Wife and mistress 'took it in turns' to sleep with father accused of starting fire that killed six children... and his lover was a bridesmaid at defendants' wedding

Posing proudly on his wedding day with his mistress acting as bridesmaid, this is the father of 17 accused of killing six of his children in a house fire designed to frame her.
The image can be published after a jury trying Michael and Mairead Philpott were yesterday told of the crucial role played by 29-year-old Lisa Willis at her then lover’s second wedding.
Another photograph of the 2003 nuptuals obtained by the Daily Mail shows Miss Willis, in a blue trouser suit, posing with Philpott’s bride, Mairead, 31, who is dressed in cream.

 

Wedding: Michael Philpott on his wedding day with his mistress Lisa Willis, 29, acting as a bridesmaid (pictured left - face obscured for legal reasons) and an unknown woman (right)

The court has heard Philpott, 56, his wife, and his ‘best mate’, Paul Mosley, 45, set the fire in a ‘joint enterprise’ to ‘set up’ Miss Willis – three months after she walked out on him with her five children.
Just hours after the fatal blaze last May, Philpott and Miss Willis had been due to face each other in a court custody hearing to decide their children’s place of residency.

Relationship: The court was told that Michael Philpott (right) would sleep with his wife Mairead Philpott (left) and his former mistress Lisa Willis on alternate nights

Prosecutor Richard Latham QC said the alleged ‘set-up’ went ‘horribly wrong’ when the fire went out of control because too much petrol was used, killing the six children Philpott had with Mairead.
Yesterday, a court heard that Miss Willis had a ten-year sexual relationship with Philpott, during which time she lived at the ‘cramped’ three-bedroom home he shared with his wife and up to 12 of his children.
Philpott slept with his wife and mistress on alternate nights.
As well as the six children Philpott had with his wife – who all perished in the blaze – Miss Willis had four with the unemployed former baker, plus a fifth by another man who was raised as part of the family.
Miss Willis walked out of the Derby address in February last year.
The court heard how Philpott – who bathed as little as once a month – had twice appeared on television with his two lovers in the mid-2000s.
The appearances on the Jeremy Kyle Show and a documentary with the then Tory MP Anne Widdecombe led to Philpott being ‘lambasted as a benefits scrounger’, with the family seen as ‘shameless’, the court heard.
Giving evidence from behind a curtain, Miss Willis, 29, told the jury she and Mairead Philpott ‘took it in turns’ to sleep with Philpott, initially in a double bed in the box room of the home and, later in a caravan on the driveway.
Miss Willis added: ‘We never had all three of us together. One night it was with me, one night with Mairead.’  The woman who was not sharing Philpott’s bed would sleep on the sofa or ‘upstairs with the children’.

 

Accused: Michael Philpott pictured with the six children who died in the house fire. Philpott, his wife and a third defendant deny six counts of manslaughter in relation to the deaths of the six children

 

Scene: The children, five boys and a girl, aged between five and 13, died in the fire at their house in Derby, pictured. Flowers were left at the scene

Nottingham Crown Court heard the girls would share one bedroom and the boys another, with both women’s eldest children eventually sharing the box room.
Miss Willis said that when the Philpotts decided to marry, she was a bridesmaid, and she and Mairead Philpott were good friends.
She treated their children as her own, she said, regularly sharing childcare responsibilities with the other woman, and said she was ‘devastated’ when the six Philpott children died.
Miss Willis said the two women were responsible for housework and feeding the children, while Philpott would ‘do nothing – just sit and watch telly’.

Jade Philpott, 10

Jayden Philpott, 5

John Philpott, 9

 

 

Jack Philpott, 8

Jesse Philpott, 6

Duwayne Philpott, 13

 

 

She said that when the children approached him for help with homework or to read to them, he would tell them to speak to the two women because he was ‘trying to watch telly’.
Miss Willis later agreed with a suggestion from Anthony Orchard QC, defending Philpott, that ‘personal hygiene was not a high priority’ for the father.
She added: ‘He never changed his clothes’, but agreed that Philpott was a ‘good father’, who was never violent towards the children.
She admitted a court affidavit she had signed as part of the custody battle wrongly stated that Philpott was violent towards her on a ‘weekly basis’.
During cross-examination, Miss Willis, a former waitress and cleaner, also admitted that during the first two years of her relationship with Philpott, she two-timed her lover with his own grown-up son from a previous relationship.

 

Hearing: Miss Willis told the court the woman who would be sleeping with Philpott on any given night went to a caravan with him, while the other woman slept inside with the children

The court heard Miss Willis, an orphan, was introduced to Philpott in October 2001 by her older sister, Amanda Cousins, who used to babysit for him.
Miss Willis lived with Mrs Cousins from the age of 12, when their mother died, to 16, when she gave birth to a neighbour’s baby.
In 2002, Philpott invited Miss Willis, then 17, to move in to the house he shared with Mairead and their two young children, because she wanted a bigger property than her two-bedroom council house.
Philpott, a father of 17 by five women, became known as ‘Shameless Mick’ in 2007 after demanding a larger house to share with his wife, his girlfriend Lisa Willis, and eight of his offspring.
The couple, together with forklift driver Mosley, all of Derby, are each charged with the manslaughter of the Philpotts’ children – Duwayne, 13, Jade, ten, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five. All three defendants deny the charges. The trial continues.

Floral tributes adorn the pavement outside the house following the fire