Mom Who Killed Her 6 Kids Released From Prison After Serving Only Half Of Her Sentence

Mom Who Killed Her 6 Kids Released From Prison After Serving Only Half Of Her Sentence

A British mother who killed her six children by allowing them to die in a house fire she and her former partner set has been released from prison after only serving half of her sentence. Mairead Philpott was previously sentenced to 17 years behind bars for the kids’ manslaughter but will now walk free, in what crime prevention experts describe as an extreme miscarriage of justice.

  1. Philpott and her husband Mick were arrested in 2012. The couple, from Derby, set the house on fire and planned to blame it on Mick’s former mistress, Lisa Willis, who had left the house with her children around that time. They also planned to use the fire as an opportunity to be allocated a bigger house by the local council.
  2. They were unable to save the children. While it’s unclear whether or not Philpott and her husband intended for the children to die, the fact that they set the fire with petrol meant that they were unable to rescue the children and they died in the blaze. Ten-year-old Jade, 9-year-old John, 6-year-old Jesse, 5-year-old Jayden, and 8-year-old Jack, and 13-year-old Duwayne all had their lives cut tragically short.
  3. Philpott only served 8.5 years of her sentence. Now she’ll be moved to a halfway house for three months before she’s given a new identity. She’ll receive counseling and life coaching during that time before she’s ultimately helped to find a new place to live. She’ll also have to adhere to a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. curfew for the immediate future.
  4. Her own mother doesn’t even want to see her. Philpotts’ mother, Vera, said she doesn’t ever want to have contact with or even see her daughter again for the rest of her life. “I don’t want her near my door. The sentence is not nearly long enough and we disown her after what she’s done,” she insisted. Her husband remains behind bars, having been given a 15-year minimum sentence.
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
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