Mick Philpott, right, and wife Mairead are tearful following a fire at their Derby home which claimed the lives of six of his children, for which a jury foundthe couple guilty of the killing. Source: AP
WITHIN hours of the fatal fire that killed their six children, the behaviour of Mick and Mairead Philpott was already arousing the suspicions of the police.
The couple - who were overnight convicted of manslaughter for deliberately setting the deadly blaze - were keen to "get rich quick" off the back of the children's deaths, receiving at least $A4472 directly in cash gifts which they used to buy new sportswear and to get drunk at parties.
The pattern of inappropriate behaviour in the aftermath of the blaze also saw Philpott:
- Fake a collapse and joke around in a hospital mortuary
- Sing the Elvis Presley songs Suspicious Minds and My Boy on a pub karaoke machine and proposition a female police officer during a "jovial" visit to a hospital when he called his children 'little sh***'
- Appear at a barbecue where his drunken wife showed off a new pair of £80 pink trainers.
- Become 'fixated' with creaming off the remainder of a fund to cover the children's funeral costs and convert it into Argos vouchers.
- Tell fundraisers to collect up and sell teddy bears which had been left outside the burned family home, ordering one wellwisher: "Shut up and just get on with it."
- Play the entire of the second half of a charity football match staged to raise funds for the family
Prosecutors wanted to tell jurors about Philpott's private thirst to "spend" the cash or "get rich quick" from it, arguing he had been presenting a "very different public face". But the evidence was ruled inadmissible.
Detectives started to take a firm interest as soon as they began receiving witness statements which cast doubt on Philpott's claim to have made repeated attempts to reach his children.
The coffins bearing the bodies of six children who died in a house fire are carried into St Mary's Church in Derby, central England, for a funeral service on June 22, 2012. Mick and Mairead Philpott have been charged with the murders of their children Duwayne 13, Jade, 10, John, 9, Jack 8, Jesse, 6, and Jayden, 5, in the blaze on May 11, 2012. AFP PHOTO/PAUL ELLIS Source: AFP
While some heroic and soot-covered neighbours needed medical attention following their attempts to reach the six trapped children, Philpott appeared "spotlessly clean".
He was spotted wandering off from his 32-year-old wife and other relatives at the Royal Derby Hospital for a 30-minute discussion with his friend Paul Mosley.
He even had to be persuaded by police to travel with his dying stepson Duwayne, 13, when it was decided to transfer the teenager to Birmingham Children's Hospital. He died there three days later.
Fire damage at the Philpott house where six children died ina blaze in May 2012. Mick Philpott and his wife Mairead were convicted at Nottingham Crown Court in central England of the manslaughter. Source: AFP
Duwayne's godmother Jeannie Donnan said that in the hospital canteen "they would all sit quiet and then all of a sudden they'd all start a food fight and I was like, how can you have a food fight? You have just lost six kids … I was just sitting there thinking "no, this is not right".'
By the time of a press conference five days after the blaze, he and his wife were already under deep suspicion.
Philpott called the conference himself, ostensibly to thank the emergency services for their efforts to save his children. He appeared to be revelling in the "celebrity" of being the father of six dead youngsters.
Steve Cotterill, Derbyshire Assistant Chief Constable, compared Philpott's demeanour to that of an "excited child". Far from seeming nervous, Philpott chatted about his love of karaoke and singing Elvis songs.
He dabbed imaginary tears from his eyes during the brief conference, then performed a fake collapse in a corridor seconds after being ushered off stage. His wife said nothing throughout the event.
Just 24 hours earlier, the couple made their first of three "circus-like" visits to the mortuary, in which Philpott called his six dead children "little sh***", indulged in one-sided 'horseplay' with a police officer and asked for gin when he was offered water.
Mick Philpott, 56, and his 32-year-old wife Mairead were convicted at Nottingham Crown Court in central England of the manslaughter of the six children in the house fire in nearby Derby, on May 11 last year.
Prosecutors said the couple had set fire to their home in a bid to frame Philpott's 29-year-old ex-girlfriend and claim custody of the children they had together.
Philpott was supposed to have rescued the children through a bedroom window, but the fire was far greater than he expected.
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