Philpott fire: Updates from day 17 of the manslaughter trial

Today the trial of Derby parents Mick and Mairead Philpott and family friend Paul Mosley enters its 17th day.

The trio is accused of killing the Philpotts' six children in a house fire in Victory Road, Derby, last May.

They all plead not guilty to six counts of manslaughter.

Day 17 of the trial:

4pm The trial has now been adjourned until Thursday morning.

3.50pm The next witness will be DS Joanne James, who interview Mairead.

Her first interview took place at St Mary's Wharf police station on May 29 last year at 3.06pm.

DS James's first question to Mairead was: "What involvement did you have in the fire?"

Mairead replied: "Nothing." She told police she would have "run through flames" to get to her children.

3.15pm The trial is adjourned for a short break, with Mairead's interview evidence to be heard next.

3.10pm The jury is told how DC Barnes said to Philpott: "On May 12, the police informed you that an acclerant was used to start the fire and, for the next few days, you went around telling people that it was petrol. We didn't tell you it was petrol."

Philpott said: "Everyone in our neighbourhood was saying it was petrol. I just assumed. I could not have tried any harder to get to my kids, ask anyone."

DC Barnes said: "Why did you not try to extinguish the fire?"

Philpott said: "I was trying to get to my kids."

2.55pm The court hears how, in his police interview, Philpott said he was confident he would win his custody battle and get the children he had with Ms Willis back.

He said: "The court case was always at the back of my mind but I was confident I would win the kids back. I was, my wife was, everyone was."

He added: "You have to understand that I would chop my arms off to have those kids back with me. But me and my wife have nothing to do with that fire."

2.40pm The jury is told how, in a fifth interview with Philpott, DC Barnes asked him: "Were you responsible for the fire at 18 Victory Road?"

Philpott said: "Watch these eyes, categorically no and neither was my wife."

2.35pm The court hears how Philpott told police he lent his strimmer and a can of petrol before the fire to Adam Taylor.

In his interview, he said: "On the night of the fire, everyone in the street was out but not Adam and Vicky. I found that a bit strange."

2.25pm The jury hears, in his interview, how Philpott said he was threatened by Mr Cousins at the scene. He said Mairead received threats via text message from Mrs Cousins afterwards.

Philpott said he put something on Facebook about Mr Cousins possibly having cancer. He said: "When I did that, Lisa phoned me and said: 'If you don't leave me and my family alone, I am going to kill you.'"

2.20pm Talking in interview about the time he went to Litton Drive, Spondon, where Amanda Cousins lives, Philpott said: "My son Kirk saw me and came running up, he jumped into my arms.

"I have never known a child squeeze me so hard. He said: 'I want to come home, Dad, I want to come home'"

2.15pm The court hears how Philpott told police he registered on social networking website Facebook after Ms Willis left him.

He said in interview: "I looked up Lisa and thought: '******* hell, what's all this lot?' Turns out she had been on Facebook for two years."

2.10pm The jury hears how Philpott said in his police interview: "How do you treat a queen? (referring to Ms Willis)

"Everything she wanted, she got. Everywhere she wanted to go, I would take her. I loved Mairead but the relationship with Lisa was just stronger. You can't help who you fall in love with."

2pm The trial resumes after a lunch break, with DC Barnes continuing to give evidence and the jury hearing about his fourth interview with Philpott.

11.40am The first witness is DC Steve Barnes. He arrested both Philpotts on the morning of May 29.

DC Barnes told the court that on arrest Mick Philpott said: "I understand (the caution) but I don't believe it."

Philpott was interviewed at Ripley police station at 12.50pm that day.

Philpott is sobbing in the dock as his police interview about events on the night of the fire is read out.

In his interview he said: "I tried more than once to get in."

He said, in interview, that the front door was always locked as was the front window when the family went to bed.

"I lock the door and put the keys in the kitchen because the littlest one might try to get out."

In his interview Philpott said: "I was upset about Lisa leaving and Jade knew this and recognised this. She, too, was distraught because she went from having three sisters to being on her own.

"We called her Mother Hen, she would come over to me and wife and stroke our hair."

In his interview on May 29 Philpott admits he forgot to tell the police about going out buying cannabis with Adam Taylor and Mairead.

Asked about Lisa Willis, Philpott said: "I treated her like a queen. For the past four years I have given her all my attention and not to my wife. I love Mairead, I always have done."

Philpott reiterates his belief that Ian Cousins was the father of Ms Willis' eldest child, Jordan.

Talking about why Ms Willis left, Philpott said: "I still have no idea why she left, to this day.

"At first I blamed Mairead for a bit then I realised it was down to Lisa. She said she did not want Mairead to be mother to her kids.

"Mairead brought all the kids up, not Lisa. I wanted my kids back, my kids are everything to me, my kids are my life, you don't understand that," Philpott said in his statement.

Asked about the relationship between Ms Willis and the children he had with Mairead, Philpott said: "It was nothing but love. Lisa only spent about an hour and a half with the kids. I wish I had not met Lisa 10 years ago because Mairead is such a good woman.

"People have told me that when I was out she struck the kids and threw them across the room. When I confronted her she said she would not do it again. I don't let no-one touch my kids."

Yesterday the jury at Nottingham Crown Court heard that traces of the type of petrol found at the seat of the fire at 18 Victory Road were also discovered on the trainer and boxer shorts of Mick Philpott.

Expert witness Rebecca Jewell said fire debris from inside the hallway of the Allenton house was tested for additives and revealed the petrol would have come from a Shell petrol station.

Ms Jewell, a forensic scientist who specialises in fire and explosions, said traces of Shell petrol additives were found on Philpott's boxer shorts and right trainer.

She said low-level traces of other petrol brands were found on other items of Philpott's clothing, and on the clothes of his two co-defendants, his wife, Mairead, and friend Paul Mosley.

Ms Jewell said: "Petrol additives do not burn in fires and are left behind."

She said this meant could be analysed "unequivocally".

*THE PHILPOTT TRIAL: Visit our Philpott trial channel here for all related stories in the fire death case.