The parents of six children killed in a house fire appeared in court today charged with their murders.
Mick Philpott mouthed a rude word at people in the public gallery after they shouted 'b******' and 'scum' as the charges were read to him and his wife Mairead (pictured in this artist's drawing today) at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court, in Derby. They face six counts of murder following the horrific blaze at their home in the Allenton area of Derby on May 11.
A man and a woman had to be escorted from the court by police and court officials after shouting out "scum" and "bastards" during the 10-minute hearing.
The Philpotts, who showed no emotion as they stood in the dock, were remanded into custody.
They will appear at Nottingham Crown Court tomorrow.
Timeline to tragedy
2006: Mick Philpott came into media spotlight after requesting a larger council house to live with his wife, MISTRESS and eight children
2007: Philpott appeared on the Jeremy Kyle Show, saying that he would like to stick with one woman and have a vasectomy
2007: Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe lived in Philpott's house for a week for a documentary but failed to get him to change his benefit-reliant lifestyle
February 2012: Philpott and mistress Lisa Willis broke up and Willis moved into her sister's house with her five children
May 11: A fire started in the early hours of the morning, killing five children
May 12: Mick Philpott's ex-mistress, Lisa Willis, and her boyfriend Ian Cousins were arrested on suspicion of murder and released without charge
May 13: Another child, Duwayne Philpott, 13, dies in Birmingham Children's Hospital from serious fire-related injuries after Mick and Mairead Philpott decide to switch off his life support machine
May 16: Mick and Mairead Philpott hold an emotional press conference where they state they will donate their son Duwayne's organs
May 30: Mick and Mairead Philpott charged with murder
May 31: Mick and Mairead Philpott to go on trial in Southern Derbyshire magistrates court over the arson attack that caused the death of their children
The parents of six children who died in a house fire in Derby have been charged with their murder, police confirmed last night.
Michael Philpott, 55, and his wife Mairead, 31, will appear in court tomorrow accused of killing the children, who died after a blaze at a house in Victory Road, Allenton, Derby, on May 11.
Five of the children - four boys and a girl - died on the day of the fire. Their 13-year-old brother died the following day.
Family tragedy: Mick Philpott and his wife Mairead are charged with murdering six of their children
Philpott, 55, and his 31-year-old wife were arrested yesterday morning. Five days after the fire they appeared at a press conference where they cried as they thanked those who tried to save their children.
The couple are due to appear at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court in Derby tomorrow morning.
The charges were confirmed tonight by Derbyshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
A CPS spokesman said: 'The evidence was reviewed by a Crown Advocate from the CPS East Midlands Complex Casework Unit, who decided that there was sufficient evidence to charge and that it is in the public interest for a prosecution to take place.
'It is important to note that the defendants are entitled to a fair trial and nothing should be said or reported that would prejudice that right.'
The charges follow a recent appeal for information by Derbyshire Police.
FATHER AND DAUGHTER: A photo provided by the Ramischand family, shows prominent local attorney Odai Ramischand with his daughter Nikita in better times.
Frustrated over the failure of the Guyana police to find the main suspect and accomplice in the brutal murder of his 18-year-old daughter, prominent attorney Odai Ramischand yesterday vowed to travel to Guyana to find his daughter’s killers all by himself.
Yesterday marked eighteen days since Ramischand’s daughter Nikita, a second-year ACCA student, was killed at her St Joseph home. Her throat was slashed by the killers, who also stabbed her six times in the abdomen. The killer and his accomplice were captured on CCTV cameras leaving the Piarco International Airport on the morning of April 26, almost five hours after Nikita was found murdered. Since then, police in Guyana have been combing several parts of the country in the hope of finding the killer and his accomplice but are yet to make any headway.
In an interview with Newsday on Friday, the suspect’s mother, who lives in an area known as Soesdyke, admitted that her son visited her one day after Nikita’s murder, but said she had not seen him since. On Friday she made a stirring plea for him to surrender to the police.
However, yesterday, Ramischand, who has not been able to work since his daughter was killed, said he will not rest until justice is served.
“I am prepared to do what is necessary to bring to justice those two filthy, inhumane scums of the earth who killed my daughter, and take them in a pickup van to the police, because unless something is done I will not be able to resume my life. Life has no meaning to me again and while I do not want to take the law into my own hands, if it reaches to that I surely will, even if I have to give up law for the ultimate. I am prepared to pay the price for the honour of my daughter, give up my law practice, even serve time in jail, because I am a lone ranger seeking justice to avenge my daughter’s death.”
He added that he will be winding down operations at his Port-of-Spain office and travelling to Guyana shortly, where his “network of persons” have already put things in place for the search of the two criminals. He added that he is prepared to walk through miles of forest, cross as many rivers as possible, and expose himself to the elements to find the persons who took away his daughter.
An emotional Ramischand accused the government of Guyana of being hopeless and hapless, and said he will be joining the opposition in Guyana to ensure that the current government never gets into power again, because he feels that they have not done enough to find the killers.
He reiterated, “I am going to find both killers myself, I have no confidence in the Guyana police.”
Ramischand said his advice to the two killers is to surrender now, because if they are innocent they should not be in hiding. He added, however, that if they do not surrender, they should be prepared to face the consequences. He said, “I would go to the end of the world to find those killers, and believe you me I will get them, and if I do not get them somebody else will have to pay the price.”
Ramischand said his last information is that the two men were heading in the Berbice area, and his network in Guyana has promised him that the men will be captured dead or alive.
Ramischand, who is Guyanese- born, said he knows Guyana very well and is not afraid to make day into night to find the killers. He said the spot at the back of his wife’s beauty salon where his daughter was murdered is now being lit with electronic lights round the clock, and this will be lit forever. He added that images of his daughter taking her last breath of life still haunt him, and he is not the same person he used to be.
“I am hurting, really hurting, because my family and I never hurt anyone and those criminals violated the sanctity of my premises by taking away the love of my life, and they will pay dearly for that, “Ramischand vowed. Checks with the Guyana police yesterday revealed that every attempt was being made to find the two suspects, but police believe they are being assisted by persons.
Sunday Newsday also understands that the mother and other relatives of the main suspect have fled their home and are now in hiding because of threats issued to them by members of a vigilante group. In an interview with Newsday on Friday, the main suspect’s mother said she was afraid to stay at home because of threats issued to her family.
Police have arrested three people on suspicion of murder following the discovery of a body in an industrial bin.
Two men aged 28 and 25 and a woman aged 20 were detained by detectives in Southampton.
The unidentified body was found by firefighters called to a blaze in the bin in Empress Road industrial estate in the city at around 3.10am on Sunday.
The arrested trio are from Southampton, a Hampshire police spokeswoman said.
Police are still appealing for information, particularly from anyone who may have witnessed suspicious activity in or around the industrial estate, off Thomas Lewis Way, overnight.
Detective Inspector Simon Baker, who is leading the murder hunt, said: "We are making urgent inquiries to identify the body."
The detective said he was unable to say whether the victim was male or female, their age or how badly burned the body was.
The area where the body was found is part of Southampton's red light district.
