Mum who killed her six children released early from jail
WARNING: Graphic content.
A mum who killed her six children has been freed after she served half of her 17-year jail term.
The release of Mairead Philpott, 39, of the UK, sparked outrage with crime prevention campaigners saying: “Justice has not been done”.
Philpott’s children died in an arson attack she and husband Mick plotted at their Derbyshire, England home in 2012.
She was released from prison on Sunday after serving only eight and a half years for manslaughter.
On Friday, David Spencer, of the Centre of Crime Prevention, said: “It makes an absolute mockery of the UK’s criminal justice system. Justice has not been done”.
“Child killers like Mairead Philpott should not be free to roam the streets.
“She has served barely more than a year for each of the six innocent lives she callously took away.
“She is back on the streets while the taxpayer coughs up for her to get a new identity, protection, counselling and a place to live.
“The Home Secretary has promised a review of sentencing. This needs to be delivered urgently to ensure killers like Philpott serve the long sentences their horrific crimes deserve.”
Tory MP for mid-Derbyshire Pauline Latham said: “Mairead Philpott should be serving a whole life sentence instead of being freed halfway through it.”
She described the crime as “horrifying” and said that “it will never, ever be forgotten in Derby”.
Philpott’s mother Vera, who is no longer in contact with her daughter, said she was furious by her early release.
Speaking at her home in Derby — less than two kilometres from where her grandchildren died — she said: “I don’t want her near my door.
“The sentence is not nearly long enough and we disown her after what she’s done.”
Philpott was freed from HMP Send in Surrey on the first day she was eligible to be released on licence.
“They launched a massive operation to make sure she was safe and not seen,” a source said.
“Her convoy was like one given to a celebrity rather than a mum who killed her six children.
“Heaven knows how much it all cost, and it all seemed a bit much at a time of tight budgets.”
Philpott is currently staying at a halfway house, where she will be offered counselling, life coaching, yoga and therapy sessions before being helped to find new accommodation.