Mick Philpott accused of treating wife ‘like slave’

Philpott, 56, his wife Mairead, 31, and Paul Mosley are on trial for the manslaughter of the couple’s six children in a house fire at their home in May last year. They all deny the charges.

Today Shaun Smith, representing Mairead Philpott, asked his client’s husband at Nottingham crown court: “You regarded her as your property, didn’t you? Your slave. That’s what she was, wasn’t she?”

Philpott shook his head as Mr Smith said: “She did everything in that house, didn’t she, even when you were having a relationship with another woman? You think you own her, don’t you?” Philpott replied: “No.”

Philpott had lived at the house in Derby with Mairead and their six children, along with Lisa Willis and her five children, for 10 years.

Miss Willis left the family home in February last year, taking her five children with her.

“She did everything in that house, didn’t she, even when you were having a relationship with another woman? You think you own her, don’t you?” Shaun Smith, lawyer

The court has heard that, on the day of the fire, Philpott was due to appear at a court hearing with Miss Willis over residency of the five children, four of whom he fathered.

Mr Smith said: “She (Lisa Smith) escaped you, didn’t she?” “No,” Philpott replied.

The lawyer listed the ages of Philpott’s former partners and the age he was when he met them, and asked him if he had been attracted to Mairead’s youth.

“No, just attracted to each other,” he said.

‘Rock bottom’

Mr Smith continued: “The fact she was at rock bottom, the fact she was isolated from her family?” Philpott shook his head.

He rejected suggestions Mairead was “hurt” that he had brought another woman into their relationship, saying he had asked her permission to set up the arrangement.

He added: “Can you help who you fall in love with? I didn’t actually want two women in my life. It just happened and I regret it. It might sound strange to you, but I asked Mairead’s permission and I got it. We was one happy family.”

Philpott said the arrangement was that he slept with the two women on alternate nights.