mr Latham told the court.

Jade Philpott, 10

Jayden Philpott, 5

John Philpott, 9

 

 

Jack Philpott, 8

Jesse Philpott, 6

Duwayne Philpott, 13

 

 

'This was all nonsense. This was all a way of setting what had become a plan,' Mr Latham added.
'It became apparent to him that Lisa was going to do what she wanted and not what he required or demanded. He began to set her up.'
A few days earlier, Philpott had vowed to ‘slam her where it hurts’, the court heard.
About a fortnight before the fire Philpott told friends he had an idea for a way of getting Lisa and the children back, Mr Latham said.
'He told people he had a plan up his sleeve and that she wasn't going to get away with it - watch this space.'
Mr Latham said: ‘She (Miss Willis) had stood up to him. He was no longer in control and that was absolutely unacceptable to him.’ He added that Philpott ‘simply will not tolerate dissent’.

Arrival: A prison van believed to be containing the defendants arrives at Nottingham Crown Court today

The court heard Philpott (second from left) planned to frame his ex-girlfriend and eventually win his children back

FATHER'S TEARS AT 999 BLAZE CALL

Mick Philpott, accused with his wife of killing their six children in a house fire, made a desperate attempt to avoid hearing in court a 999 call made on the night of the fatal blaze.
Nottingham Crown Court was played the recording in which Mairead Philpott can be heard trying to explain to a 999 operator that her children were trapped inside the burning building.
As the call recording began to be played to jurors, Mick Philpott, who had been sitting quietly in the court, shouted 'I can't listen to it' and stood up, seemingly trying to get out of the secure dock.
He was seated again by two male security officers who flanked him and spent the remainder of the call playback leaning forward with his head close to his knees and his hands clamped over his ears.
Philpott, dressed in a black suit and checked shirt, could be seen sobbing and grimacing as details of the chaotic scene unfolded on the recording.
The call was made from his mobile phone at 3.46am as the fire took hold of the three-bed house in Victory Road, Derby.
Mairead Philpott, 31, told the call handler: 'My house is on fire and my kids are inside.'
She is heard frantically trying to tell the operator what had happened and screaming at the scene before her.
Her husband, 56, later takes the phone to talk to the call handler and, though difficult to understand through his sobs, is heard saying: 'I can't get in.'

Mr Latham told the Nottingham Crown Court jury that while he did not suggest the defendants intended to kill the children, any ‘reasonable and sober person’ would deduce that setting a fire in a hallway with six children asleep upstairs ‘creates an obvious risk’.
It was the Crown case that the defendants were ‘criminally responsible for the deaths as a result of setting the fire’.
Mr Latham said the defendants ‘produced a fire that got totally out of control because of far too much petrol, combined with a chimney effect’.
‘The consequence of the dense smoke just hadn’t been anticipated.’ The same brand of petrol discovered on the clothing of all three defendants was also found in the U-bend of the sink inside the house, and also inside the front door.
While his wife was seen to be distraught, Philpott was overheard at the hospital saying: ‘It wasn’t meant to end like this.
During a fortnight of surveillance at the hotel in May, the couple were heard whispering about the case, and Philpott was recorded telling his wife to ‘stick to your story’.
The couple were charged by police on May 30 in connection with the deaths.
The court heard that in the weeks following the fire, Mosley told a friend the plan had been for him to rescue the children.
Mosley said it was because the Philpotts wanted a bigger house.
The court heard how neighbours tried to rescue the children from the burning house but were beaten back by the smoke and flames.
When the bodies of the children were carried out of the house by police, Philpott ran forward and had to be restrained, Mr Latham said.
'It must have been quite clear the plan had gone horribly wrong.'
Philpott was heard telling people Miss Willis threatened to kill them or to set fire to the house.
'She was being set up as the culprit,' Mr Latham said.

 

 

Fatal: Prosecutor Mr Latham told the jury the fire was started in the early hours of the morning on the day Miss Willis and Philpott were due in court to discuss the residency of the children

Philpott told neighbours the children were in the back bedroom of the house.
'Is this where they were expected to be as part of the plan to rescue them?,' Mr Latham said.
Philpott told police he was playing snooker with Mosley before the fire broke out. He said Mosley left before 2am and Michael and Mairead fell asleep watching a film, but they were woken by a smoke alarm and he discovered a large fire in the hall.
He called 999 and handed the phone to his wife before climbing a ladder in the back garden and smashing a hole in the back window. He said the black smoke beat him back.
Police reported his behaviour following the fire as 'unusual', the court heard.
One constable said Philpott showed 'no emotion' and acted as if at a social event.
At the hospital, onlookers described him as looking 'spotlessly clean' for someone who had been in a house fire, Mr Latham said.
The Philpotts and Mosley, a fork-lift truck driver and also from Derby, each deny six counts of manslaughter.
The trial continues.

 

Floral tributes adorn the pavement outside the house following the fire