Philpott fire trial: Accused trio discussed night of tragedy in bugged hotel room

POLICE who bugged the hotel room where Mick and Mairead Philpott stayed after a blaze killed their six children recorded them talking about what officers were told.

The recordings also picked up Mairead having sex with the third defendant, Paul Mosley, while Philpott was in the room.

The secret surveillance audio was played at Nottingham Crown Court on day 13 of the manslaughter trial.

Richard Latham QC, prosecuting, also read out transcripts taken from the recordings, the contents of which had been agreed between the prosecution and defence barristers.

Mr Latham read out a transcript of a conversation between the Philpotts and Mosley in their hotel room at The Premier inn, on Uttoxeter New Road, opposite the Royal Derby Hospital shortly before midnight on May 19, eight days after the fire.

In it, the three defendants discuss their night together at 18 Victory Road just hours before the blaze.

Mosley is heard to say how Philpott, 56, had beat him 8-0 at snooker.

In the transcript, he said: "You two wanted to go for a drive, you wanted me to babysit, I said 'no, you need a clear head (for the following morning's custody battle with Lisa Willis and the children they have together)'."

Philpott said: "Did we go out?"

Mosley, 46, answered: "No, I talked you out of it."

Philpott said: "What did you tell the coppers, you did not tell the coppers that?"

Mairead said: "We were going to go dogging."

Mosley said: "You were going to go dogging, Mairead wanted to go dogging."

Philpott said: "I wish we had done."

The transcript went on to hear how Mosley stayed in the room for more than an hour more and "sexual activity" took place between him and Mrs Philpott.

After Mosley left, Philpott said to his wife: "I am proud of you babe, I know you did not want to do it."

The court heard the Philpotts talking in the hotel room on May 17, the day after they were first interviewed by the police.

Philpott asked his wife: "What did you say then?

"Tell me what you said about how many times I went up the ladders (to try and rescue the children)."

Mairead, 31, said: "I can't I can't remember how many times you went up the ladders."

Philpott asked his wife: "What did you say about me trying to get in?"

Mairead is heard to answer: "You tried everything you could to get in, like I said to them, I wanted to run through the flames up the stairs."

Philpott asked: "Was you crying when you said it? How bad?"

She replied: "Not really, really bad but I was crying."

The court heard how the recordings of the Philpotts in the hotel took place from May 15 and carried on until their arrest on May 29.

On May 15, the couple are heard watching TV in their room at 10.34pm.

Philpott said to his wife: "You notice they are saying accident? Not saying it is a murder inquiry? They are saying it is arson, the next thing they are saying it is an accident."

Later recordings, taken on May 19, heard Philpott, his wife and family and friends in the room discussing a theory that a neighbour, Adam Taylor, was responsible for starting the fire.

Reading out the transcript, Mr Latham said how Philpott told the room how Mr Taylor and Philpott's former mistress, Lisa Willis, had a brief relationship on New Year's Eve, 2011. Philpott said: "I will kill her, I will kill her, she's covering for him.

"This means she's got something to do with it.

"If they don't arrest him I am going after him."

And in a transcript read out in court, Philpott said he had been to talk to a police officer about his theory that Mr Taylor started the fire.

He tells the room: "Just been talking to another police officer, I wanted to s*** her but she would not, bitch."

The night before the Philpotts held a press conference, the police recording hears Mick Philpott saying: "My main thing tomorrow is to thank everybody."

The same night, at 10.34pm, the tape hears Philpott murmur to his wife: "You make sure you stick to your story."

The trial continues.

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