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| Derby fire deaths: Mother 'tried to take own life' | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A mother accused of starting a house fire which killed her six children tried to take her own life when her husband's mistress left, a court heard. | A mother accused of starting a house fire which killed her six children tried to take her own life when her husband's mistress left, a court heard. |
| Mairead Philpott, along with her husband Mick and friend Paul Mosley, deny the manslaughter of the six children in Derby on 11 May. | Mairead Philpott, along with her husband Mick and friend Paul Mosley, deny the manslaughter of the six children in Derby on 11 May. |
| It is alleged they started the fire to frame Mr Philpott's former mistress Lisa Willis during a custody battle. | It is alleged they started the fire to frame Mr Philpott's former mistress Lisa Willis during a custody battle. |
| Nottingham Crown Court was told the two women were "like sisters". | Nottingham Crown Court was told the two women were "like sisters". |
| On Wednesday Ms Willis told the court she moved into the Philpott's Derby home when she was 17 and began a sexual relationship with Mr Philpott. | |
| Mrs Philpott, who was not married to him at the time, was aware of the arrangement and the women alternated the nights they spent with Mr Philpott. | |
| Ms Willis then told the court Mr Philpott had been violent towards her in the past and controlled all her money. | |
| In February 2011, she told her lover she was taking her four children swimming and left the family home. | |
| 'Sisterly confidences' | |
| Under cross-examination on Thursday, Mrs Philpott's barrister Sean Smith asked Ms Willis about the time she left, leaving Mrs Philpott behind. | |
| "When she was left behind at the beginning she was the one who was trying to get you to come back by texting?" he asked. | |
| "Yes," Miss Willis answered. | |
| "You know that Mairead tried to take her own life?" Mr Smith asked. "Do you know that in the suicide note that she was saying you were like the sister she never had and she loved you?" | |
| Miss Willis said she did not know exactly what Mrs Philpott had written but agreed they had been like sisters, were close and confided in one another. | |
| She said she remembered Mrs Philpott confiding in her that she had been abused when she was a child and had been raped in her teenage years. | |
| Jade Philpott, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jessie, six, and Jayden, five, all died after the fire engulfed their home in Victory Road, Allenton. Their brother Duwayne, 13, died three days later in hospital. | |
| Mr Philpott, 56, and Mrs Philpott, 31, both formerly of Victory Road, Allenton, and Mr Mosley, 46, of Cecil Street, all Derby, are charged with six counts of manslaughter; one for each of the children. | |
| The case continues. |