Philpott trial: ‘Possible’ that husband started blaze

A MOTHER accused of killing her six children in a house fire in Derby has told a court it was “possible” that her husband got out of bed to start the blaze.

Mairead Philpott told jurors she did not know who had set the fire at her home because she was asleep at the time it started.

During the second day of her evidence at Nottingham Crown Court, Mrs Philpott also denied “working together as a team” with her husband Mick to cover up their alleged involvement in the fire.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mrs Philpott, 31, Mick Philpott, 56, and their friend Paul Mosley, 46, all deny the manslaughter of the six children who died in the fire in Victory Road, Derby.

Asked by prosecutor Richard Latham QC whether she was suggesting that her husband had got out of bed shortly before the fire in the early hours of May 11 last year, Mrs Philpott replied: “It’s possible, I don’t know because I was asleep.”

Mr Latham then asked Mrs Philpott: “Are you saying that there is a possibility that your husband set this fire behind your back literally?”

Mrs Philpott replied: “I honestly don’t know.

“I can’t rule out anybody - I just don’t know who set the fire.”

During her second day of testimony, Mrs Philpott insisted that covert recordings made of conversations after the fire in which she discussed “sticking with the story” were references to her having sex with Mosley.

Mr Latham put it to Mrs Philpott that she and her husband had been talking about the allegation that they were responsible for the fire.

But she told the jury that the phrase “sticking with the story” was a reference to not telling anyone about the sexual activity with Mosley.

“It was about the sex,” she told the court. “I didn’t want to be disgraced in the papers. My children had just died - I was more bothered about my children.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

During Mr Latham’s cross-examination, Mrs Philpott accepted that she had been a “fully-functioning participant” in the conversations covertly recorded by the police following the fire.

But she denied that they showed “deviousness” on the part of her and her husband.

Responding to Mr Latham’s claim that she was not “hysterical” during a 999 call on the morning of the fire, Mrs Philpott added: “I was panicking, I just wanted to get to my children - I didn’t know what was happening.”

Related topics: