Evidence: Philpott pictured in 2011 in the
trousers which would eventually help to convict him when traces of the
petrol used to start the fire were found on them
The depths of Mick Philpott’s
depravity were revealed yesterday in a letter he wrote from prison,
boasting that if he won freedom he and his wife would celebrate by
‘raping each other’.
The
note to friends detailed how he planned to get blind drunk and commit
the assault straight after visiting the graves of the children he and
wife Mairead had killed.
The
correspondence emerged as his lawyers pleaded with a judge for a
lenient sentence because the father of 17 was a ‘very good’ parent.
The court heard that he was on bail for a violent road-rage attack at the time of the house fire in which the children died.
His wife’s barrister said losing her children was a ‘sentence in itself’.
Philpott, 56, and Mairead, 32, were
convicted on Tuesday of killing their six children. Their friend Paul
Mosley, 46, was also found guilty of six counts of manslaughter. They
will be sentenced this morning.
Over the past eight weeks, Nottingham
Crown Court has heard how they set fire to their house last May as part
of a plan to frame Philpott’s former live-in lover Lisa Willis.
She had walked out of the shared
three-bedroom semi in Allenton, Derby, with her five children and the
thousands of pounds in benefits they were worth to Philpott.
The fire was also set in an attempt to
get a bigger council house, a demand Philpott had infamously made six
years earlier on the Jeremy Kyle Show.
The plan went tragically wrong,
however, with the petrol-fuelled blaze burning out of control.
Jade Philpott, ten, and brothers Duwayne, 13, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six and Jayden, five, all died.
Later, however, Philpott was totally remorseless.
In a letter written from prison where
he was on remand, he boasted: ‘God, when we are free, which we will be,
we’re all going to get p*****.
‘But me and my darling beloved wife,
the most important thing that we will do when this happens is to spend
the whole day with our babies, at the graveside.
Depraved: This Morning presenter Phillip
Schofield holds a letter which Mick Philpott sent to friends while he
was in custody awaiting trial for killing six of his children in a house
fire
Sickening: This passage in the letter tells how
Philpott and his wife planned to celebrate their freedom by 'raping each
other' after visiting their children's graves
‘We don’t care if it’s raining, gale force winds, snowing. I’m going straight up there.
‘Then we shall probably – no, we will – rape each other. Then we can all celebrate our freedom.’
Superimposed on the words were eight pink hearts, one each for him and his wife and six for the children they killed.
The letter was sent to Mick and Sharon Russell, close friends for 20 years. The couple said they were disgusted.
‘That’s his attitude, he’s highly sex driven,’ Mr Russell said. ‘I wouldn’t leave Sharon with him on his own.’
Philpott showed little genuine emotion
following the fire. He ‘loved’ being a local celebrity and was seen
‘touching up’ his wife in the hospital where her son Duwayne was dying
after the fire, the former friend added.
Appalled: Mick Philpott's long-term friends Mick
and Sharon Russell appear on This Morning with former MP Ann Widdecombe
to discuss their relationship with the house-blaze killer
More interested in celebrating than grieving: Mr
Schofield reads a passage from the letter, which also told how Philpott
intended to get very drunk as soon as he left prison
Twisted couple: Mick Philpott with his wife
Mairead, who friends say did not appear remorseful after the deaths of
six of their children
Facing jail: Mick and Mairead Philpott in court for the mitigation hearing ahead of their sentencing tomorrow
Mrs Russell said Mairead had planned a
new outfit for her children’s funeral, which she and her husband were
later banned from attending.
‘I was quite shocked at it and said,
“You can’t wear that.” She said, “Will it be all right for the after
party?” It was disgusting the way they were behaving.’
Another friend, who asked not to be
named, said Mairead got drunk on alcopops at a neighbour’s barbecue in
the days after the fire, and showed off an £80 pair of pink trainers she
had bought with money donated by sympathetic members of the public.
In court yesterday, lawyers for the killers pleaded with Mrs Justice Thirlwall to consider mitigating circumstances.
Philpott’s lengthy criminal history
was read out. He appeared in court a week before the blaze last year for
a road-rage attack during which he punched driver Jon Welham, 42, who
had his daughter Emma, 13, with him in the car.
Angry scenes outside Nottingham crown court as Mick Philpott & Paul Mosley leave via prison van today
Sentencing has been adjourned till Thursday the 5th April
The assault happened after Philpott
swerved in front of him, forcing him to stop, because he believed Mr
Welham had cut him up at a roundabout.
Philpott pleaded guilty to common
assault but denied dangerous driving and was bailed awaiting trial. In
1991, he received a two-year conditional discharge for headbutting a
colleague and in 2010 was given a police caution after slapping Mairead
and dragging her outside by her hair.
Anthony Orchard QC said Philpott’s
conviction for stabbing his former girlfriend Kim Hill 27 times in 1978,
revealed by the Mail yesterday, was a ‘long time ago’ and said there
was no evidence of anything like it being repeated.
But he was immediately cut off by the judge, who retorted: ‘There’s been violence in every single relationship, has there not?’
The lawyer added: ‘Despite Mr
Philpott’s faults he was a very good father and loved those children. He
is, as is Mairead, a parent who lost six children. He’s never been able
to grieve or even to bury them.
‘He will have to live with the hatred and hostility of the press and the public for the rest of his life.’
Shaun Smith QC, for Mairead Philpott, said she was ‘an extremely good mother to all 11 children’.
‘She will be forever known as a child
killer,’ he added, noting that she might face threats in prison because
of the nature of her crimes.
The barrister for Paul Mosley said he continued to deny any involvement in the fire.
dailymail.co.uk
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