Evidence against fatal fire accused ‘flimsy’

Paul Mosley has denied six counts of manslaughter along with the children’s parents Mick, 56, and Mairead Philpott, 32, after a fire at the couple’s home in Derby last May.

In his closing speech at Nottingham Crown Court today, Ben Nolan QC, defending Mosley, said the case against his client was “flimsy”.

It comes after 46-year-old Mosley chose not to give evidence in his defence last week.

Today, Mr Nolan said his client told police in the hours after the fire that he had been at the house that night but had left at about 1.30am.

Mr Nolan said: “That is not evidence but it is a clear position statement where he says he was not at the house and had nothing to do with the fire.”

Days later, Mosley volunteered to give DNA and fingerprints to the police “to assist their investigation”.

“He was a fully co-operative citizen in the aftermath of a tragedy,” Mr Nolan said.

Affair

Father-of-two Mosley was arrested last June and released on police bail, but rearrested and charged in connection with the children’s deaths in November.

The court heard he told police he knew nothing about the fire and was not there when it was set.

Mosley told officers he went to the Philpotts’ house on May 11 to play snooker with Mick Philpott.

“I knew nothing, absolutely nothing. All I did was go there to play snooker,” Mosley told police in an interview.

Mr Nolan said Mosley told police off the record that he had had sex with Mairead on the night of the fire and in a hotel room following the blaze because he did not want his wife Helen to find out about the encounters.

His marriage had since broken down, he told the jury.

Planned

“This part of the case attracted moral condemnation. Adultery is not a crime,” Mr Nolan told the jury.

“This is a court of law, not a court of morals. You are an English jury. not a Sharia court from Saudi Arabia.”

During the trial, the jury has heard evidence from witness Melissa John, who said Mosley told her “what if I told you we planned this six weeks before” after he was released on bail in June.

Another witness, Andy Faulkner, also said in his evidence that Mosley had told him at a bingo hall that he was “going to hand himself in”.

Mr Nolan asked the jury not to rely on “mere fragments of conversation” and said there was no CCTV and that it was a noisy open area.

He continued: “This may well be something that has been misheard or misunderstood.

“This is second-hand information and it shows how weak the prosecution case is that they are relying on overheard conversations.”

Mr Nolan added that his client’s “peculiar personality” would not make him a good witness.

He told the court: “I asked Melissa John, in cross-examination, about Paul Mosley. I put it to her that he was a fantasist who enjoyed the limelight in Derby and she said ‘yes’.”

Petrol

He said scientific evidence relating to Total petrol found on Mosley’s clothing was unreliable.

“It’s not Total petrol at the seat of the fire, it’s Shell,” Mr Nolan told jurors.

Last week Mosley chose not to give evidence in his defence.

The judge, Kate Thirlwall, asked Mr Nolan whether Mosley had been advised that the jury may draw such inferences as appeared proper from his failure to give evidence.

Mr Nolan told the court: “We have so advised him and he has elected to exercise his right to silence.”

Jade Philpott, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five, all died in the fire that engulfed their home as they slept in their beds on May 11 last year.

Duwayne, 13, died two days later in Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Prosecutors have alleged Mick Philpott plotted the fire with his wife Mairead and Mosley as part of a plan to frame his former mistress Lisa Willis.

Concluding his closing speech today, Mr Nolan said: “To be guilty of manslaughter you must have participated in the fire or encourage it on the night of the fire, and if he wasn’t there, that really is the end of it.”

The trial continues.