Mairead Philpott: Mick was my guardian angel

Mairead Philpott told Nottingham Crown Court she was a 19-year-old single mother and at “rock bottom” when she met her husband Mick.

The 31-year-old is on trial for the manslaughter of her six children along with her 56-year-old husband and a third defendant, Paul Mosley.

The three are accused of plotting a fire at the couple’s home in Derby last May to frame Philpott’s former mistress, Lisa Willis. The three deny the charges.

In the witness box today, Mairead Philpott denied planning or setting the fire at their three-bedroom home on May 11 last year and told the jury she did not see her husband or Mosley start the blaze.

She told the court she agreed to her husband’s relationship with Miss Willis, who lived with the couple until February before the fire, because she was scared of losing what she had.

Denied fire-starting

Shaun Smith QC, representing Mrs Philpott, asked her: “In the early hours of May 11 last year, did you light a fire in the hallway of 18 Victory Road?”

“No,” Mairead Philpott replied.

“Did you help anybody else set a fire at 18 Victory Road?” asked Mr Smith.

“No.”

Mr Smith said: “Did you see either Mick Philpott or Paul Mosley start any fire in the hallway at 18 Victory Road?”

“No.”

“Were you part of any plan to start any fire in the hallway of 18 Victory Road?” Mr Smith asked.

Denied framing woman

“No, I wasn’t,” Mairead Philpott replied.

“Did you agree to someone else to start the fire?”

“No.”

Mairead Philpott also denied starting the fire to frame Miss Willis.

“Would you have any interest in framing Lisa Willis?” Mr Smith asked.

“No,” she replied.

‘Wouldn’t put my children at risk’

Mr Smith asked her whether she would ever put her children at risk.

“No, never,” she replied.

“Even for Mick? Mr Smith continued.

“No,” she said.

The court has heard that Miss Willis and her five children lived with the couple and their six children for 10 years before leaving the house in February last year.

Prosecutors allege that the couple started the fire, along with Mosley, to frame Miss Willis, whom Mick Philipott was due to meet in court on the day of the blaze to discuss custody of her five children, four of whom he had fathered.

Dreamt of being a ballerina

Mairead Philpott told the court she had dreamed of being a ballerina as a child and grew up wanting to work in childcare.

But the jury heard that she was forced to leave school before taking her GCSEs because she was being bullied. She returned to take her exams but never collected her results.

She told the court her father abused her when she was three or four and that she was raped when she was a teenager while on holiday.

The father of her first child left her when she told him she was pregnant with Duwayne aged 16.

When asked how she felt about the birth of her first child, she Philpott told the court: “I was over the moon. I just wanted to love him and protect him.”

At ‘rock bottom’

She told the court her next relationship was an abusive one, with her boyfriend giving her black eyes and shaving off her hair so she could not go out.

Mairead Philpott told the court she was at “rock bottom” when she met Mick.

“How did you see Michael at the beginning?” Mr Smith asked her.

“He was my guardian angel,” she told the jury.

She said Mick “cared for me and loved me and made me feel safe”.

Proposed after birth of their first child

The court heard Mick Philpott proposed to her at hospital after the birth of their first child Jade.

Mairead Philpott described her six children to the jury this morning.

She said Duwayne was the “quiet and caring one”, while Jade was her “princess”.

John was a “cheeky comedian” while Jesse was her “little Irish stamper” because he would stamp around a lot, Mrs Philpott told the court.

Finally she told the court Jack was her blue-eyed boy and Jayden a “miracle baby” after being born six weeks early.

Jade Philpott, 10, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five, perished in the fire. Duwayne, 13, died in hospital days later.