Osborne Links Philpott Case To Benefit Reform

Extracts From Judge's Comments

Updated: 1:01pm UK, Thursday 04 April 2013

I have not the slightest doubt that you, Michael Philpott were the driving force behind this shockingly dangerous enterprise. You Mairead Philpott, the mother of all of those children and you Paul Mosley, a family friend assisted him.

Judge Mrs Justice Kate Thirlwall's comments to Mick Philpott:

I recognise as I must that the offences of which you have been convicted are offences of manslaughter and not murder. That means that I sentence on the basis that you did not intend either to kill your children or to cause them really serious harm.

But let me be clear; what you did intend, plainly, was to subject your children to a terrifying ordeal. They were to be woken from their beds in the middle of the night with their home on fire so you could rescue them and be the hero.

Their terror was the price they were going to pay for your callous selfishness.  In fact they paid with their six young lives.

They had no chance of survival and I am quite sure that when you set that fire you were not thinking about them because you simply did not care. You were going to get your own way.

It has been said on your behalf that you were a good father. Lisa Willis said so as did others. They said you loved your children.  I cannot give that description to a man who acted as you did.

You lied to the police and you lied to the jury. Ever since the fire your life has been a performance for the public and the police, and then in this court. Your conduct has been punctuated by collapses and shows of distress designed to evoke sympathy where none is merited, designed to manipulate emotion.

I accept you have lost six children. I very much regret that everything about you suggests that your grief has very often been simulated for the public gaze.

You made sure that Mairead "stuck to the story". Checking with her at every opportunity that she wasn't going to stray, as you put it. You knew that Mairead Philpott would do almost anything for your approval, to please you, to get your attention, as she put it.  Without you she would never have become involved in this plan.

Because she failed to put her children before you she has lost all of them. Nothing I have seen in your conduct before and during this trial gives me any reason to believe that you had the slightest concern for Mairead Philpott. She too was expendable.

The maximum sentence for manslaughter is life imprisonment.  You are a disturbingly dangerous man. Your guiding principle is what Mick Philpott wants he gets. You have no moral compass.

I have no hesitation in concluding that these six offences are so serious and the danger you pose is so great that the only proper sentence is one of life imprisonment and that is the sentence I impose upon you.

Judge's comments to Mairead Philpott:

I am not going to repeat the history. Nor do I need to reiterate how serious these offences are.

As a result of what you did in the early hours of 11th May 2012 all your children lost their lives and you have lost all of your children. I accept that you feel their loss profoundly and that your grief is real. It is clear from what has been said about you by Mr Smith that your children were your route to fulfilment. You loved them and cared for them.

I have already made clear that this was Michael Philpott's plan. I accept that he treated you as a skivvy or a slave, and you were prepared to put up with that.

As became clear during the trial you were prepared to go to any lengths, however humiliating, to keep him happy.

These were your children; your first responsibility, surely, was to them. Instead you joined in with his plan. Putting his obsession with Lisa above the safety of your children.

The reality of the plan you went along with and helped execute was that your children were to be frightened out of sleep in the middle of the night and rescued by their father from a fire that should never have been started.

The risks were obvious and overwhelming and anyone who has heard the harrowing wailing from you on the 999 call can hear your realisation that this had gone horribly wrong and your children were in mortal danger. 

But by then it was too late and you bear your responsibility for that. You put Michael Philpott above your children and as a result they have died.

After the fire you threw your lot in with Michael Philpott. You supported him in his quest to get residence of the other children. You complied with his sexual demands to keep Paul Mosley onside.

You lied to the police and you stuck to the story, just as he asked you to, to the police and to the jury. You did not, I recognise, agree to lie about the relationship between Adam Taylor and Lisa Willis when Michael Philpott set about blaming him.

Before these offences you had committed no criminal offences.  You now have convictions for six counts of the manslaughter of your children.

I am quite satisfied that a determinate sentence is appropriate in your case but it must reflect the magnitude of these offences.  The sentence I pass is one of 17 years imprisonment. Of that you will serve one half at which point you will be released on licence.

Judge's comments to Paul Mosley:

Everything that I have said about the seriousness of these offences applies to you.

Michael Philpott's obsession with Lisa Willis was nothing to do with you. Where his children lived had nothing to do with you. You have young children of your own. You must have appreciated the appalling risk to which these six children were to be exposed when this fire was started in their home.

And yet you were prepared to go along with the plan and to join in with it to please your then friend, Michael Philpott.

I am quite sure that one of your tasks that night was to remove the petrol containers from the scene so that the attack would appear to have come from outside. You enjoyed the attention that you gained from your proximity to the fire.

You boasted of being arrested and bailed for six counts of murder.  You could not help telling people that this was a plan that had gone wrong.

You were going to hand yourself in as "it wasn't fair that Mick was taking all the blame", "what would you say if I told you we rehearsed it all six weeks earlier", and so on.

When your clothes were analysed it became clear that petrol additive was on your jeans, your jumper and on one of your shoes just as it was on the clothing of your two co-defendants.    

You too are responsible for the deaths of six children.

I see no proper basis upon which to distinguish between you and Mairead Philpott. Accordingly the sentence I pass is one of 17 years imprisonment. You will serve half of that period. Thereafter you will be released on licence.

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