Talk

I'd like to see them both rot in hell tbh. She could have used the DV & coercion as a defence, but didn't, which suggests to me that she didn't feel she was coerced.

Aside from that, nothing about her behaviour demonstrated an almighty grief from having lost all of her DC and having been responsible.

I can't get my head around it, she did seem to be very controlled by him and was probably just doing as she was told, to a degree.

I have felt some level of concern for Mairead despite all the information that has come out of the trial. I had thought that maybe she didn't know what had been planned, was scared to speak up etc

But there was one piece of info that was mentioned on tonight's Panorama that has shown her for what she really is. All 3 of them had petrol on their clothing - petrol that has been shown to be forensically linked. She knew. She was there when the petrol was poured.

I hope they all get life.

I hope the fires of hell burn for eternity for all 3 involved.

they were both responsible.

there is no hell. life imprisonment is the most anyone can hope for and the most they can be given.

hope they all burn in hell.

I know things like this happen, people abuse and kill their children everyday, but I just can not stomach it anymore,,, I have been reading about this and other bits in the mail and my tiny mind can not comprehend how you can do things like that to children.

I've been crying on and off for an hour now,, I can't get it out of my head,, how absolutely terrified those poor wee ones must of been.

I wondered if Mairaid was too scared to use DV as a defence. He had previously stabbed a girl who left him nearly to death. Maybe she was worried about what he would do to her if she spoke against him and he then got found not guilty and freed.

Feeling for this case are going to run very high, 6 innocent children have been murdered.

I hope this specimen rots in hell, but until the day he takes his last breath I hope he is very well protected because I couldn't stomach him being able to get a penny in compensation.

The woman he stabbed 27 times said “You don’t say no to Mick. He is a monster. He stabbed me 27 times before he ran off and left me for dead.” So I do wonder if Mairaid was too scared to say no to his plan or to leave him. Look at what he planned to do to the most recent woman who left him. (Frame her for arson /attempted murder.)

I will repeat something I wrote up thread. She had petrol on her clothing. All three of them had petrol on their clothing. Said petrol was forensically linked to the petrol which started the fire (and was forensically linked to each other's clothing).

She was there when the petrol was poured. She has had every opportunity to give evidence against that despicable man. I am under no illusion that he was the ring leader. Yes she was abused and manipulated for many years. Yes she was a vulnerable woman. But she was also there when the petrol was poured. She must have known that there would be a fire and that her children were in danger.

She chose him over her children. She deserves a life sentence for what she has done. They all do.

I really don't know how both the parent could sit through press confence knowing it was them who had set the fire.

I am disgusted that anyone has any sympathy for her. So maybe she was a victim of dv once - big deal. Ultimately she chose to stay with him, chose to be part of a plan to set fire to the house which killed her six children, chose to sit in a press conference and chose to lie to the police. And did she not also previously lie about having been abused by her father? There is something deeply wrong with a mindset which has utter contempt for a man who does this (and rightly so) yet seeks excuses and sympathy for a woman who does the same. Anyone who sympathises with this vile excuse for a mother should be thoroughly ashamed.

They're going to have a loooooooong sentence no matter what the judge gives.

This "man" is a disgusting monster, I really do not understand how these women succumbed to him! I am sorry, but people like this do not deserve to have children. Sometimes I really wish we could have the death sentence.

Whether or not she was a victim of DV or was scared shirtless of him, she cried crocodile tears at the press conference. I'm not commenting on her reasons for having gone along with him and the plan, whether she was vulnerable or not, but the fact that her basic emotion towards her DC was flawed and regardless of everything else, her world did not fall apart when all her died. There was nothing there.

I agree with you op. the only people I feel sad and compassion for are those six innocent kids who went to sleep that night and never woke up. Mairaid is just as bad and involved. From what I gathered she was smiling and laughing, not what any normal person would do if they lost even 1 of their kids

I watched the channel 5 thing last night.

Just awful all of it.

Makes no sense at all, does it?

Did the fire happen early in the morning?

How did the adults get out or weren't they in the house?

Where did they set the fire?

How did they ever think that they would get in & get 6 children out?

It absolute lack of emotion-astounding/incomprehensible.

I have sympathy for her and feel no shame about that

Why because I can see the bigger picture this was a woman who was in an abusive relationship who had only weeks before the fire was harming herself no support, degraded by him over and over again and was not capable of looking after her family

of course I am most saddened that 6 children died, the whole set up is awful phillpot has made many lives a misery before this tragedy happened

I really didn't think people this thick and disgusting actually existed. They're like something from the dark ages.

I HAVE immense sympathy for the surviving children and hope they get all the help they need.
what a father

In the programme last night it said that he persuaded Mairaid to shag the accomplice just after her six children had died to keep him on side and he said to her something along the lines of "Well done for doing that even though you didn't want to." I wasn't at the trial so I don't know the full extent of his control over her, but people are allowed to wonder about the extent of it on a thread about the subject and no i don't feel ashamed of myself for daring to wonder about it. It's hardly the same as campaigning for her to get let off.