RedHanded - Episode 53 - Crocodile Tears, Sex Caravans & Arson: The Mick Philpott Story

Episode Date: July 5, 2018

In the early hours of May 11, 2010 a fire tore through 81 Victory Road; inside 6 children were trapped, outside stood their parents.Tragically all 6 of the Philpott children died and the nation mourned for a grieving Mick and Mairead Philpott. But as the days passed, their behaviour, and their stories about what had happened that night started to raise serious suspicion... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frmdzbTAdQc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5IrbrO7SQ0   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Get ready for Las Vegas-style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette. With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games and signature BetMGM service, there's no better way to bring the excitement and ambiance of Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today.

BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed. In the early hours of the morning of the 11th of May, 2010, an explosive fire broke out at 18 Victory Road in Derby, which is a town that's like slap bang in the middle of England. The front door was totally engulfed by a wall of

fire and thick black smoke was pouring out of the house. Neighbours were screaming and a couple, Mick and Maraid Philpott, stood outside and watched in stunned silence. The emergency services arrived within minutes of the alarm being raised, but it was already too late. One by one, the bodies of the six Philpott children who lived in the house were carried out and laid on the grass in front of the burning building. Across the country, there was an outpouring of grief and sympathy for this family who had lost so much. But all was not what it seemed, because just six weeks later,

the parents, Mick and Mairead Philpott, were arrested for the manslaughter of their six children. Duane, 13, Jade, 10, John, 9, Jack, 8, Jessie, 6, and Jaden, 5. But to understand what led to these horrific murders, we have to first go back to when Mick met Mairead. The pair met in 2001 when Mairead Duffy was just 19 and Mick was 37. Mairead had previously been in an abusive relationship and Mick saw her as the perfect target. The relationship quickly became serious and Mairead fell pregnant. But it wasn't enough for Mick because the same year he also met 17-year- old Lisa Willis and started an affair with her. Now Mick was not the kind of guy to just do regular horrible unforgivable cheating. He wasn't

about to sack one of them off. He wanted it all and he wasn't even going to keep it a secret because that was just too much like hard work. So he moved Lisa into the house he shared with Mairead. What kind of conversation are you having with your partner when you're like, okay, here's how it's going to go. I'm cheating on you. She's not going anywhere. And you're not either. This is just our life now. I mean, it really sets up just what type of man Mick was and the type of women he went after that he was able to have those conversations with them. And as if this wasn't weird enough, the fact that they're now living together. In 2003, Mick married Mairead. And as if this wasn't weird enough, the fact that they're now living together.

In 2003, Mick married Mairead. And as if that wasn't fucking weird enough, Lisa was their bridesmaid. And you want the real cherry on top of that? She was seven months pregnant with Mick's baby at the time of the wedding. So he's there with his two fucking, like, child brides. And one of them's pregnant with his baby

as she watches him marry the other one surely that is one of those things you bring up at the speak now or forever hold your peace moment surely if this if not anything else i'm gonna raise my hand and be like is is that your mistress who also lives with you because i feel like everyone in this room knows that it's your mistress and she also lives with you but the thing is he would then start talking about that openly at his wedding. He loves it. Because that's just the kind of man Mick is. And we really need you to understand what type of man it is that Mick is. Because he's gross. He's seriously fucking gross. When I look at him I think Rube. He looks like a thug. He looks like a dirty old football hooligan. Seriously, just vile.

He looks exactly how you think he looks. And I've found the more research we do, more often than not, these people look how you think they look. Absolutely. He wasn't one of those that people are like, oh, I never saw it coming. Who, Mick? Good old Mick Philpott. Everybody saw it coming. And it gets worse because maybe you're wondering what this living arrangement was actually like for this less than traditional threesome. Well, they all lived together with all of their kids and Mick sort of living as a king over this little odd harem that he had developed, alternating between both women. And, you know, just to keep it decent, because come on, there are kids kids involved they had a caravan in the garden for sex there is nothing sexy about a caravan and in interviews with him he describes

it as servicing the women oh for god's sake oh yeah so each night while one woman stayed in the house and watched the kids the other woman and mick went to go rock the sex caravan that's parked in their front garden. No, it's not in the front garden. It's in the front garden. No shade on Derby, but I had an ex who lived really near, and so I did spend quite a bit of time there. I reckon a sex caravan in the front garden is, like, not even raising any eyebrows. Please don't tweet at me if you live in Derby. You can have the whole of Derby coming for you.

You know it's true. This comes as no surprise because he does have a sex caravan in his front garden. Mick's friends described him as obsessed with sex. It was all he would talk about, like a teenage boy. He's just constantly sex on the brain. All he's talk about like a teenage boy he's just constantly sex on the brain all he's talking about ever and none of what we will be telling you about Mick's behavior is just rumor or from fame hungry friends wanting to get a second in the spotlight because unlike other criminals we discuss we have hours and hours of footage of Mick from before the fire that we can

analyze because he was tabloid fodder long before he killed his kids. Mick rose to infamy in 2007 when he appeared in a British documentary with Anne Widdicombe. It was called Anne Widdicombe versus the benefits culture. And for our international listeners, Anne Widdicombe is a former British politician. And if you want to immediately conjure an image of Anne Widdicombe in your brain, all you have to do is think battleaxe. That's her magic word. She just appears. So in this documentary, Anne Widdicombe is there to follow around the man dubbed Britain's biggest scrounger and shameless Mick.

And that documentary truly is something else because you've got this guy with his wife and his mistress and they're now 18 kids and their sex caravan in the front garden, Mick proudly gives Anne a tour of his house, the whole time yelling about how overcrowded the house is and it's a travesty that the council were refusing to move his family into a bigger house. Anne Widdicombe confronts him and tells him to go and get a job and Mick totally loses it. And throughout the documentary, he loses it again and again and again with Anne. He fucking hates the idea of this woman calling him out on his shit and he's shouting and swearing and screaming at her all the time in front of his kids it's so sick oh and the bit where he gives

her the tour of the sex caravan it's like mtv cribs but caravan style he lies on the bed in front of her in the film crew and says, and this is where the magic happens. Don't. I'm not. No. I mean, we're going to post this documentary on the Facebook group. Check it out.

It is absolutely vile. And throughout the documentary, Anne calls him out, not just for the whole like job thing, the sex caravan, but she also calls him out for the way that he treats Lisa and Mairead because get this,

Mick sits around the house while Lisa and Mairead because get this Mick sits around the house while Lisa and Mairead both go to work and deal with the kids and when they come back from work they give all of their wages directly to Mick and on top of that he's claiming all of the welfare money from the state for this giant family that they have there's 21 of them at this point and the papers actually report that it could have been up to £60,000 a year that he was getting from the state. But let's be clear at this point that we are not making a negative comment about benefits at all. I am sure you will be completely unsurprised to hear that Hannah and I are absolutely supporters of welfare. Yes,

the government should and absolutely must support the most vulnerable in society. The point is that in any system, you will always have free riders, you will always have people who abuse it, people who take advantage. But that is a disproportionately small amount compared to the millions of people who depend on it.

And therefore, the actions of a few, like McPhilpot, cannot be used to admonish the entire welfare system. And also, like whenever this makes the headlines, and it's always, you know, benefits scrounged, blah, blah, blah, compare that for just a second to the number of the top 1% who don't pay their taxes and get out to all sorts of monetary evil doing. This is pennies compared to what they're up to. I always find it very frustrating when people try and use that argument and it is used in all sorts of debates about policy particularly the pro-choice campaign so many pro-lifers were like oh well the tiny percentage of women that will abuse right to abortion means

that it shouldn't be available to anyone and it's such a common argument same thing with benefits I think anyone who perpetuates the myth that all people who are on benefits are like Mick Philpott should be ashamed. And that goes for the Daily Mail most of all. Absolutely. And it's so many examples you could take. Take, for example, when they claim, oh, well, you know, there are women out there who make false accusations of rape against men and ruin their lives. Therefore, we shouldn't automatically just believe women who come forward and say they've been raped. Well, actually, for years and years and years, there's been a huge stigma against coming forward and saying that. Yes, there are

women who do horrendous things like that. But again, that is a disproportionately small amount and therefore can't be used to admonish the entire system that we're trying to build around believing people when they come forward. And it's exact same thing here. This isn't a story about Mick being a scrounger. This is about Mick being a man of uncontrollable greed and entitlement. And if that wasn't enough, you'll be unsurprised to know, Mick absolutely fucking loved the idea of celebrity. He was obsessed with fame. Even if his behavior made him infamous, as far as he was concerned, it was better to be that than to be a nobody. He was an out-of-control narcissist.

And after the Ann Widdicombe documentary, in his quest for fame and a larger house, in 2006, Mick Philpott went on Jeremy Kyle. And this morning. The Jeremy Kyle appearance is a total fucking pantomime as you can imagine and if you can't imagine you must not be British. Jeremy Kyle is like a less dignified Jerry Springer because it's actually real. It's just this egomaniac and now we're talking about Jeremy Kyle not Mick Philpott who gets these people on his show who clearly are just terrible at life and had have had a pretty shit start and then he yells at them in the name of entertainment while an equally gross audience sits there

and oohs and aahs and laughs throughout. I'm pretty sure we've spoken about Jeremy Carl on the show before, but it should be shut down, honestly. I'm embarrassed that it's a part of our culture, honestly. It's trash TV in its truest, truest sense. Absolutely. And it's not like trash TV like how Love Island is because it's only British, right?

Love Island? I don't think they have it anywhere else. I'm sorry to say I am massively addicted to that show. I know it's a huge waste of time. Don't tweet at me and tell me it is. I know it is, but it's very addictive. I feel like it's harmless. But Jeremy Kyle isn't harmless.

It's massively humiliating and hugely reductive. Jeremy Kyle actively does harm. That's my problem with it. It's not an observation. It's not a documentary. It's not helping anybody. It actively makes people's lives worse. I once heard it described by a comedian, I think, and I just thought that is exactly the perfect way to describe the Jeremy Kyle show. Imagine being injured and needing to get to a hospital. Jeremy Kyle is like someone kicking you closer and closer towards the hospital. That's what it's like.

But of course Mick loves going on Jeremy Kyle. He goes on and shouts and screams back at a red-faced Kyle. Because Mick sees himself as wronged. He sees himself as fully entitled to a massive house and living off the state and not having to work. And he sees himself as fully entitled to these two women who he can do whatever he wants to. The main reason he goes on Jeremy Kyle is because he's angry that the council won't put him in a bigger house. He's demanding to be put into a bigger house and they're saying no. And his whole thing is, we're so overcrowded, it's absolutely disgusting, Derby council won't put us in the house I want to be put in. That's his whole bag on the show.

What really makes me shudder is if he's doing this publicly, he's like this on national television. Imagine how much he dominated and controlled Mairead and Lisa. So I think it's pretty clear that he wanted to control these women totally to get whatever he wanted. And we're also not here to kink shame anyone. Like if you're in an open relationship or a thruple, are they called thruples? I feel like thruples are a thing. That's a word people that's totally your business i'm such a square i don't know me too man throuple i can't even find one decent guy let alone fucking two of them i think i read an article about it the headline was like oh woman shares boyfriend with his husband oh i think it's quite rare that it's one woman and two guys though though. But, I mean, what do I know? Literally have been single for four years.

Oh, same here. Four years. Oh, snap. Happily single. If you can emotionally handle it and no one gets hurt, then absolutely go nuts. But that is not what is happening here. This is not a consensual three-way relationship. It's Mick being controlling and abusive because he uses these women as sex objects.

Basically, either one of them would be pregnant at any one time. They took it in turns because more kids meant more money. And this unstoppable greed would eventually cost six of Mick Philpott's children their lives. In February 2012, Mick started to lose control because Lisa left him and she took her five kids with her. Lisa was done, she'd had enough of his shit and of living as his weird like live-in mistress, so he couldn't control her anymore and he was livid. He's a narcissist and he can't cope with people telling him no or rejecting him. But in this case, it's not just the rejection because Lisa had taken his kids. Now don't get me wrong, Mick is no like

fathers for justice sort. Those kids as far as he was concerned were his property. They were his cash cows and he sure as fuck wasn't going to let her get away with taking them from him. So he came up with a plan and he got his friend Paul mostly and of course Maraid in on it. Mick's behaviour from here on out is cruel and sick, but probably not that surprising given the type of person he is. And in case you're not totally convinced of the type of person he is already, don't worry because there are some massive fucking skeletons in Nick's cupboard that we are yet to come to. But it's Maraid that's the real shocker for me. She doesn't do anything to protect her children at all. For Mariread, Mick came before her children.

He came before everything. As Lisa had taken the kids, Mick was pursuing her through the courts. He was going to do whatever it took to get them back. A court date was set for the 11th of May 2012 for a custody hearing. And on the 10th of May 2012, so this is the night before they were set to appear in court, Mick put his plan into action. Mick and Maraid put their six kids to bed, then invited Mick's friend Paul Moseley over. Moseley is just as grossed as Mick, by the way, just in case you were wondering. I mean, you'd have to be to be his mate, wouldn't you? So while the six kids were falling asleep upstairs, their parents and Paul sit downstairs and get drunk. And then they have a threesome on the pool table downstairs because you can't buy class, apparently. I think the pool table is better than the front garden sex caravan, I have to say. I mean, imagine there are six kids asleep upstairs.

All they have to do is walk downstairs for like a glass of water and there's your fucking mum and dad and weird mate Paul Mosley banging away on a pool table. I wouldn't be surprised if the kids did see it. Like it doesn't seem like they were keeping it on the down low. It's just like squalid. They're so disgusting. Yeah, that's the word. So when they were done with the squalid threesome on the pool table at around half past three in the morning, they poured petrol all around the front door and around the bottom of the stairs and set it alight. The stairs in the house were made of varnished wood and the fire spread upstairs within minutes. The three of them walk out of the house through the kitchen.

Paul leaves and Maraid calls 999. what address I'm sorry? I'm six of them. Have you got six kids in the house? Yeah. Right, where are the kids, do you know? They're upstairs in the bedrooms. They're upstairs in the bedrooms, where's the fire? Yeah. He's dead in them. They've got a fire in the house somewhere.

They've set the fire somewhere? Yeah. Are there any flames there? What happened? Oh my god, please! Alright, we've got the fire service coming on the way. Hello? Your husband smashed the bedroom window. Oh, do you want me to go in?

Hello? Yes, alright. I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out. We've got the fire service on the way. I can't get out! It's alright, it's alright. As the fire spreads and the smoke began to billow out, two brothers, Jamie and Darren Butler, who lived opposite Mick on Victory Road, saw the flames and came running. According to the brothers, Mick and Marae just stood in the garden watching the house burn and at the time they took this to be shock. So Jamie and Darren

left the couple stood there and desperately tried to get into the house. Jamie and Darren were choking on the smoke for their neighbor's children. They genuinely tried everything they could to save those kids and in the documentary on this case where you hear them talking about it, they're crying. You can see how deeply affected they still are by this. That night, Mick eventually seemed to kick into action and he runs to the back of the house. And very conveniently, there was already a ladder up against the back wall. So Mick climbed the ladder and smashed the bedroom window. But there was no way he could get in.

The smoke was way too thick. As the brothers tried and failed to get into the house, the emergency services arrived way he could get in. The smoke was way too thick. As the brothers tried and failed to get into the house, the emergency services arrived, but they too struggled. Mick was yelling at them that all the kids were asleep in the back bedroom, the one that he had been trying to get into. But that wasn't the case, because when the firefighters got into the house, they found that all of the kids were in their own beds, spread out across two bedrooms, and they were all dead. One by one, they brought the children's bodies out. The last was 13 year old Duane and when he was brought out the paramedics realised

that he was still alive. They desperately tried to resuscitate Duane. In the documentary Jamie, one of the heroic brothers from across the road, recalls crying and apologising to Mick for not being able to save his children. Duane was taken to Royal Derby Hospital and put on life support. Mick asked his friends to please come to the mortuary to see his dead children with him. The friend they took, who was also called Mick, we'll call him Mick number two, was at the mortuary breaking down and crying. And Mick Philpott was comforting him, not the other way round. Meanwhile, 13-year-old Duane was fighting for his life

and the medical team decided that he needed to be moved to Birmingham Children's Hospital to a specialist unit that would be able to cope with him better. The staff tried to arrange for Mick and Mireille to go with him to Birmingham, but Mick refused. He said he needed to go to court in the morning for the custody hearing. They had to make him go with his son, who was on life support. I understand that he's got this hearing, whatever. If your kid is on life support, the court are going to understand. I feel like that's a pretty good excuse, but he just doesn't care.

And also, can't fucking stress enough, Birmingham is like, what, 30 minutes from Derby? It's no distance at all. Even that is irrelevant. Even if they were having to take a son across the country to get him to a hospital that he needed to be in, the fact that they have to make him go with his son is disgusting. And it just sums up further exactly the kind of man that Mick was. And immediately this weird behavior starts to

trigger suspicions. Friends start to wonder what was going on because Mick and Maraid, even after they'd been made to go to Birmingham Children's Hospital with Dwayne, didn't even spend that much time in the room with Dwayne. Your son is on life support. Where else are you going to be? Well, apparently Mick had better things to do because he was wandering around the hospital sexually harassing women. His mate, Mick too, had also gone to Birmingham with him to be with Mick while his son was dying, saw Mick Philpott slap a nurse's ass and laugh as his son lay dying in the other room. So, get this. The Ontario Liberals elected Bonnie Crombie as their new leader. Bonnie who?

I just sent you her profile. Her first act as leader, asking donors for a million bucks for her salary. That's excessive. She's a big carbon tax supporter. Oh yeah. Check out her record as mayor. Oh, get out of here. She even increased taxes in this economy. Yeah, higher taxes, carbon taxes. She sounds expensive. Bonnie Crombie and the Ontario Liberals. They just don't get it. That'll cost you. A message from the Ontario PC Party. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either, until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life.

I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster.

Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. I mean, this man, there's just no bounds on his sickness. And three days later, Dwayne did die, and Mick's public behavior got even weirder. Mick and Maraid went shopping, they went out eating, generally just having a great time. And bear in mind, by this point, they are getting donations are pouring in from across the country because people are heartbroken for what's happened to this family. They're just

spending the money, having a great time. It's sick. And not at all how one might behave after six of your kids have died. And at this point, I really think it's important to say that Mairead could have told the police what happened. She would have been in a lot of trouble because arson's no joke. But she doesn't. She doesn't say anything. She carried on as normal. She took no responsibility for what they'd done. And as usual, she put Mick first.

And you might be wondering at this point, what the hell happened here? Why did Mick and Mairead kill their kids? They were, after all, their meal tickets to all that money. Well, remember Lisa? This is all a plan to frame Lisa as a crazy fire-starting bitch and this is why they do it the night before the custody hearing. The idea was to make it look like the petrol had been poured through the letterbox by Lisa to kill their entire family as revenge.

How were they going to go about proving that? That's what I want to know. Did they plant a petrol drum at her house? Did they do any... No, they didn't do any of this shit. So they literally thought... This is literally Mick Philpott being like, oh, well, if I say it's Lisa, they're going to believe me.

Just sums up exactly the type of narcissist that he was. He just thought, I'll just stage this and when I tell them that that's what's happened, they'll believe me. Yeah, so he thought the police were just outright, no they'd arrest Lisa straight away he'd get his kids back and their house would have burnt down so now as a victim the council would have to agree to give them a bigger house. This is why the ladder was at the back of the house already. Mick had already told the kids to sleep in the back bedroom and he was going to wait until the fire took hold, climb up the ladder and

rescue the kids, making him a victim and the hero. He genuinely thinks that he is in control of fire. He thinks he's going to be able to assess when the fire has taken hold but not taken hold enough to get to the top bedroom and he thinks he's going to be able to swoop in on top of a petrol fire. Even more proof that he's a classic narcissistic psychopath. He's arrogant enough to think that he'd be able to do it, that he's that in control. So yes, the plan had been just to start the fire. The kids weren't supposed to die. But when they did, he was able to shrug it off pretty easily.

I can't imagine putting anyone in that, six people, let alone your children, putting them in that kind of danger genuinely lighting a fire underneath them while they sleep the kind of mindset would take to be able to do that is one thing but just the fact that when they do die he's just like oh whoops oh well well he's just like oh never mind i can get more he has 18 kids with raiden lisa but he's got fucking untold number of kids with other women like i wouldn't even be able to give you a count on how many kids this man has because he's so indifferent, so indifferent. They're gone. Oh, I'll have some more. Whatever. Now let me milk this situation for all it's worth.

And also, I know you were saying this before we were recording, the idea that you can just burn your house down and the government will give you a new one. Grenful. Grenful. Yeah, that's not going to happen. After this does happen though, and Mick points the finger at Lisa, the police, of course, did bring Lisa in and question her, and it's exactly what you said. He hadn't actually framed her very well, because the police bring her in, question her, and they rule her out almost immediately as being involved.

She had an absolutely fucking watertight alibi. The fact that he didn't even bother to check any of that. He's a fucking idiot. But regardless, the Philpott's stuck to their story. They told the police that they had been at home that night playing snooker, that Mairead had had sex with both Mick and Moseley, that Moseley had left at about 1.30am and the couple had gone to bed. They said they were then woken up by a fire alarm at 3.30am

and on hearing it they went through the kitchen, into the living room and saw the flames. And this is their account, remember, that they then went back through the kitchen, passed two fire extinguishers and a kitchen sink full of water and escaped the house. They didn't even tell the police that they tried to put out the fire. They said that they went outside and morayed called 999. And Mick said that he went off to go find a ladder and rescue the kids. But remember, Jamie and Darren, the two brothers from across the road,

said that the ladder was already in place. And if this was part of Mick's rescue plan for how he was going to get the kids out of the house, it had gone completely wrong. Because if you start a fire with petrol, it's going to produce thick, black, acrid smoke. There was just no way, absolutely no way, that he was going to get those kids out of that house. So let's pretend that this fire did actually start how they say it starts i feel like if you see a fire and you're a parent you go and get your kids i don't feel like you leave the house you don't leave the house

especially when there are two fucking fire extinguishers in your kitchen that is currently not on fire and again that's the story they tell at this point the police start to become suspicious but i do genuinely believe that if Mick had left it now and quietly slipped away, he may have gotten away with it. But that's just not Mick. Five days after the fire, Mick told police that he wanted to hold a press conference. Again, this is his narcissism. Just like with the fire, he thought he could control the situation. He genuinely thought he could trick everyone and that they would just believe whatever he said. The police officer who briefed Mick and Mairead before the press conference said,

this was when he really started to feel suspicious. That there just wasn't enough grief that he was used to seeing on the faces of parents who'd lost their kids. Philpott was almost jovial and excited. You just have to watch the press conference to really understand it and we'll post it on the Facebook group. But I can completely understand that this being the point the police being like oh hold on a minute because it literally is just like he's gone oh I know what I'll do I'll go on national television cry a bit and talk about how nice the police are and then everyone will be like oh it couldn't possibly be him look how devastated he is and during the press conference he thanked his surviving children for helping him through

the tragedy he He thanked the police, the firefighters, the nurses, the doctors. And then he sits there saying how grateful he is. There was no please help us. He never asked for help or any information. He doesn't say, help me find who did this to my children. And I feel like that would be all you'd want if you just lost six of your children. Feeling grateful is the last thing you're going to have in your wheelhouse. Six kids are dead. Six of your kids are dead. You're not going to be grateful for anything.

Absolutely. So just think about what it means. He called this press conference just for one more shot in the limelight, just a bit more attention on him, because at no point is this leading anywhere apart from to increase the suspicions of everybody watching. As Hannah said, you've really got to watch it. We will post it. There's so much fake sobbing from him and Maraid as well throughout

the entire press conference. But there's not one single tear to be seen. When you watch it, you can see he keeps covering his face up. And it really does remind me of when you watch like a child trying to cry. His face is red. He's making all the right noises. He's rubbing a wad of tissues against his eyes, but there are no tears. His face is totally dry. It's like a pantomime dame. That's what it is. Absolutely. And the same goes for Maraid. And I genuinely think when you're upset, tears immediately start. They immediately start. It's completely out of your control. Either that or you're not crying at all and you're sat in stunned silence, but you're not sobbing and heaving

with no tears coming down your eyes i think that's so key about just crying in general like i've worked with some really obnoxious men who are just like oh well like when women cry it's because they want to get out of trouble and i'm like no when i cry it is completely out of my control you don't want it to be happening as soon as you start to cry especially in a public situation the first thing you do is try to stop yourself. Exactly. And that is not what's happening here. And Jamie, one of the hero neighbours, was watching this press conference at home

and saw the same fake behaviour he saw the night of the fire. And now he was so sure that Mick was up to something that he immediately called the police and told them that they'd want to hear what he had to say. Also watching at home was Kim Hill, a woman who had had her life ruined by Mick Philpott 35 years before. In 1976, at the age of 15, Kim had met a 19-year-old Mick Philpott who was in the army. He was arrogant, cocky and violent.

Quickly, their relationship became serious and Mick was intensely controlling. He plays it by the classic crazy, sick, fuck, control freak handbook. He'd followed Kim around because he was convinced that she was cheating on him and then he started to hit her. Predictably, he'd cry after every explosion of rage saying that it would never happen again. But it always would.

And what was really shocking for me when I was reading about this relationship with Kim was that he didn't even worry about being violent to her in public. In one documentary where you hear Kim tell this story, she told of a particular time when they had been at a snooker hall and he had told her to come play with him and his mates. She stayed where she was sat and said she didn't want to because she was talking to her cousin. So Philpott walks over to her and with the fat end of the snooker cue,

he smashed her across her mouth. As she sat there shocked with blood pouring out of her mouth, not one of Philpott's friends said a word. He picked up a stick and just went back to his game. At this point, Kim ran out of the snooker hall, but Mick wasn't done. The violence just got worse and worse. One day after an argument, he smashed her knee with a hammer. He is 20 and Kim is 16. This is an insane level of violence for someone so young. It's truly terrifying. In 1978,

at the age of 17, after two years of abuse, Kim had had enough. She saw other people in her life who were happy and she was just done. But Mick wasn't about to let her leave. If he couldn't have her, no one could. So on the 4th of July 1978, Kim was returning home after a night out with her friends, something she never would have been able to do whilst with Mick. And unbeknownst to her, Mick had been following her. He came home, back to her parents' house and went to bed. Mick waited until her dad went to work at midnight and then broke into the house. And then, terrifyingly, he sat in her living room for hours.

Honestly, like, I cannot stress how fucking absolutely terrifying that is. She's asleep. She thinks she just escaped this abusive relationship. She's gone out. She's come home happy for once, I can imagine, in years. Asleep in her own house, not knowing he's fucking sat downstairs. And at this point, remember, he's 21. And this is 35 years before the fire. He's always been a violent piece of shit. And the fact that he's being this terrifying, this young, really, really shows what type of man he is. Because I think too often with this case, Mick is turned into like this comical character. They show the Jeremy Carl tapes, they show the Ann Widdicombe tapes, and it's just like, ha ha ha, no, this is who he was.

And while he sat downstairs, he decides to go through all of the drawers in the house and he found a knife. He climbed the stairs, went into Kim's bedroom and attacked her. In the frenzied attack, he stabbed Kim 27 times. And when Kim's mum heard her daughter's screams and came running, Mick stabbed her mum 11 times. Mick was convicted of attempted murder and GBH, but unbelievably served just three and a half years for this brutal attack. How? How did he serve just three and a half years? How are you getting three and a half years for this brutal attack. How? How did he serve just three and a half years? How are you getting three and a half years for attempted murder? Honestly, I have no idea.

That night, he's clearly in a premeditated attack, stabbed two people in their house while they were asleep 38 times between them. How is he getting three and a half years? I have no idea. And so when 35 years later, Kim turned on the news that day and saw the report that Mick Philpott's house had burned down, when 35 years later, Kim turned on the news that day and saw the report that Mick Philpott's house had burned down, killing his six kids, Kim told her mum he did this. And this wasn't the only woman in his life Mick had brutalised. In 1995, he met 14-year-old Tracy Keogh. He was 37. So he's a fucking pedo on top of everything else he's a nonce as well.

There are truly no limits to his depravity. As is his favourite thing to do, he got Tracy pregnant and moved her into the house at Victory Road. And almost immediately he started beating her. As awful as it sounds, Tracy was one of the lucky ones. Because she managed to escape him and keep the two kids they had together away from Mick. Now back to the press conference. Because this is when the police really started to become incredibly suspicious. So they hid microphones in the bedroom of the premier

inn where the couple were staying. They were able to do this under the regulation of investigatory powers act 2000 which allows the police to do things like bug a vehicle or a house in the interest of national security or for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime. There's very high threshold to get this. They basically have to prove that there's no other way that they can get that evidence without doing it. The bugs were put in place for a week, and after their police interviews,

Mick Philpott was recorded asking Mairead, what did you tell them about how many times I went up the ladders, how many times I tried to get in? And on the recording, you hear Mairead answer, I told them you tried everything you could to get in. Like I said to them, I wanted to run through the flames up the stairs. But you didn't though, did you Mairead? And also during this week that the recordings were up, their mate Paul Mosley also visited the couple in their room and incriminated himself as well in the crime. In one of the recordings,

Mairead gives Paul Mosley a blowjob. Mick is in the background ordering Mairead to quote, show him a good time. It seems like this was an attempt to keep Mosley on side. During that week, the three were also recorded discussing the hours before the fire and what they had told the police about their movements that night. All three are arrested and charged with the manslaughter of the six children. They pleaded not guilty. In February 2013, all three are awaiting trial when Mick writes a letter to his friend, Mick Two, saying, when I get out of jail, whether it's raining or snowing,

I'll go spend a whole day at the graveyard with the kids, with Maraid, and we will rape each other. What? Pardon? Yeah. It doesn't even make sense. He's just, he's mad. He's deviant.

What is he even talking about? What is he even talking about? What does it mean? I have no idea. When I read that, that was the letter that he had sent to Mick too, I had to read it a few times because I was like,

that doesn't make any sense and what does that even mean? He's such a fucking sick fuck. Even if it's snowing? Yeah. When has the weather ever put anyone off a rape? fuck. Even if it's snowing? Yeah. When has the weather ever put anyone off a rape? Like, that doesn't make a speck. In front of the gravestones of your kids. What? What is he even talking about? Anyway. Oh, Mick. Mick Philpott. A month later, in March 2013,

the trial began in Nottingham Crown Court. It's like Mick still just loved being the centre of attention. It didn't really seem to matter to him at all that he was on trial for six counts of manslaughter. Mick Philpott wanted his day in court. And during his trial, he bizarrely talked openly about his sex life. He told the court in detail about his passion for dogging and orgies. Question. Do non-UK people know what dogging is? I don't know. I feel like it might be a bit of a British...

Country thing. Deviancy. A British country deviancy. Dogging is like when you get in your car and you go park up next to other people in their cars and then everyone has sex in a public place, like in a lay-by. Kind of. I believe I have been informed by my dogging informants... Rumour has it.

Rumour has it that you drive to a secluded country lane type situation and you wait on the side of the road and there's like a you when you see another car coming you can flash your interior lights like a secret code amount of times so they know that that's what you're there for and then the other car pulls over and then you all get in the same car and have sex with each other i think bloody hell i'm pretty sure i've seen the interior light flicking on the side of the road is it like a hey come here yeah i think it is oh my god is this what happens when you just live out in the fucking country in england that you just like become a dog there's nothing to do apart from shag each other in cars literally that is so vile but like whatever you think of that and you know

what if that's your bag go have a great time. But if you're on Trafford Manslaughter, probably don't bring it up. Don't really see how it's relevant. Why is he bringing this up? Yeah, can you imagine? They're not going to have been like, okay, Mick Philpot, please give us a list of your kinks. I would like all of them, please. Tell us a bit about yourself. What are some of your interests? Oh, I just love dogging. Fucking love dogging. Ugh. Yuck.

My interests include putting my penis in various things. Oh my god. Genuinely, why is he bringing this up in a trial? No idea, but he does. It's like he's his own best character witness. And in court as well, you have Jamie and Darren Butler, the two heroic brothers who tried everything they could to save the Philpott children. They came and they gave evidence against Mick and Mairead.

They told the court all about their behaviour the night of the fire. But there was already more than enough to convict them. And on the 3rd of April, all three were found guilty of manslaughter. Mairead and Mosley were sentenced to 17 years in prison and Philpott got life with a minimum term of 15 years. And after the trial, there was the funeral. And it's honestly just totally heartbreaking. There's so much footage of the funeral and you just see these six tiny little kid coffins being carried in. The little girl ones have got like flowers and little princesses

painted on them. The boys ones have got little like fire trucks and cars and footballs. And it's just like, oh my God, they're so tiny. Those poor, poor children. They were brought into this world for money and they were killed out of greed. Nothing more. It so just sums up exactly how disposable people were to Mick Philpott. Because Mick Philpott should never have been allowed to hurt another person after what he did to Kim Hill back in 1978. But Philpott was a violent, psychopathic piece of shit who spent his entire life controlling and brutalising the people in his life. And eventually, six innocent children lost their lives because of him.

But what about Mairead? Do we really think that she was that under his spell? Because before anyone feels too sorry for her, yes, of course Mick was abusive. And I also think there is something to be said for if you're exposed to that amount of abuse over a period of time, it's not completely unheard of that you turn to abuse yourself. But it does seem like she was pretty abusive as well. Her stepson, Mikey, Mick's son from another woman, has recently come forward to say that Mairead sexually abused him from the age of 14. He said that one day she was upset and confided in him that she had had an abortion after getting pregnant by another man. He had tried to comfort her and then she kissed him and then they had sex.

He said it felt dirty and he knew that it was bad and wrong, but at the time he didn't really understand what it meant. Mikey said that he has told his story so that everyone knows what kind of woman Mairead really is. And as you've said, there are several points where she can turn him in. And I can understand her being too scared to, but she does, she goes along with it. She's fully complicit, I think. We're not by any way saying that Mick wasn't abusive towards her, but she never even seems to show the level of grief that you would expect even if the fire had accidentally killed all those children. She's fine with this. She's absolutely fine to go along with it.

And I think it's absolutely fair that she is called out on it and that she got what she got in terms of 17 years in prison. She was absolutely complicit in this. That is the story of Mick Philpott. Oh, what a scumbag. No, it's not easy listening, but yeah, thanks for listening, guys. Thank you for listening. And you, please, if you don't already, follow us on the Instagram and on the Twitter,

at Red Handed The Pod. And we also have a Facebook discussion group. We'll be posting loads of videos about this case on there, so get involved if you're not already. And please don't forget to tell your mates. Absolutely. And if you want to go that one step further and you want to help support the show you can do so by going to www.patreon.com slash red handed where you could just give us like a dollar a month if you think that that's what we deserve and here are some people who have already done that we have nicola hair sign car Carly Pettet. Stube Watson. Scott Reynolds. John Casey.

Iona Holcomb. Genevieve Robertale. Jared Dayhoff. Tom Boll. Joe Gorland. Jose Rene Delgado. Joe. Just Joe.

Mark Collins. Felicity Dale. Natasha Nunn. Lisa. David Snape. All caps. Like it. Adam Hairless Adam Harless, Khalifa, like as in Wiz? I really hope it is Wiz Khalifa.

Maybe. Bethan Truman, Erin Peterson, Mitchie, Megan Clayton, Lexi Gardner, Donna Seeley, Corin M, Kimberly Matton, Martin, just Martin, Sarah Price, Lana 13, Kathleen Noble, Rebecca Knight, Ray Gaither, Laura Gayer, Kelly, Sarah Peel, Luke Matthew Sutton, Elizabeth Morris, Lissa Ayala. Thank you so much, guys. It makes such a difference. And it also helps us plan for the future because we want the podcast to keep growing and money is very helpful in doing that so thank you very much absolutely and before we say bye today one minor correction from last week tom cruise hasn't left scientology he's still very much there i didn't think so because isn't the whole thing that john trafalter wants to leave but they can't he can't leave because they know he's gay and if he'll

leave they'll spread the gay news they'll spread the gate because no one else has figured that out no one else has figured out that john travolta's gay if i know most people you know they also sign those billionaire contracts with them so you can't just really up and walk you've got it you've got to stay yeah but leah remini left she was like fuck you where's your wife yeah it's uh it's something else i mean i can't really i can't really look at that man. So I struggle to read any articles about what he's actually doing. And, you know, I'm not surprised he hasn't left. I think it's probably the most interesting thing about him is that he's a Scientologist.

Good for him. Good for him. Anyway. All right, guys. We'll see you next week. See you next week, guys. Bye. Bye.

Bye. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery+. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge,

but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me. And it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding.

And this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about.

Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom, but I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real.

From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is The Rise and Fall of Diddy. Listen to The Rise and Fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery+.