A man accused of killing six of his children in a fire at his Derby home tells a court he did not start the blaze, but that he has his suspicions about who did.
Mr Philpott, 56, denied any involvement in starting the fire at his home in Allenton, Derby, in May last year.
Jade, 10; John, nine; Jack, eight; Jesse, six: and Jayden, five, died in the fire. Their brother Duwayne, 13, died three days later in hospital.
Appearing in the witness box at Nottingham crown court, Philpott was asked if he had “set”, or was connected to the “setting” of, the fire.
He said no to both questions, but when asked if he had suspicions about who was responsible, he replied: “I do.”
Philpott, his 31-year-old wife Mairead Philpott, and a third defendant, 46-year-old Paul Mosley, all deny six separate counts of manslaughter.
Philpott was asked about his family’s appearance on ITV’s Jeremy Kyle Show and told the court he regretted this. Anthony Orchard QC asked him: “Why did you decide to do it?” Philpott replied: “We all decided. At that time we needed a bigger house.”
The court heard that the children were bullied following their appearance on the programme. “They (people) called them brats, scum of the earth,” Philpott said. He told the court that he and his children received death threats afterwards.
Mr Orchard asked: “Was it a good time for the family?” “No,” Philpott replied.
He was asked about claims that the fire was started last year because the family wanted a bigger house. Philpott told the court: “The house was quite sufficient.”
During the trial, which started last month, jurors heard that Philpott shared the family home with his wife and their six children, all of whom died in the fire, and also with his live-in mistress, 29-year-old Lisa Willis. Miss Willis lived in the property with her five children, four of whom were fathered by Philpott, until she finally walked out with the youngsters in February last year.
Philpott told the court he had no clue beforehand that Miss Willis was going to leave. Asked about their relationship, he said: “At that particular time I thought that me and Lisa had this bond that was inseparable.” He had discussed it with his wife because she was “concerned” about it, he said.
Mr Orchard asked him: “How were you treating Lisa?”
Philpott replied: “I treated her like a queen.”
He told the court that he was spending a lot of time with his wife and slept in the evenings with Miss Willis. Mr Orchard asked him about openly discussing his desire to divorce his wife and marry Miss Willis.
“What was Mairead’s reaction to that?” Mr Orchard asked.
“She had no reaction, that was the problem,” Philpott replied.
“Mairead, was she going to leave?”
“No, Mairead was not leaving. She was not going anywhere,” Philpott said.
“Mairead will always be my wife, even if we got divorced.”
The court heard that Philpott has asked his wife for a divorce three or four times over a period of years.
The trial continues.