Mick Philpott and wife Mairead face sentencing on Thursday after being found guilty of the manslaughter of six of their children in a deliberate house fire in Derby last year.
Judge Kathryn Thirlwall is set to announce the judgement after the jury at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday returned unanimous manslaughter verdicts on Philpott and accomplice Paul Mosley, 46, while Mairead Philpott, 32, was found guilty by a majority decision.
Prosecutors said the couple set fire to their home on May 11 in an attempt to frame Philpott’s 29-year-old former live-in girlfriend and claim custody of her five children — four of whom he fathered.
She moved out three months earlier, taking her children.
Philpott, who has fathered 17 children by five different women, intended to rescue the six children still living in the house through a bedroom window, but the petrol-fuelled fire spread faster than he expected and the window would not open.
It emerged after the verdict that he had already served jail time for the attempted murder of a previous girlfriend.
His lawyer Anthony Orchard on Wednesday said his client faced “hatred and hostility” in Britain for the rest of his life.
Orchard said that despite his faults, “he was a very good father and loved those children”.
“There’s no evidence at any stage that he deliberately harmed any of them.
“He will have to live with the hatred and hostility of the press and the public for the rest of his life,” he added.
Jade Philpott, 10, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five, died on the morning of the fire while Mairead Philpott’s son from a previous relationship died later in hospital
Mick Philpott to be sentenced over kids' deaths
