This is Derbyshire --Domineering Mick Philpott seemed to like his women young and vulnerable so he could control them. If he did not get his own way he would become violent.
MAIREAD PHILPOTT
His wife, Mairead, first met Philpott at a Derby pub when she was 17. She described herself as being "at rock bottom" after coming out of an abusive relationship.
The mum-of-one, who had her hair cut off by her former partner, was in the Osmaston Park Hotel, Derby, in October 2000 when Mick, then aged 43, asked if she wanted to play darts.
She told Nottingham Crown Court how she saw Philpott as her "guardian angel" as he "made her feel safe" after claiming she had been sexually abused in the past.
Within a short time Mairead, who already had son Duwayne from a previous relationship, had moved in with Philpott at 18 Victory Road.
Within a couple of years Philpott proposed to her in hospital 10 minutes after their first child, Jade, was born and Mairead recalled she felt "really happy".
She was asked about when Philpott began a relationship with Lisa Willis and Mairead told the court: "I was hurt but I never mentioned about being hurt."
Mairead said Philpott sought permission before things with Lisa developed sexually but she said she agreed to it because: "I was scared of losing what I had – a family, a home."
By the time of her wedding in May 2003, Lisa Willis was a bridesmaid at the "unconventional" marriage ceremony but Mairead insisted they were "all happy".
The court heard on the night of the fire Mairead had sex with family friend and co- defendant Paul Mosley, known as Shakey, on the snooker table of the family home.
She said she was "ashamed" of this and denied the prosecutor's claims that she did this because the couple "needed to keep Shakey on side".
Mairead also said she initiated the idea of having sex in public – "dogging"– as it was the only way her husband "paid her any attention".
During the course of her cross-examination, she also claimed she was a "slave" to Philpott. Asked why she earlier described him as her "guardian angel", she said: "He was when we first met."
The court also heard how the mother-of-six worked as a cleaner at the then Derby City General Hospital and she enjoyed her time away from the family – but all her earnings were taken by Philpott.
Mairead's work colleague, Claire Tyler, gave evidence at the trial and told how Mairead went from being "bubbly and talkative" when not in the company of her husband but quiet and subdued in his presence.
She said: "She loved her job. She saw it as a break from her family life. Mick would come and pick her up from work at 10pm and wait outside. She would then go from being bubbly to just not talking. She completely changed."
Miss Tyler said Mairead was part of the work lottery syndicate but, on the occasions when they won small amounts of money, it would be handed to her husband.
LISA WILLIS
Lisa Willis was just 17 when she first met Philpott as she walked along the street where he lived with Mairead – Victory Street, Allenton.
It was shortly before Christmas in 2000 and she was with her sister, Amanda Cousins, when they struck up a conversation with Philpott, 43, who invited her to a New Year's Eve party.
Within a few weeks he had asked her and her young son, Jordan, to move in with him and Mairead.
It offered the teenage mum some security after a sad start in life with the death of her dad when she was five, and the death of her mother from alcoholism when she was 12.
While giving evidence at the trial from behind a screen, she explained: "I wanted a bigger house for me and my son and Mick offered to let us move into his place."
She said that within a few weeks, a sexual relationship started with Philpott – and his wife Mairead was happy to "share" him.
The women "took it in turns" to spend the night with Philpott – but never altogether.
But a violent side to Philpott also emerged and she told how he once attacked her with a plank of wood hitting her "five to ten times".
She said the alleged assault happened in front of her toddler son, Jordan.
She told the jury: "Mick asked me who Jordan's father was and I turned round and said it was Graham Betteridge (a former partner).
"He said it wasn't, he said it was Ian Cousins (Ms Willis's sister's husband) and then he hit me with a two-by-two piece of wood in front of Jordan."
Asked by Richard Latham QC, "how many times?", Ms Willis replied "five to ten".
"He hit my legs, arms and body."
During her ten-year relationship with Philpott, she went on to have four children with him.
But he controlled her. She told the jury how Philpott forced her to pay her wages into his bank account.
He would ferry her to and from a job in hospitality at the University of Derby and regularly accused her of having affairs with colleagues. She left that job and started another as a cleaner. Again, Philpott ferried her to and from work each day – and all her wages went into his bank account.
Miss Willis said Philpott had control of her finances and her relationship with her sister, Amanda, which had fizzled out. She eventually rekindled her relationship with Amanda through Facebook and managed to escape from Philpott in February last year.
Prosecutors say this was the catalyst for him later starting the fire in his Allenton home in a bid to frame her as they fought a custody battle.
HEATHER KEHOE
Heather was aged 14 when she met Mick Philpott, who was married at the time and aged 37.
They met at a fishing lake near her home in Rainworth, Nottinghamshire.
In court, she talked about when they first met. She said: "He was very outgoing – he spoke to everybody. He came across as quite amusing and charming."
However, she said there were early signs of a dominant side to him.
She said within a year they had started a sexual relationship and were at one time caught in bed together at the home he shared with wife Pamela Lomax and their three children.
The incident in 1996 led to him leaving his wife and taking Miss Kehoe with him to set up home in Victory Road, Allenton, where the Philpott children later died.
By now she was 16 and had gone with Philpott against her parents' wishes. She had fallen pregnant by September of that year with their first child together, whom they named Mikey.
But Miss Kehoe said things were far from happy – and she described how he pinned her to the floor when she was pregnant.
Miss Kehoe said: "I felt very homesick. I told him I wanted to go home and he just flipped. He told me it wasn't happening. He put the fear of God into me. I felt I did not have any options (but to stay)."
Asked by Richard Latham QC, the prosecuting barrister, how her relationship was with Philpott, she said it was "like a whirlwind".
He would attack her when he did not get his own way and on one occasion got their own son to punch her in the face and kick her following an argument.
She said: "Dominant is the right word to describe him. Mick was a Jekyll and Hyde character. He knew what to say to me to make me feel special."
Mr Latham said: "What about when he was angry?"
Miss Kehoe said: "He would hit me or lash out. He had to have everything his own way. I soon learned what his own way was – he would lash out."
Mr Latham asked about the two children they had together, Mikey and Aiden. She referred to Mikey as a "daddy's boy" and said Philpott was disappointed when Aiden was born a boy, rather than the girl he wanted.
She said: "I was not getting pregnant, which didn't please him.
"He said I was not a real woman as I could not give him the children he wanted. He said I wasn't half the woman Pam was."
She said during one argument he threatened to lock her outside, which, she told the court, was a punishment Philpott had given her before. She said: "He called Mikey over and told him to punch me in the face and kick me."
In court at this point, Ms Kehoe started to cry while Philpott, sitting in the dock, shook his head.
Mr Latham said: "Did Mikey do that?" to which she replied: "He did".
Ms Kehoe said she was sent back out to work, as a cleaner at East Midlands Airport, just a month after Mikey was born, while Philpott stayed at home with the children.
She told the court prior to moving to Derby she had a savings account which contained about £1,500, which Philpott spent.
She also claimed Philpott would get her wages, first from her job at the airport and then later from S&A Foods, in Normanton, paid into his bank account.
**THE PHILPOTT TRIAL: Visit our Philpott trial channel here for all related stories in the fire death case.* Reported by This is 14 hours ago.