Rebecca SherdleyEast Midlands
A man who was jailed for killing six children in a house fire has died.
Jade Philpott, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five, died in the blaze in Victory Road, Derby, in May 2012. Duwayne, 13, died days later in hospital.
Their parents Mick and Mairead Philpott were jailed in April 2013, along with friend Paul Mosley, after being convicted of manslaughter.
Mosley, who was out of prison on licence having served half of his 17-year sentence, was found dead at a property in Portsmouth on Saturday.
Hampshire Police said the 58-year-old’s next of kin have been told and a file will be prepared for the coroner.
According to a family member, he is believed to have recently suffered a heart attack.
The Philpotts and Mosley faced trial at Nottingham Crown Court in 2013.
The jury heard the children were killed after Mick Philpott, 63, poured petrol on the floor of the house in Victory Road and set it alight on 11 May 2012, while Mairead spoke to emergency services.
Philpott started the fire to frame Lisa Willis, his live-in mistress, and gain custody of her children but he did not appreciate how quickly it would spread, the court heard.
Prosecutors said it was a “plan that went horribly wrong”.
In her sentencing remarks, Mrs Justice Thirlwall said it was clear the fire was Mick Philpott’s idea.
But she said Mairead’s children died because she put her husband first.
Although it was unclear, during the trial, exactly what Mosley’s role in starting the fire had been, the judge said she was “quite sure” he removed petrol containers from the scene.
She told him he had been “prepared to go along with the plan and to join in with it” to please his “then friend, Michael Philpott”, and had subjected the children to a “terrifying ordeal”.
Mosley was released on parole in 2021 before being sent back to prison the following year for breaching the terms of his release.
He was granted parole again in 2023 and released from HMP Durham in January 2024.
The Ministry of Justice said his sentence had been due to end in November 2029.
Mairead Philpott was sentenced to 17 years in prison and was released on licence in 2020.
Mick Philpott was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years.
