To be amazed they've released Mairead Philpott?

[MarylinMonrue]

After serving half her sentence for the arson attack? Apparently even a source from the prison was a shocked at the leniency and the fact she's going to get a new identity and protection. Six children in that fire - is there such a thing as justice in this country anymore?

I’ve watched a couple of the documentaries made about this tragedy. I also remember watching the Ann Widdecombe show about them.

Abused for sure. I remember acknowledging that she must be scared of him yet also helplessly in love with him, as many women in abusive relationships are. It was clear from interviews that she was financially abused (Mick took all the benefits and money both wives made from working) and she admitted that.

The second wife plucked up the courage to leave. It appears (from the documentaries) that the one who left was the one Philpott loved the most and Mairaid desperately wanted to be his favourite. Which is probably why she went along / plotted it with him.

But whilst a lot of people stay in an abusive relationship with their children in the home - they don’t willingly go along with a plan to set their house on fire with the children in it sound asleep. Naive and stupid is putting it a hell of a lot nicer than it is.

One of the shows also had comments from their friends, saying she wasn’t sad, was more concerned ordering a take away than by the fact that her son was in intensive care. Also she was apparently (according to her friends and family) showing off what she had been buying with the donation money in the week after the children’s deaths, spotted at the pub as a pair and shagging her husband and friend. Sorry, a grieving mother does not do that. She can’t be right in the head.

I think I read somewhere that those children were asleep in their school uniform. It’s devastating.

Whether or not they intended to kill those children - she stood back and allowed her husband to set the house on fire with her children in it. I struggle with too dim to be dangerous. I think she should be left in much longer regardless of what she herself will have gone through. Her behaviour afterwards.....she would have had the chance to alert the police prior to the fire that evening - she could have stayed inside herself if she was so sure of their hero plan......

As you can see I’m so torn. Those poor children. What a horrible way to die. I just bloody hope he never comes out.

Her mothering instinct should have kicked in when he suggested it, she is just as bad as he is. 6 kids died that day and both of them went on telly. Hope she is tormented for the rest of her life.

To everyone making an excuse for her, did you watch the documentary about them? After the fire and giving a public statement they went to pub and were drinking and taking part in karaoke. All over each other like a bad rash too. Even the owner of the pub said they did not look like parents who had lost their children. So to blame it all on the ‘controlling husband’ is a bit far fetched. She knew what the risks were and even after her children had died she could dance into the night. I hope she never has children again. She should rot in jail.

'Mick Philpott can rot. But Mairead is his victim. This is what male violence and abuse is. This is what is does to women and children. The bloodlust on this thread is sickening.'

Oh bollocks. The murdered children are their victims. Stop being an apologiser and attempting to excuse her. The crime they committed is what is sickening, not comments on this thread.

Since she is out she absolutely should get a new identity.

Can you imagine people finding out and trying to set fire to her house, attack her, start violent protests in her street etc.

As much as I find its disgusting that she is out, she needs protection now she is, and not just for her own sake.

Oh and Philpott himself.....how the hell did he get away with everything he had done for so long????

This is the true corruption of our system. The amount of women he abused and physically attacked.....no wonder women are scared to come forward. For all my confusion on the state of his wife, I do totally get that he was the key to this.

There are some breathtakingly awful and barbaric posts on here. Hung and sterilised? Is that the sort of country you want to live in? If so, may I recommend North Korea?

Release is designed to aid re-integration into society. Just because she's no longer in prison does not mean she is no longer serving her sentence. She will be housed in a half-way house with other convicts and be under strict regimes.

twitter.com/TweetingYet/status/1333023728280735745

Please don't confuse 'not in gaol' with 'free'. You're thinking far too simply (which is not surprising, given the kinds of comments the people who seem to think this are making...).

Interestingly since her sentence was passed, the law has changed and now the point of release for these kinds of sentences is 2/3. But since her sentence was passed prior to that point, she is released halfway through.

@lovelovelove2020

I actually feel really sorry for her. Mick was an extremely violent bully. If you see what he did to his past girlfriends you can see the sort of man she was living with. He raped and abused her daily. He used to share her with his friends. I don't think she wanted to go through with the plan. He coerced her into. She was a vulnerable woman with learning difficulties. If she didn't go ahead with the plan he would have probably beat her senseless. She didn't agree to him killing the children. He convinced her the plan was safe and for a better future. He even made her give sexual favours to his mate after. In their life together she was so controlled abused by him that she even let him have kids with another woman and move them in. I feel for her. She has been beaten, raped and abused for years and has lost all her children.

This.

@SunshineCake

Apparently she was delighted to get out early. Getting a new identity is totally wrong. Too many criminals are getting this privilege.

The thing is, they get a new identity because of vigilante behaviour. I don’t agree with a new identity but I understand why it happens when some people want to hunt them down and inflict their own brand of “justice”. The internet and social media don’t help.

Why is it when a woman commits a hideous crime or is complicit in one we must make allowances for the fact that she was “abused”? Who gives a shit. If she was that vulnerable and incapable of knowing right from wrong then the children should have been removed from her to be sure she wouldn’t be complicit in their murder.

Given she served her sentence in prison and was tried for the crime there clearly was no doubt as to her mental capacity.

apparently Myra Hindley was abused as well, does that make her worthy of sympathy? Rose West? or does that only apply when it’s your own children you’re murdering?

If you have intelligence enough to mother 6 children .....

Unfortunately, it's very clear that getting pregnant repeatedly to an abusive man, and staying below the radar of social services does not require any significant intelligence. I can easily believe that MP possibly had low enough intelligence to believe that Mick Philpott's 'plan' to set fire to the front of the house and rescue the children in order to frame his ex, would actually work, and that if he said so, the children were not at grave risk.

@clpsmum how is she as bad as the man who:

1. Actually came up with the plan and set the fire to frame his ex during a custody dispute
2. Raped, abused, pimped out and tortured her for years
3. Shot his ex with a crossbow, took a hammer to her kneecap and attempted to murder her and her mother with repeated stabbing.
4. Targeted young women (usually teens) to repeatedly impregnate
5. Has a string of violent offences

Mairead needs to serve her sentence for what she did and I do agree it would be better if she was released when she is too old to get pregnant again. However what she did was not stand up against her violent abuser when he insisted the dangerous plan was worth the risk and he would make sure no one died. Even he (evil as he is) didn't actually intend for them to die. He is orders of magnitude worse than her.

But the jury (and appellant courts) heard all the evidence that she was a victim of abuse, he controlled her, and her low IQ absolved her of the crime etc., and convicted / upheld her conviction for manslaughter. Incidentally this is the same conviction as Philpott himself.

Don’t forget - the jurors / Appellant courts would not have convicted her if there had been any doubt.

She is as guilty as him. She may have had different motives (to save her own skin / to please him whatever), but that doesn’t absolve her from her actions.

And we should absolutely have a discussion about the length of sentences handed to criminals in this country. If we aren’t happy with the length of sentences, it’s by discussion / debate that we get things changed.

The fact she had low IQ/learning difficulties and was vulnerable is a major factor in her decision making.

Patronising, condescending bullshit.

You don’t need academic qualifications to understand that being complicit in the murder of your own children is wrong.

Most paedophiles have been abused in some way shape or form in their lives. Sexual/physical abuse, many have MH problems. Where is your sympathy for those poor misunderstanding paedophiles? No? You don’t have any? What about if those paedophiles were women?

I can easily believe that MP possibly had low enough intelligence to believe that Mick Philpott's 'plan' to set fire to the front of the house and rescue the children in order to frame his ex, would actually work, and that if he said so, the children were not at grave risk.

But if he’d suggested setting fire to the house with her in it and saying he’d ‘rescue’ her for the same reason, do you think she’d have quietly burned to death, or tried to leave the house, knowing full well that her life was in danger?

Our system is too soft... in America chances are she’d be executed or spend the rest of her life jn prison, getting a sentence for each child.

Mick Philpott orchestrated the whole thing. Mairead was in my opinion abused and worn down over years and years to accept what he said and did and told her to say and do.

I completely agree.

@AlternativePerspective

Why is it when a woman commits a hideous crime or is complicit in one we must make allowances for the fact that she was “abused”? Who gives a shit. If she was that vulnerable and incapable of knowing right from wrong then the children should have been removed from her to be sure she wouldn’t be complicit in their murder.

Given she served her sentence in prison and was tried for the crime there clearly was no doubt as to her mental capacity.

apparently Myra Hindley was abused as well, does that make her worthy of sympathy? Rose West? or does that only apply when it’s your own children you’re murdering?

Of course it does. Those women had fucking horrible lives and went on to abuse - we know abuse is cyclical. We know that. So regardless of how awful they were and the massive amount of suffering they caused, and how much we hate them, we can also feel sympathy for their abuse.

Also the language around learning disabilities on this thread is fucking appalling. Doesn’t mumsnet have a campaign on this?

@MarthaWashingtonsFeralTomcat yes. Emotions are still very strong. I know several people who were involved with the children's funeral, who are still very scarred by it.

Those women had fucking horrible lives and went on to abuse - we know abuse is cyclical. We know that.

It can be cyclical. But no, not everyone who is abused will go on to hurt their children. They remain criminally responsible for such decisions.

many of us are survivors of abuse

doesn't lessen what she did. if he' orchestrated the whole thing' why did she get a prison sentence in the first place then?

@GabsAlot he would have killed her if she did that. She couldn’t just leave. Go where?!
And remember she’s been groomed and conditioned by him. She had learning difficulties. He told her it would ‘be fine’ and they’d get the kids out. So he’d look like a hero. It’s just not as simple as you say. I wish it was . It should be. But it isn’t.
Also the kind of lifestyle mick led. And her by association, meant that they had no trust in the police or social services or all the people who could have protected her.