Politics

Where is Mick Philpott now and why did he kill his children?

MICK PHILPOTT was given a life sentence after being convicted of killing six of his children in 2013.

His wife and a friend were both given 17 year sentences. So what happened, and where is he now?

Mairead and Mick Philpott wept at a press conference as they appealed for witnesses to come forward following the attack.

Who is Mick Philpott?

Mick Philpott gained public attention in the mid-noughties for fathering numerous children by five different women and generating a large income through benefits.

He was criticised in November 2006 when he demanded a bigger council house after getting both his wife and mistress pregnant at the same time.

Philpott appeared on the Jeremy Kyle show the following year.

On the show, he defended his behaviour and insisted he had undergone a vasectomy.

In the late 1970s, Philpott was given a seven-year sentence for attempted murder, and five-year concurrent sentence for grievous bodily harm with intent, but he was released after just over three years.

Then 21, he attacked his former girlfriend, who was then 17, with a knife as she lay in bed after ending their relationship.

Philpott then attacked her mother when she intervened.

He was jailed for life for killing his six children in in 2013.

Former MP Ann Widdecombe witnessed Philpott’s volatile temper first hand when she stayed with him at his home for a TV documentary about benefit claimants in 2008.

In one of several confrontations, Widdecombe called Philpott a “coward” when he said he would not speak to pensioners about his life on benefits.

Philpott leapt up from his seat and squared up to the former MP, who backed away.

How many children did he have

Mick Philpott reportedly had 17 children with five different mothers.

Six of them died in the 2013 arson attack.

In June 2017 one of his sons, Michael, revealed he believed his dad is innocent.

In a clip from The Philpotts: Five Years On, which aired on Channel 5 in June 2017, Michael said: “There’s no way on God’s Earth that my dad could have done that.

“I’m 100 per cent positive.”

How many wives has Mick Philpott had?

Philpott’s first marriage was to Pamela Lomax, with whom he had three children.

The marriage ended in 1995 when he started an affair with teenager Heather Kehoe.

He married Mairead in 2003, and shared the home with her an live-in mistress Lisa Willis.

They divorced in 2014.

Why did he kill his children?

In April 2013, Philpott got a life sentence after killing six of his children in an arson attack when a plot to frame his ex went wrong.

Philpott hatched a plan with wife Mairead and family friend Paul Mosley to incriminate Lisa Willis and pose as a hero who saved his children.

Mairead Philpott and Mosley were both received 17-year sentences.

They were convicted of six counts of manslaughter.

The six children of father-of-seventeen Mick Philpott

The six victims, all children – Duwayne, 13, his sister Jade, ten, and brothers, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six and Jayden, five – died as the blaze swept through their home in Allenton, Derby.

Lisa Willis was Philpott’s live-in mistress.

She had left the family home with her four children a few months earlier, and a custody hearing over the children was scheduled to take place on the morning of the fire.

But the plan to rescue the children went catastrophically wrong when the fire, which was started with petrol poured through the letter box, quickly got out of control, and Mick Philpott was beaten back by the flames.

Mairead Philpott was released in November 2020 from HMP Send in Surrey to a halfway house before being given a new name.

Campaigners criticised her release, as did Tory MP for Mid Derbyshire, Pauline Latham, who said she was seeking assurances that Philpott would not be returning to the area.

Mairead and Mick Philpott wept at a press conference as they appealed for witnesses to come forward following the attack.