WHEN Mick Philpott burned his six children to death in a family home, horrified parents struggled to comprehend what kind of monster could commit such a sickening crime.
Now, a Sun investigation has uncovered new evidence of his botched game plan to play the ‘hero’ by rescuing his kids from the flames, and how he desperately tried to deflect the blame as his doomed plot unravelled.
Speaking for the first time in our brand new series, Scene of the Crime, the killer’s traumatised neighbours shine fresh light on what really happened before and after that tragic night 13 years ago.
On the day before he set the Derby property alight on May 11, 2012, one recalls spotting him carefully setting up two ladders beneath the upstairs windows in a brazen bid to later pull the kids to safety.
Haunted by the memory of the children’s blackened bodies, she emotionally tells how they “paid the price of their father’s “arrogance and stupidity“.
Meanwhile, another resident on Victory Road reveals how she and her partner were called ‘child murderers’ in the street after cops held her and her partner for 72 hours – as shameless Philpott scrambled to pin the blame on THEM for his crimes.
The furious locals paint a grotesque picture of the convicted mass killer, who we recently revealed was left “battered and bruised” in a brutal jail beating.
In extraordinary detail, they tell how he acted with impunity, seeing himself saw himself as “God’s gift”, and paraded up and down the street often dressed in little more than a pair of turquoise speedos.
Dinner lady Pearl Turner was in her garden when she spotted her next-door neighbour, Philpott, setting up the ladders at the back of his home.
Pearl, who lived next door to the family for several years, claimed that he’d planned to climb them once he’d set the house ablaze, and help pull his kids to safety.
The dad – who had previously appeared on the Jeremy Kyle Show – had concocted the arson scheme to pin on former mistress Lisa Willis who he was due to face in court over access to his four kids with her.
But in a tragic turn of events, he had forgotten to unlock their bedroom windows, leaving them trapped inside the burning building.
The fire claimed the lives of Duwayne, 13, Jade, 10, John, nine, Jack, seven, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five. Only Duwayne, the eldest, managed to escape the house alive, before he too died from his injuries in hospital days later.
Both Philpott and his wife Mairead, who supported his plan, were eventually arrested on May 29 2012, initially for murder, although charges were later changed to manslaughter.
Haunting memories
Thirteen years on, Pearl is still traumatised by the memory of seeing the five children’s charred bodies laid out in a row in the street outside her home as firefighters tried in vain to save them.
Now 78 and retired, she was still living next door to where the tragedy unfolded when The Sun revisited the scene of the killings.
Breaking her silence on the horrific fire, she says: “I’ll never get the sight of them lying there out of my head.”
She shared heartbreaking details about the night of the fire but also offered insight into the extraordinary lengths Philpott had gone to in order to ensure he emerged as a hero.
She added: “I was in my garden the day before the fire and Philpott came home with two sets of ladders.
“He initially placed them against my wall at the back, then moved them off and positioned them very carefully underneath the two upstairs windows at the rear of his house. They were the children’s bedrooms.
“As soon as I saw those two ladders leaning up against our wall, I knew the crafty sod was up to something, but never in a million years would I have worked out the evil plan he had in mind.
“I knew he hadn’t brought the ladders home to do any DIY or a spot of house maintenance because he was useless and lazy. I’d never seen any ladders at his property before.
“As soon as I became aware their house was on fire, it became clear to me what his purpose with the ladders had been. He’d planned to use them to climb up to their windows and rescue them so he could play the hero.
“But he forgot the bedroom windows had locks on them and in the panic and chaos of the fire, with smoke everywhere, those poor children weren’t able to open the windows and died.
“They paid the price of their father’s arrogance and stupidity. It was all such a needless, tragic waste.
“They were lovely, polite kids. They always waved at me when they saw me. If I was in the garden, they’d wave from their bedroom windows.
“On the day of the fire, I told the police about my suspicions over the ladders, but it took them weeks to arrest him. I’ve never really understood why. It was obvious to me what he’d done.”
‘We were called child murderers’
One of those arrested, a 41-year-old woman named Vicky, also told The Sun – in another first interview – how Philpott tried to frame her and her partner for the fire that left six children dead.
Vicky, then aged 28, revealed how officers arrested her and her late partner Adam, then 38, who died last year, and took them to Ripley police station and held them for questioning for 72 hours.
Through tears, Vicky said: “We had been friends with Mick, Mairead and Lisa (Philpott’s former live-in mistress) for some time and Mick used that friendship to try and save his own skin.
“When the police spoke to him on the day of the fire he told them me and Adam had started it.
“As soon as they told me Mick had accused us of starting the fire, I knew it had to have been Mick himself who had done it. Why else would he have tried to put it on us?
“Even so, it took us three days to convince the cops we were innocent before they let us go, but when we got back people still believed we’d done it.
“We were getting called child murderers in the street and on social media. It was absolute hell for us. It went on for months and months. I am still traumatised by it.
“Poor Adam is dead now but it was the same for him until the day he died. You just never get over it.
“The abuse only stopped when Philpott and the other two went to court and the details came out, but for me and Adam, the damage was already done.
“And those poor, poor children. Nothing could bring them back.
“Philpott was an obnoxious, self-centred b*****d who thought he was God’s gift to everything. He killed his own children then tried to frame me and Adam – his friends – for it. That tells you what kind of man he is.
“I hope he is never released from jail. He is a monster and should die in there.”
Vicky said she remains close friends with Lisa, and is “in touch” with her.
“Lisa has long since moved away from Derby and I would never tell anyone where she is now,” she said.
Vicky also revealed that Mairead, who was released early from jail in 2023, has since changed her name and is living with a new partner.
“She is a monster too and should never have been let out early. Why should she be allowed to start a new life as if nothing happened?”
‘Hope he never gets out’
Speaking to those living in Victory Road now, it is notable how many locals’ lives were interwoven with the Philpotts.
Neighbour Martin’s son was in a relationship with Philpott’s daughter from his first marriage at the time of the tragedy.
He said his son, then 18, had been one of the first to try and enter the burning building and rescue the children.
Martin said: “Before the fire crews arrived, my boy was there trying to get the kids out.
“He saw the ladders at the back of the house and climbed up to try and get in through the window but the heat was so intense it was burning the hairs off his arms. His skin felt like it was on fire.
“He tried and tried to smash the windows but he just couldn’t. It was awful.
“He knew the Philpotts because he’d been going out with one of Mick’s daughters for about a year at the time. We all got to know Mick and his family quite well and we’d sometimes go round for dinner.
“I never really liked him because he was such a loudmouth, but I had to make the effort for the sake of my son and his girlfriend.
“To be honest, I thought Mick was a bit of a prat. He’d been on TV and thought of himself as a star. He really believed he was a film star.
“But I never thought for a moment he’d be capable of what he did.
“What happened put such a strain on my son’s relationship with Mick’s daughter that they broke up a year or so later.
“My son was traumatised by the events of that night and he has struggled with his emotions to this day, although very recently he has started to open up a little.
“All of us around here just want to forget about Mick and that horrific day, but it is impossible. I hope he never gets out of prison.”
Elsewhere in Victory Road, a 38-year-old mother told how her son was at school with several of the Philpotts’ children.
She recoils at the mention of Mick Philpott’s name and tells how he “made my skin crawl”.
She said: “I hated him on sight. He was a horrible, horrible man.
“He was friends with my ex-partner and he’d call round here to see him wearing nothing but a pair of tight, turquoise Speedos and a pair of trainers.
“He’d stand at our porch with one leg raised on the windowsill like he was God’s gift, but all I saw was a fame-hungry w****r. He was utterly repulsive.
“I had nieces in their teens at the time and when they were here he’d be leering at them. It was disgusting.
“When they left to go back home, I’d go with them in case he tried to follow them. I just didn’t trust him at all.
“I felt sorry for Mairead because she was completely under his thumb and did whatever he told her to. He treated her miserably.
“Once I told her to stop being such a wet blanket and stand up to him, but she never did. If he told her to jump, she’d say ‘How high?’. It was that kind of relationship.
“When she and Lisa were both pregnant, I remember the three of them walking back from town with loads and loads of bags full of shopping, but he made them carry it all.
“He was walking ahead of them, empty-handed, in his stupid Speedos and nothing else.
“It was a weird set-up with the three of them. Between Mairead and Lisa, one of them was always pregnant.
“But even though I knew what an awful man he was, I was surprised he could kill his own children. I hope to God he is never allowed out of jail for what he did.”
Battered and bruised
Last month, The Sun revealed how Philpott was left with bruises and lumps on his head after an inmate battered him with a metal container at tough HMP Wakefield, West Yorks.
A source said: “Philpott was in a bad way after the attack – battered and bruised and with two large and noticeable lumps on the back of his head.
“The other lad pounced on him and whacked him quite a few times from behind.
“It was one bloke on his own – someone quite a bit younger than Philpott and it happened really quickly on the landing.
“There was a huge commotion, an alarm was going off and guards rushed in to help.
“Otherwise it could have been a lot worse for Philpott.
“Philpott was feeling very sorry for himself after the attack – but no-one had much sympathy.
“That is reserved for the children he killed.”
