Father and Mother of 6 children killed in fire are arrested over Murder

[marriedtoagoodun]

Breaking news is that Mr and Mrs Philpott have been arrested for the murder of their six children. I cannot believe this has happened. I pray that a mistake has been made. RIP children.

The police will not confirm that it is the parents who have been arrested. Arrested doesn't mean charged.

If they are put on trial it will be an absolute media circus.

Guilty or not they must be going through a horrendous time. I'm sure whoever did this would not have set out to kill those children. The poor buggers :(

I assume they are thinking it was intentional, otherwise it'd be manslaughter I think.

Er...,folks ....they have been arrested and not charged as of yet. Neither are they currently tried and found guilty in any court of law so all this talk of "I thought it was them" etc is plain wrong IMHO.

AWV and C&C well said

here we go again.
the miss marples and the "oh I thought it was them"
crap. didn't this happen before, a woman was murdered a man arrested, mn miss marples hung him,
It wasn't him.

God this is just awful in every possible way isn't it.

Either it wasn't them, and it is compounding their misery at a time of intense grief.

Or it was, which is too unspeakable to think about.

There's no good outcome .

God how sad those poor children. It is human nature to discuss these things but to condemn them before the facts emerge is cruel I think they have other children

It is human nature also to be appalled by people deciding people are guilty before they have proof

Depressing how little people have absorbed the lessons of the Joanna Yeates case. On this and the other thread, many of the people claiming to be just 'discussing' it are mainly making points predicated on the parents being responsible for the fire.

However odd, strange or unlikeable these people may be to posters says little or nothing about their guilt or innocence.

Remember that Donald Rumsfeld thing about known knowns etc? We're all in the position of not even knowing how much we don't know. The stuff in the papers is no guide-it may not be accurate.

True but there are always going to be multiple views on an internet forum. It is interesting to see those views as well as the more moderate tbh as I don't think many people would say those things IRL

some people do love it so though, same faces on each big story

I don't know about that Lovin the weather here

Why would the arrest them? Does it give the police some advantage over just talking to them?

I was thinking with what happened in the Joanna Yeates that the police would be extra careful about making arrests willy nilly.

Totem this is puzzling me too.

The police have not given reasons for the arrest in this case.

Here is some general information on powers of arrest in UK (s24(5)(a)-(f) of Police and Criminal Evidence Act).

Arresting is done if they want to formally interview someone, and it doesn't mean door kicked down at dawn with handcuffs, but can be just done "by appointment" too. It's just a formal process within an investigation.

I don't think the fact they've been arrested neccessarily means much.

Well, it will do to Joe Public. "They've been arrested so they must be guilty."

Surely, if it's just a question of an interview as part of their investigation, they could avoid the headline-attracting term of "arrest." They are grieving parents after all.

Cannot contemplate the idea that any parents could be guilty of such a crime.

Yes, Joe public is stupid, but I think the problem is more with how the arrests have been reported than with police terminology per se.

What a horribly sad situation, I hope the police sort it ASAP and either charge them or leave them be.

Carole malones head must be spinning around with smug horrid lady.

Seems to me that in the UK there ought to be some other mechanism whereby poeple can be interviewed formally without being 'arrested'. I seem to remember the McCanns were made 'arguidos' in Portugal whcih meant the police could interview them, and they had numerous legal safeguards, and avoidance of assumed culpability and without the stigma of being 'arrested' which is especially important where a realtive is involved. Would also have been good if the landlord of Joanna Yeates, who had a similar exposure by being 'arrested' could have benefited for that 'arguido' type status, and avoid the immediate assumption of guilt, in an already highly-charged situation

It's possible to be found guilty of murder without a direct intention to kill.