A horrifying criminal case in the UK

[Libby]

Just as a heads-up – this case was about the deaths of young children, so I'll put in some space for anyone who wouldn't want to read any further.

This case involved a man called Philpott; his friend, Mosely; and Philpott's wife, Mairead. Shortly before the crime took place, also living in the house was Philpott's mistress, Lisa. At that time, there were eleven children living in the three-bedroomed house: five were Philpott's and Mairead's; one was Mairead's from a former relationship; four were Philpott's and Lisa's; and one was Lisa's by another man. At night, Philpott and either Mairead or Lisa would be in a caravan parked on the driveway.

A couple of months or so before the crime took place, Lisa left the house with her five children, firstly to live with a relative and then to go into a refuge. There was a custody battle between Philpott and Lisa over their four children. In May 2012, at 4 a.m., on the night before the custody court hearing, while Philpott and Mairead were allegedly in the caravan, the house caught fire. The Fire Service arrived quickly, but they couldn't save the six children in the house – five were already dead, and the sixth died a few days later. Forensic investigation showed that the fire had been started by petrol being poured through the front door letterbox.

The police were obviously suspicious early on the investigation, and had bugged the hotel room that Philpott and Mairead had been moved to. Some of those recordings were played in court, including one where Philpott was heard "encouraging" Mairead to perform a sex act on Mosely, in Philpott's presence. Forensic investigation showed that the same kind of accelerant used to start the fire was also present on the clothing Philpott had been wearing on the night of the fire.

The prosecution case was that Philpott knew he wouldn't regain custody of his four children with Lisa, so hatched a plot to start the fire and blame Lisa for that, then rescue the children himself and be seen as a hero. It was alleged that he reckoned that if Lisa was convicted of arson, the children would be returned to him. This wasn't about him wanting to be a full-time carer of his children, it was about the state benefits he'd previously had and which had been reduced when Lisa and her children left. All the state benefits were paid to him, plus whatever earnings Mairead and Lisa got from their menial jobs. Also, Philpott wanted a larger house, and if he got Lisa's children back, and the house was damaged by fire, he would be allocated a bigger house.

The tragedy happened partly because they used too much petrol, and partly because (for some unexplained reason) all the bedroom doors had been removed. Once the fire took hold, which it did very quickly, there was no barrier between the toxic smoke and the children. It's a very small mercy that almost certainly none of the children, who were aged from 5 to 13 years old, became aware of what was happening.

The three were originally charged with murder, but those charges were subsequently reduced to manslaughter, on the grounds that there was no intent to kill. You would think that after the deaths of five of their children, and while in the hospital where the sixth child was in intensive care, Philpott and Mairead would be in the depths of grief. Yet they spent most of that time in the relatives' room. Philpott exhibited other bizarre behaviour, including suggesting that all the teddy bears that had been left outside the house by members of the public, should be sold on eBay, and the money raised should be given to him.

What was made public after the guilty verdicts was that Philpott had a record of violent acts, almost all of which were related to women ending their relationship with him. At the age of 21, Philpott was convicted of the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend after she had finished with him. He stabbed her 13 times.

As for their sentences: the judge had a very difficult task ahead of her. A life sentence for murder is mandatory; for manslaughter it's discretionary, and the judge needed to be very clear about her reasons for imposing the sentences she did.

Philpott was given a life sentence, with a minimum tariff of 15 years. Mairead and Mosely were sentenced to 17 years, of which they will serve half in prison and the rest on licence. In case anyone from outside the UK is a bit confused about those sentences – plenty of people within the UK are also confused. I can (try to) provide an explanation if anyone is interested.

It's most likely that Philpott is either a narcissist with psychopathic tendencies, or just simply a psychopath. Both of those are regarded as personality disorders, rather than mental illnesses. Personality disorders are so entrenched in the psyche that there is nothing much than can be done to treat them and, anyway, narcissists and psychopaths don't think there's anything wrong with them.

Philpott knew exactly what he was doing that night, except for being ignorant about the amount of fuel to use. And he also knew how to use his prior conviction for the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend as a threat to other women if they didn't obey him. After the sentences had been pronounced, and as the prisoners were being led away, there were shouts from people in the public gallery that they hoped Philpott would die in prison. Philpott's reaction was to turn and look at them, and raise two fingers. So, not much sign of grief over the loss of his young children.

And I can't get over the fact that even if Philpott's plan had worked, and there'd been only a little fire, and he'd been able to rescue all six of them, those children would have been traumatised by waking up in a house on fire, and probably would have had nightmares for the rest of their lives.

I have tried to make this post shorter, but to no avail. I guess that it's too shocking and too complex to be explained in just a couple of paragraphs.

[Earthnut]

Sometimes it can be so hard to find the right words to know what to say. This is so tragic and heart-wrenching.

[seesthru]

Yep. Twisted monster. Lisa was the smart one in the end, and got her kids out. Too bad his wife didn't do the same. Poor children.

[Earthnut]

You know, with modern electronics and the Internet, they say news travels faster and farther. The thing is, throughout my life, I never heard of things like this happening, and all the other things people are doing. There was local and national news available all my life and there just wasn't all the evil out there you see now. Like parents killing their kids and then themselves, or just killing their kids like the woman who drowned hers in the car. And all the shootings and violence in public places, or this man who just recently is in the news who tied his puppy to a railroad track, and before that a man was arrested by a citizen while beating his dog at a bus stop.

There is so much controversy over drugs in the air and/or water, and let's not forget all the garbage that's in our food. I for one am an advocate for stopping all of this, especially chemtrails. You just can't breathe in chemicals without it having a reaction in your system. Same with all the chemicals in our water and food.

And then let's not forget to consider all the new recreational drugs out there that is literally driving people crazy and killing them.

Sad to say that all this horrible news is heard now on a daily basis.