Accused father continues evidence (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

Accused father continues evidence

4:19am Thursday 14th March 2013 in National News © Press Association 2013

A father accused of killing his six children in a house fire will continue giving evidence today as part of the defence case in his manslaughter trial.

There were emotional scenes in court yesterday as Mick Philpott, 56, broke down and sobbed in the witness box as a 999 call made by him and his wife as the blaze took hold with the children trapped inside was played to jurors.

Six siblings died in the fire. Jade, 10, and brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six and Jayden, five, died during the blaze. Their brother Duwayne, 13, was taken to Derby Royal Hospital and transferred to Birmingham Children's Hospital but died three days later.

Philpott, his wife, and a third defendant Paul Mosley, 46, have all denied six separate counts of manslaughter in relation to each of the deaths.

Philpott repeatedly wiped away tears as he described trying in vain to get to his children in the upstairs bedrooms as the fire began to engulf the house in Victory Road, Derby, in the early hours of May 11 last year.

He denied any involvement in the starting of the fatal fire.

Prosecutors allege the three defendants started the fire in a botched plan to frame Philpott's ex-girlfriend Lisa Willis.

Miss Willis, 29, left the home she shared with him and his wife three months before the fire and took her five children with her, four of whom were fathered by Philpott.

The trial will continue at Nottingham Crown Court.