To think that killing 6 children - should have a longer sentence!

[Whiteday]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-67427340

An absolute disgrace!

Not necessarily, he could have reoffended and just not been caught.

That was in response to the Robert Thompson comment.

I think for murder there would have to be intent to kill.the children
Yes they were very stupid and the plan was very stupid ,but I think they thought they could ",save " the kids and emerge as hero,s
The children were Micks bread and butter all the income they brought in via benefits ,I don't think there wss ever any intention to kill them ,just a very stupid idea carried out by people with low intelligence.

All the 'oh he didn't mean to kill them...poor mick and mairead having a prison sentence, they should be helped not punished 😞'
Seriously?!!

Where has anyone said "Poor Mick"?

Who we saying that?personally I think they should rot in hell.but I don't make the law s🙄

This case still makes me feel sick. Those poor children never stood a chance. I'm glad Mick Philpott remains in prison, he is an evil man. I have zero sympathy for him. He set light to that house knowing full well his children were inside. Mairead I have a little compassion for, because I think she was in thrall to Mick. She's also not very bright. The other man? He was probably in thrall to Mick as well. Those children should have been scooped up and taken to a place of safety well before Mick had his ridiculous idea of torching the house so they would be offered a bigger and better one.

I might have a look at the sentencing report if I can find it online. I do find it helps when I understand how they reached the decision

That's not what people mean. For it to be murder they have to have intended the kids to die.

Ah so he didn't mean it, its ok he set fire to his house his children were trapped in?
Dad of the year as he was doing it with good intentions?

Of course not. But people are asking why its manslaughter and not murder and others are answering them with the facts.

If you feel that the wrong sentence was given, or you think that the law should be changed so cases like this are no longer considered manslaughter and not murder I understand.

But sneering at people and trying to imply they are somehow morally inferior to you because they are explaining the facts helps no one and changes nothing. The law is currently what the law is. And people explaining that are not somehow responsible for the way the law has been applied.

@JellyMops I'm currently reading 'the devil you know: encounters in forensic psychiatry' - you (and others) might find it of interest, there's a lot of focus on rehabilitation and talks about rehabilitation vs vengeance

Of course he wasnt ,he was doing it because he was stupid enough to think his plan would work and he would be seen as a hero he was in a custody with his other " partner" for the children he had with her.

I agree with @x2boys that immense stupidity was a big factor in this case. The children didn't even wake when the fire alarms went off as I recall, and I believed it triggered research that showed children don't wake for fire alarms in the way adults do. It's an absolutely terrible case. Mick Philpott did get a longer sentence than the others, as he deserved.

Great book.

OP you need to seriously reduce your use of exclamation marks. Most of you sentences end with at least one and often more. Your title looks like it’s a joke.

I do. I knew exactly what the thread was about from the title, although I’ve seen nothing about it since it happened.

It was just awful. They were sitting doing police appeals for if anyone had information about the fire, when all the time they’d lit it themselves. Maraid Philpott was just gurning in agony at what had happened. It must have been terrible for her. (Obviously a very stupid and wicked thing to have agreed to be party to. I’m not downplaying her actions.)

I remember that he had had another partner who had lived with them and she had run away with her children to a refuge with only the clothes they stood up in.

I'm more disturbed and disgusted to hear that the children's mum was released in 2020.She may not have lit the fire but she went along with it.
Then again it's all disgusting as philpott will only serve 15 years and that's nothing for killing 6 children.
They should all have been convicted of murder as it was premeditated,anyone can say they didn't mean it after.

It was an horiffic case. I can't believe it's been ten years, I remember being very upset by it at the time.

It’s important not to confuse morality, law and our emotions.
what happened to those children is devastating and they were truly failed by the adults in their lives.
The intentions though, behind the horrific act of arson on their home was not an intent to kill them, the plot was to rescue them and Mick failed .
So it was not murder.
It was manslaughter, plus whatever other offences were wrapped up the events.
Mick is complete scum . His wife and their friend are clearly a few cards short of a deck and probably went along with the scam believing that a shiny new council house and some hero worship and tabloid grifting cash was coming to them. The world will never forgive them and neither I suspect, will they.
It may well no longer be in the public interest to keep them in prison, it costs a bloody fortune, especially when other lags know who they are and constantly try to deliver vigilante justice. They’ll forever live in fear of their past catching up to them and they’ll have no friends or family. They’ll exist somewhere isolated and invisible until they die.
In which case, it doesn’t really matter if they are released.
they’ll never know freedom because they’ll always be haunted by those little kids faces.

Exactly this! I haven't said I think it's ok. I don't think it's ok. I'm trying to explain what people are saying when they say the sentence couldn't be higher. They have to follow the sentencing guidelines.

Philpott was sentenced to life with a minimum tariff of 15 years but I doubt he will be let out after 15 years. The man is a psychopath, I doubt he will ever be considered safe for release.
As for murder, there is no evidence that they intended to kill the children so they could not be prosecuted for murder.

@ilovesooty it really was (finished it last night)

The cruel truth is too many should be doing life sentences, but they can’t because too many would take up too much space!! Tells you a lot really doesn’t it. The death penalty would solve that problem.

As I understand it, the aim was to frame Philpotts extremely brave ex for the attempted murder of her own (and Philpott's) children and have her imprisoned and her children taken away from her. That's pure evil, and would still be evidence of a genuinely evil character even if all the children had been rescued without a scratch on them.