BBC

A judge has sentenced Mick Philpott to life for killing six of his children in a fire at his Derby house.

He was convicted of manslaughter along with his wife, Mairead, and friend Paul Mosley, who were told they would serve half of their 17-year sentences.

Mrs Justice Thirlwall told Mick Philpott he was “a disturbingly dangerous man” and the “driving force” behind the plot.

Here is a selection of her comments in more detail.

Attitude to women

“It has been said on your behalf that you were a good father. I cannot give that description to a man who acted as you did”

Mrs Justice Thirlwall to Mick Philpott

You [Mick Philpott] controlled and manipulated those women as you had controlled and manipulated their predecessors. They ran the household and looked after all the children. They went out to work. Their wages and their benefits went into your account. You controlled how money was spent.

These two young women were not even permitted to have a front door key. I accept that the level of physical violence had reduced in recent years, but the level of control, aggression and fear most certainly did not.

Women were your chattels, there to look after you and your children (for that is how you describe them all). You bark orders and they obey. Witness after witness described the dynamics in your household. You were king-pin, no one else mattered.

The children

I am quite satisfied that for you the principal purpose of your many children is to reflect on you. Their needs desires and aspirations were very low on your list of priorities, if indeed they featured at all.

You craved attention, you enjoyed the limelight, you courted publicity. You were and remain the centre of your world and it is plain that you require everyone in your life, but particularly the women, to make sure that you remain at the centre of their world.

Five of the children died on the morning of the fire and the eldest died three days later

You so arranged your life and theirs so that everything was done for the pleasure of Michael Philpott.

It has been said on your behalf that you were a good father. I cannot give that description to a man who acted as you did.

Ever since the fire your life has been a performance for the public and the police, and then in this court. Your conduct has been punctuated by collapses and shows of distress designed to evoke sympathy where none is merited, designed to manipulate emotion.

I accept you have lost six children. I very much regret that everything about you suggests that your grief has very often been simulated for the public gaze.

Mairead Philpott

I accept that he treated you [Mairead Philpott] as a skivvy or a slave. As became clear during the trial you were prepared to go to any lengths, however humiliating, to keep him happy.

But as the evidence came out it was plain that this was not quite the position. This was put beyond doubt when you gave evidence.

The judge told the couple the children “paid with lives” for their “callous selfishness”

You pointed out that you had stood up to him in the past. That is why when he asked you for a divorce on no fewer than three occasions you refused him.

These were your children. Your first responsibility, surely, was to them.

The risks were obvious and overwhelming and anyone who has heard the harrowing wailing from you on the 999 call can hear your realisation that this had gone horribly wrong and your children were in mortal danger.

But by then it was too late and you bear your responsibility for that. You put Michael Philpott above your children and as a result they have died.

Attempted murder

“No-one could have listened to the evidence of the firefighters and not be moved by… their efforts to combat the fire and save the children”

Mrs Justice Thirlwall to the Philpotts

The first relationship with which I am concerned was a relationship with a girl in her teens. You [Mick Philpott] were in your 20s.

The relationship was characterised by violence; there were repeated beatings. You were sure that she was having affairs and would come back from your posting in the army to check on her, repeatedly.

Eventually she summoned the courage to bring your relationship to an end. You broke into her house, armed yourself with a knife and went to her bedroom where you stabbed her repeatedly in a ferocious attack which left her with life-threatening injuries from which she has never fully recovered.

You were convicted of attempted murder and wounding with intent.

It is clear… that you have repeatedly used that conviction as a means of controlling other women, terrifying them as to what you might do to them if they did not follow your will.

Early relationships

Mick and Mairead Philpott gave a press conference following the fire

You subjected your (first) wife to physical violence throughout your relationship. She never reported anything to the police – she was too afraid to do so.

She knew of your past. She believed she could not leave you. She simply hoped that the time would come when you would leave her.

And that time came when you took up with a very young Heather Kehoe. She was 16 when she ran away with you. You were in your 40s.

She spoke tellingly of life with you; sometimes you were charming, always domineering, always in control. You controlled her through physical and sexual violence, threats and emotional abuse.

She, like the two women before her, speaks of the life-long damage she has suffered as a result of her relationship with you.

The other partner

You were obsessed with Lisa Willis. Indeed it was plain to me when you were giving evidence over more than three days in the witness box that you still are.

She left you, taking her children with her. She did not dare tell you she was leaving. She told Mairead Philpott that she was taking her children swimming. She and the children left with the clothes they stood up in and their swimming things.

You soon realised what had happened and you set about trying to bring her back. The evidence shows that you tried sweet-talking her. You tried cajoling and then bullying her.

She would not come back. You could not stand the fact that she had crossed you. You were determined to make sure that she came back and you began to put together your plan.

The fire

Flowers were laid in tribute to the six children who died following the blaze

The jury was spared some of the most harrowing details of the removal of the children from 18 Victory Road. Mercifully their deaths were swift and, it would seem, without pain.

No-one could have listened to the evidence of the firefighters and not be moved by what they had done and what they had seen in their efforts to combat the fire and save the children.

Your neighbours were traumatised by what they saw; several of them tried to help. Their bravery was required as a result of your callous stupidity. It is clear that they have been shattered, as has the local community generally.

Paul Mosley

You [Paul Mosley] enjoyed the attention that you gained from your proximity to the fire. You boasted of being arrested and bailed for six counts of murder.

You, too, are responsible for the deaths of six children. As a result you have lost all contact with your own children.

Unsurprisingly your former partner wants nothing to do with you in the light of all that has become known about your conduct in the course of this trial.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22029198

Related story from BBC

Derby fire deaths: Philpotts and Mosley jailed

Mick and Mairead Philpott and Paul Mosley were convicted on Tuesday

A father convicted of killing six of his children in a fire at his Derby house has been jailed for life.

Mick Philpott, 56, was told at Nottingham Crown Court he would serve a minimum of 15 years in prison.

He was convicted of manslaughter along with his wife Mairead and friend Paul Mosley, who were told they would serve half their 17-year sentences.

Mrs Justice Thirlwall told Philpott he was “the driving force behind this shockingly dangerous enterprise”.

The trial heard he plotted to set his house alight to frame his former mistress Lisa Willis, with whom he was fighting a custody battle over their children.

If he gained custody, he hoped Miss Willis would return to live with him.

Clive Coleman BBC News legal correspondent

Mick Philpott has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years, but his sentence is far tougher than those given to his wife and friend.

Mairead Philpott and Paul Mosley will only serve half of their 17-year sentences.

Mick Philpott will not be released if the Parole Board consider he still represents a threat to the public. So, he could serve many more than 15 years.

If and when he is eventually released, he will be on “life licence”, which means he can be recalled to prison at any time during the rest of his life if he breaks the terms of his licence.

Mairead Philpott and Paul Mosley will only stay on licence for the remainder of their sentence.

The judge told Philpott in her sentencing remarks: “You could not stand the fact that she had crossed you.

“You were determined to make sure she came back and you began to put together your plan.”

The judge said the children were subjected to a terrifying ordeal.

She said: “Their terror was the price they were going to pay for your callous selfishness.

“In fact, they paid with their six young lives.”

She told Philpott that he had “no moral compass”, adding: “Your guiding principle is what Mick Philpott wants he gets.”

Philpott’s sister, Dawn Bestwick, shouted “Die, Mick, die” from the public gallery as he was taken down.

The judge told Mairead Philpott, 32, she had been treated “as a skivvy or a slave” by her husband.

She added: “As became clear during the trial you were prepared to go to any lengths, however humiliating, to keep him happy.

“You put Michael Philpott above your children and as a result they have died.”

‘Lied throughout’

The judge told Mosley, 46, he had “nothing to do” with Lisa Willis or her children, yet was “prepared to go along with the plan and to join in with it to please your then friend, Michael Philpott”.

Rachael Gilchrist Reporter, BBC Radio Derby

Mick Philpott never made eye contact with Mrs Justice Thirlwall as she sentenced him to life in jail.

He kept his head bowed throughout her words, looking towards the floor.

His wife Mairead was tearful, looking drained and blank at times. Paul Mosley leant back in his chair and listened.

There was silence as the sentences were passed to the three defendants, but as they stood up, flanked by the security guards, comments from their own relatives began to fly.

All three defendants were called “murdering scumbags”.

As he walked out of the dock for the last time, heading for a life sentence in Wakefield Category A prison, an unrepentant Mick Philpott turned to the public gallery and responded with an obscene hand gesture of his own.

The trial heard Philpott, his wife and his mistress had lived at the three-bedroom council house with 11 of their children until Miss Willis moved out in February 2012.

Jade Philpott, 10, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five, died on the morning of the fire on 11 May 2012.

Mairead Philpott’s son from a previous relationship, 13-year-old Duwayne, died later in hospital. The court heard Mick Philpott considered him his son.

Dawn Bestwick said outside court the sentences were a “victory” for the children who could now “rest in peace”.

Det Supt Kate Meynell, of Derbyshire Police, said the Philpotts and Mosley had “lied throughout the investigation and court case”.

“There were plenty of opportunities to admit their guilt but they never did and persisted with their denials.

“This has been an incredibly tragic case to investigate and today’s sentences bring this difficult inquiry to a close.”

Meanwhile, police have confirmed that they intend to “thoroughly” investigate an allegation Philpott raped a woman several years ago.

She made the allegation after the death of Philpott’s children, but police decided to wait until the end of the manslaughter trial before investigating the complaint further.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-22023117