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Philpotts 'discussed ordering Chinese' as son died

Jennifer, sister of Mairead Philpott, who was convicted of killing her six children in a Derby house fire, with her husband Mick Philpott; spoke about the couple's behaviour.

Jennifer is the sister of Mairead Philpott, the mother convicted of killing her six children in a house fire in Derby, along with her husband Mick Philpott. She told Nicky Campbell that the couple didn鈥檛 sit in the room where 13-year-old Duwayne Philpott was treated in hospital, and died three days later.

The couple talked about ordering a Chinese take-away as a priest was reading Duwayne his last rites, Jennifer said:鈥淥bviously Mairead and Mick could have sat with Wayne 24 hours a day, he was fighting for his life, they would have let the parents sit with him, and then they chose not to鈥.

鈥淭hen when we found out that Duwayne wasn鈥檛 going to make it we brought the priest down, our local priest, and he basically read Duwayne his last rites, and then Mick Philpott and Mairead basically sat there discussing where they were going to order a Chinese from, this is in front of the priest it is just unbelievable.

鈥淥bviously at the time you think it鈥檚 odd but you don鈥檛 think to the extreme why it鈥檚 odd, I mean I was there; when I look at it now it is so obvious, but obviously at the time our main concern was Duwayne.鈥

A serious case review has found the deaths of the six Philpott children "could not have been predicted or prevented". The report carried out by the Derby Safeguarding Children Board in the aftermath of the tragedy found that while various professionals who had contact with the family could not have foreseen the fire, there were chances to get to know the family better.

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