Dad From Hell

0:00 Speaker 1: The world often says that every child deserves a parent,

0:03 Speaker 1: but sometimes the darkest tragedies come from the very people

0:07 Speaker 1: meant to protect them. This is the horrifying story of

0:10 Speaker 1: Mick Philpot, a man driven by greed, control, manipulation, and obsession.

0:17 Speaker 1: A man who fathered seventeen children not out of love,

0:21 Speaker 1: but because he saw them as tools, a way to

0:23 Speaker 1: collect money, attention, and power, and in twenty twelve, six

0:28 Speaker 1: innocent children paid the ultimate price. It all began in Derby, England.

0:33 Speaker 1: Born in nineteen fifty six, Mick Philpott grew up into

0:36 Speaker 1: a violent and deeply disturbed man, charming on the surface,

0:40 Speaker 1: terrifying behind closed doors. People who first met him often

0:44 Speaker 1: described him as charismatic, funny, and confident, but that mask

0:49 Speaker 1: never lasted long. At just nineteen years old, he began

0:53 Speaker 1: dating a fifteen year old girl named Kim Hill. To outsiders,

0:57 Speaker 1: they looked like a normal young couple. Behind the scenes,

1:01 Speaker 1: Philpott was already showing signs of the monster he would become.

1:05 Speaker 1: He controlled Kim completely. The abuse started gradually, insults, intimidation, threats,

1:11 Speaker 1: before turning violently physical. He beat her in public, humiliated

1:16 Speaker 1: her in front of strangers, Once in a pub, he

1:20 Speaker 1: smashed a pool cue across her mouth so hard she

1:22 Speaker 1: began bleeding instantly, while everyone around them watched in silence.

1:26 Speaker 1: Another time, he broke her arm and fractured her kneecap

1:30 Speaker 1: with a hammer. He even shot her in the groin

1:32 Speaker 1: with a crossbow because he thought her dress was too short.

1:36 Speaker 1: Kim was terrified of him. She lied about her injuries

1:39 Speaker 1: to protect him. She lived in constant fear. Finally, in

1:44 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, after years of abuse, she tried to

1:47 Speaker 1: leave him. That decision nearly cost her life. After receiving

1:51 Speaker 1: her break up letter, philpot snapped. He went a wall

1:55 Speaker 1: from the army, broke into her home and attacked her

1:58 Speaker 1: while she lay in bed. He stabbed her twenty seven

2:01 Speaker 1: times with a nine inch knife while screaming If I

2:04 Speaker 1: can't have you, nobody will. When Kim's mother tried to intervene,

2:08 Speaker 1: he stabbed her too. By the time paramedics arrived, both

2:12 Speaker 1: women were barely alive. Philpotts stood on the stairs, still

2:16 Speaker 1: holding the bloody knife, calmly telling them I wouldn't bother

2:21 Speaker 1: She's a goner. Kim died twice during emergency surgery before

2:25 Speaker 1: doctors managed to save her. Yet despite the brutality of

2:29 Speaker 1: the attack, Philpott served only a little over three years

2:32 Speaker 1: in prison. Three years, and when he walked free, he

2:36 Speaker 1: was even more dangerous than before. Over the following decades,

2:40 Speaker 1: Philpot built a chaotic empire around himself, manipulating vulnerable women,

2:45 Speaker 1: fathering child after child, and living almost entirely off government benefits.

2:51 Speaker 1: One by one, young women entered his life. One by

2:54 Speaker 1: one they became trapped. There was Heather Keo, who met

2:58 Speaker 1: him as a teenager. He used her physically and emotionally,

3:02 Speaker 1: locking her outside in the cold and threatening her with knives.

3:06 Speaker 1: Then came Muried Philpott, a vulnerable young single mother who

3:10 Speaker 1: believed Philpott was her guardian angel. And then Lisa Willis,

3:14 Speaker 1: another teenager, another struggling mother, another woman pulled into Philpott's

3:19 Speaker 1: toxic world. Eventually, all three women became part of Philpott's

3:24 Speaker 1: bizarre household. He lived with his wife and his mistress

3:27 Speaker 1: under the same roof, while fathering more and more children.

3:31 Speaker 1: The family squeezed into a small council house in Derby,

3:34 Speaker 1: as Philpott constantly demanded larger homes and more benefits from

3:38 Speaker 1: the government. To him, children weren't human beings, they were

3:42 Speaker 1: income tension leverage. He became obsessed with fame, appearing on

3:47 Speaker 1: TV shows and documentaries proudly defending his lifestyle while the

3:52 Speaker 1: public watched in disbelief. On programs like the Jeremy Calchat,

3:56 Speaker 1: Philpott argued with hosts, boasted about his family, and portrayed

4:01 Speaker 1: himself as misunderstood. He loved the cameras, loved the headlines,

4:05 Speaker 1: but inside the home things were collapsing, violence, fear, manipulation,

4:12 Speaker 1: and eventually betrayal. In February twenty twelve, Lisa Willis finally

4:17 Speaker 1: escaped after years of abuse. She secretly left Philpot and

4:22 Speaker 1: took her five children with her. She moved in with

4:24 Speaker 1: relatives and prepared for a custody battle. Philpott was furious,

4:29 Speaker 1: not because he missed the children, because he was losing control,

4:34 Speaker 1: losing benefits, losing part of the image he had built,

4:38 Speaker 1: and that rage led to one of the most horrifying

4:40 Speaker 1: crimes in modern British history. Philpott came up with a

4:44 Speaker 1: sickening plan. He Maraid and family friend Paul Moseley decided

4:49 Speaker 1: to set fire to their own home. The idea was

4:51 Speaker 1: simple blame Lisa for the fire, make her appear unstable

4:56 Speaker 1: and dangerous. Then, when custody of the children in court,

5:00 Speaker 1: Philpott imagined himself as the hero. He planned to rescue

5:04 Speaker 1: the children dramatically from the burning house while the world watched.

5:08 Speaker 1: But the fire spread faster than expected, much faster. In

5:12 Speaker 1: the early hours of May eleventh, twenty twelve, flames tore

5:16 Speaker 1: through the philpot home in Derby. Upstairs, six children were trapped,

5:21 Speaker 1: Jade philpott Age ten, John philpott Age nine, Jack philpott

5:27 Speaker 1: Age seven, Jesse philpott Age six, Jaden philpott Age five,

5:33 Speaker 1: and Dwayne philpott Age thirteen. The temperatures upstairs reached over

5:38 Speaker 1: five hundred degrees celsius. The children never had a chance.

5:42 Speaker 1: Five died at the scene, Dwayne died in hospital two

5:46 Speaker 1: days later. The country was horrified. Crowds gathered outside the

5:50 Speaker 1: burned house, leaving flowers, candles, and teddy bears. Neighbors cried

5:56 Speaker 1: on television. Some even defended Philpot at first, believing no

6:00 Speaker 1: father could do something so evil, but investigators quickly began

6:04 Speaker 1: noticing strange things. Philpott seemed oddly calm. He enjoyed media interviews.

6:10 Speaker 1: He flirted with female officers at the mortuary. He joked

6:14 Speaker 1: around while viewing his children's bodies. Then the evidence began

6:18 Speaker 1: piling up. Petrol traces were found on clothing, a discarded

6:23 Speaker 1: fuel container was recovered. Police bugged hotel rooms and police vehicles,

6:28 Speaker 1: secretly recording conversations between Philpot, Mariade, and Moseley. The recordings

6:34 Speaker 1: were devastating. Philpott admitted responsibility. He worried about inconsistencies in

6:40 Speaker 1: their story. At one point, he could even be heard

6:43 Speaker 1: discussing the failed plan while his wife performed sexual acts

6:47 Speaker 1: on their accomplice. Nearby behaviors so disturbing investigators were left stunned.

6:52 Speaker 1: The truth became impossible to deny. The fire had been planned,

6:56 Speaker 1: the children were collateral damage. In two thousand and thirty

7:00 Speaker 1: voteen all three were convicted of manslaughter. Philpott received a

7:04 Speaker 1: life sentence with a minimum term of fifteen years. Maraid

7:08 Speaker 1: and Moseley received lesser sentences and were eventually released years later.

7:12 Speaker 1: But for many people, justice never felt complete. Six children

7:17 Speaker 1: lost their lives because of greed, narcissism, and manipulation, lives

7:22 Speaker 1: that should have been filled with birthdays, school days, dreams

7:26 Speaker 1: and futures. Instead, they became victims of a father who

7:30 Speaker 1: never truly saw them as children at all. Today, the

7:33 Speaker 1: Philpot case remains one of Britain's most disturbing family tragedies,

7:38 Speaker 1: not just because of the crime itself, but because warning

7:41 Speaker 1: signs existed for decades. The violence, the abuse, the obsession

7:46 Speaker 1: with control, the manipulation, so many chances to stop him

7:50 Speaker 1: before it ended in unimaginable horror and in the ashes

7:54 Speaker 1: of that burned home. One heartbreaking question still remains how

7:58 Speaker 1: many lives could have been saved if someone had truly

8:01 Speaker 1: stopped him the first time.