Philpott trial: 'You lied to his face. You will tell a lie if a lie is required, won't you?'

MAIREAD Philpott told the court: "I don't tell lies".

But she then admitted to the jury she had lied to husband Mick about having told her work colleagues she had had an abortion.

The jury previously had been told she had an abortion after becoming pregnant by another man, while dogging (having sex in public).

Mairead agreed that Mick had tried to make her lie to police about their neighbour, Adam Taylor.

She then said: "I don't tell lies."

Speaking about a conversation between the couple, which Mairead said was about the abortion, prosecutor Richard Latham QC said: "You lied to his face.

"You will tell a lie if a lie is required, won't you?"

"No, not all the time," replied Mairead.

"No, not all the time, only if needed.

"'An ever present friend in time of difficulty, a lie'," quoted Mr Latham,

"You will tell one if necessary, won't you."

"No," said Mairead.

She said that "sticking to the story" – something husband Mick was recorded saying by covert listening devices – referred to having sex with family friend Paul Mosley on the night of the fire.

Mr Latham said: "A story is an account about something, something positive."

"Possibly, yes," said Mairead.

"But not mentioning sex is a positive, not a negative," said Mr Latham.

The prosecutor then asked what Philpott meant when he said: "Are you sure this is what you want?"

Mairead initially said she did not know but then said: "Not telling police about having sex with Shakey."

When asked when the two of them had decided for neither of them to talk about the dogging or sex with Shakey, Mairead insisted: "It wasn't about the dogging.

"It was about having sex with Shakey on that night (night of the fire)."

Mr Latham put to Mairead that she was "no shrinking violet" but when she did not understand the expression, he said: "You are not somebody who is embarrassed by sex generally, are you?" "No," she replied.

He said: "You tell us you are ashamed about having sex with Paul Mosley.

"It's the one thing you and he wanted to make sure hadn't been mentioned.

"That was simply not true, is it?"

"Yes, it is," said Mairead.

She said she had felt ashamed about the dogging but did not mind police knowing about it.

She said: "It was the fact I had sex on the snooker table with Shakey the night my children died."

The prosecutor said: "Sex with Shakey was clearly something Mick encouraged you did?"

"Yes," replied Mairead.

"To make it good for him, to make him feel it was good?"

"Yes," said Mairead.

"And that was because you two needed to keep Shakey onside, wasn't it?"

"No," said Mairead.

Mr Latham put to Mairead: "You two knew perfectly well that there was a real chance you were being recorded."

Mairead replied: "No, I didn't.

"I think Mick probably did but I didn't. I had no idea."

She was also asked about being recorded in the hotel where they stayed after the fire saying she wanted custody of Lisa Willis's five children.

In court, she said she had wanted custody of them, adding: "I was more of a mother to those children than what their own mother was."

Finishing his cross-examination of Mairead, Mr Latham reiterated the prosecutions claim that the fire was started as a plan to frame Philpott's ex-lover, Lisa Willis.

He said: "Mick was the driving force behind all this.

"You were dressed when you made the 999 call.

"The monkey wrench was already on the roof.

"There was petrol on your clothing and in the U-bend of your sink.

"The three of you thought this up."

Mairead replied: "No, there was no plan.

"I do not know why there was petrol on my clothing or in our sink.

"The wrench was not already on the roof,

"I handed it to him and I don't know why there is petrol on my clothing."

The trial continues.

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