A father accused of killing his six children in a house fire sobbed in court Wednesday as a jury heard the frantic 999 call he and his wife made during the blaze.
Mick Philpott, 56, denied any involvement in starting the fire at his home in Derby last May.
Philpott and his wife Mairead, 31, both wept as Nottingham Crown Court heard a recording of the desperate call they made to emergency services while the children were trapped inside the burning house.
Wiping away tears as he answered questions in the witness box, Philpott told the court he was not involved in starting the blaze but had suspicions as to who was.
Philpott’s lawyer Anthony Orchard QC asked him if he was connected to the setting of the fire or knew who did it, to which Philpott replied “No”.
When asked “Do you have your suspicions?”, he replied “I do”.
The couple and a third defendant, Paul Mosley, 46, all deny six separate counts of manslaughter.
The couple’s daughter Jade, 10, and sons John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six and Jayden, five, died during the blaze while their brother Duwayne, 13, died three days later in hospital.
Giving evidence at the start of his defence, Philpott described how he tried to rescue his children as the fire began to engulf the house in Victory Road, Allenton, in the early hours of May 11 last year.
Philpott told the court he regretted his family’s television appearance on the Jeremy Kyle Show, which resulted in his children being bullied and the family receiving death threats.
Philpott lived with his wife and six children.
Prosecutors allege the three defendants started the fire in a botched plan to frame Philpott’s ex-girlfriend Lisa Willis, who lived with the couple in the house before moving out three months before the fire.
The trial continues.
Father denies starting fire which killed his six children
