Mick and mairaid philpott.

[thebody]

If you pour petrol over your house and light a match.

You know your 6 children are asleep upstairs and you make less effort to save them than your neighbours did.

If you try and smear another person with the crime.

If you habitually lie to avoid prosecution.

Why is that manslaughter?

I know posters will say they didn't mean it but seriously such reckless disregard for life is murderous.

I watched the section about this on This Morning today. What I really don't understand is the criminologist pointing out that he wasn't crying real tears, but instead wiping his brow and his friends saying he was laughing and joking and didn't appear to be grieving. Whether he deliberately started the fire with the intention of rescuing all the children and being a hero, or the fire was an accident (which the jury obv disagreed with), surely he'd still be devastated either way that his children were killed? Why wasn't he?

Because he's a revolting specimen.

Same with the Mairead creature; of course they should have been weeping real tears regardless of how/why the children died. Instead, the woman had her face in her hands to hide the LACK of tears.

How the hell anyone can say that they loved their children is beyond me.

'I hope they get repeatedly pulverised in jail. I don't LIKE that I hope that. But I hope they do.'

really? and then they will sue the prison service for nor protecting them better

I hope that every time they close their eyes they see those children. I hope they never know peace. I hope they live the rest of their lives tormented and spend every second looking over their shoulders, afraid.

They won't, but that's what I hope. :(

I remember watching a programme a few years ago about people who make public appeals for information and are subsequently found to be the guilty party.
They said the police sometimes use the appeals to watch the reactions of suspects.
One of the cases they featured was another dad who'd managed to wipe out his kids by setting fire to the family home, they thought for the insurance money. It's the same thing again - not very bright parent thinks they'll gain in some way and be hailed as a hero when they rescue their family. The reality is that they completely underestimate the speed and ferocity of the fire and it gets very quickly out of hand.

Agree, TheBody. I am totally amazed that so many MNetters are "defending" the couple because it was technically "manslaughter" rather than "murder". Little comfort to the children as they burnt to death. It has actually made me angry all day. I think that couple are complete scum (and I never use that word) for all the reasons you say. What kind of person sets fire to a house with their children in it to get back at a girlfriend or get a bigger house, then as you say, try to frame that other person.

When I start to think of what it could have been like in that house and what the kids lives were like... ugh it is so dark and sad. God he sounds disgusting, wish all women were strong enough and with enough self esteem to leave these types of men at the first warning signs and the past DOES matter eg. He stabbed his ex etc.

Poor kids!

I haven't seen anyone defending them on this thread, or any other on MN.

Well I have.

Right, these people ARE guilty and weren't crying but can we please all remember that some people cope with grief in different ways, some never cry until years later. Not saying this applied to them but it isn't rare that people cope with trauma without crying, doesn't mean they're not sad or horrified and it doesn't mean they're less sad than someone who did cry, just pointing this out

I have no doubt they will get at least one battering at some stage in prison.

However,they will find a life for themselves in there.You seem to think that they will be locked up with people who have a high moral compass and who will be outraged at their crimes.Wishful thinking.Quite a few of their fellow law breakers will be in there for crimes that would horrify most decent people.

I'll give you the examples of Rose West and Myra Hyndley...both convicted child killers...and both went on to 'fall in love' with new lesbian partners who were doing time alongside them.

The 3 killers of those children won't really get their just pinishment at all in this life.Makes me want to believe in Hell....because those fuckers deserve to burn for eternity

How could anybody do it? Those poor little children had their whole lives ahead of them :(

You're right, MsBella. However, these people pretended a grief they don't appear to have felt. I think it's these "crocodile tears" that strongly indicate that something isn't as it seems.

It has been said that Philpot and the mate rehearsed the fire some weeks before the real thing. Surely that is premedatated on their parts?
He did it to not lose Benefit money instead he lost 6 most precious beautiful kids that they both deserved not to have.
I,m amazed at how these two women were taken in by him, it was painful to watch Jeremy Kyle with him on it.
Unfortunately he will play the big the I am in prison and will show no remorse,vile bastard.

They both deserve a very long sentance....please god it haunts them everyday of there miserable lives.

I watched the Panorama programme and couldn't believe how he talked to Anne Widdecome, disgusting creature. Good for Lisa Willis for getting the hell out.

The poor kids, having to see suicide attempts and all sorts.

The bit I really cannot get my head round is that if they had planned the fire, and then the heroic rescue, why was he not rescuing them? Either of them. They both allowed everyone else to try. If that was any of our children, we would have to be held back physically. We would all refuse to come out until our children were out.

Plus the fake tears at the press conference. Surely, even if it was not meant to end this way, they would both be genuinely inconsolable. As for the swearing about the children in the mortuary, it beggars belief.

MsBella - I understand that shock and trauma will make people act in different ways i,e not crying. But then why pretend to cry?

Eyepad....they didn't try rescuing them because they thought more of themselves than they ever did of the children .

Shitty,shitty people.

msbella I'm the same as you and cry afterwards, although I can be completely grief stricken at the time like everyone else. But this isn't a case of them doing their crying elsewhere, he was bouncing around all hyper before the press release and kidding on with the police right before it, they pretended to cry during the press release, joked about during the mortuary visit, went on shopping sprees and partied and sung karaoke days after their children's deaths.

Catching, that is exactly what I mean, Ok not crying as possible trauma reaction, but to then be thinking 'oh I ought to cry to gain sympathy' was weird. And no matter how much shock you are in, would you swear about the kids in the mortuary? plus threesomes, and putting family liaison officer in a headlock messing about. Bizarre.

And also, no begging for people to come forward with information at the press conference. Not a mention of 'whoever did this to my kids', just thanks to everyone who tried to help, including himself.

Agree with Hilda. Heroic rescues are all very well when they're inside your head and you can control exactly what happens.

Being faced with an out-of-control, raging inferno, where you might actually get hurt is another thing entirely.

The crown prosecution have a duty to ensure a conviction. If they went for murder and the defence successfully argued there was no intent, they would all walk free. Beyond reasonable doubt would be hard to prove as there would be reasonable doubt to the jury. The bastards didn't want to kill the children, just to frame the ex.

Frankly I hope they all die in jail, including the wife. She was just as guilty.