Thursday marked the 27th day of the trial of Mick and Mairead Philpott and family friend Paul Mosley, who stand accused of the manslaughter of six children.
The Philpotts' children perished in a house fire last May at their home in Derby.
All three defendants deny the charges.
The defence are now giving their closing speech.Day 27 of the trial4.15pm The trial has been adjourned until 10am on Friday.4.10pm Mr Orchard said: "If there was a plan why did Mick and Mairead not go upstairs and check all of the children were not in the same bedroom, as the prosecution say?
"Why was the bedroom window locked?"4.05pm Mr Orchard said: "This was not part of a plan to set Lisa Willis up, this was nothing of the sort.
"Analyse it yourself, the prosecution's claim is, frankly, rubbish."3.55pm Speaking about Amanda Cousins, Mr Orchard said she: "hated Mick Philpott, she was nasty and vindictive and shouted death threats at Mairead in front of a bus-load of kids.
"She loathed and detested Mick Philpott from the time Lisa Willis [Philpott's ex-mistress and Ms Cousins' sister] chose him over her."3.40pm Mr Orchard said: "What we have here [the prosecution's case] is pieces of the jigsaw that actually don't fit."3.35pm Mr Orchard told the jury: "If it was not Mr Philpott, then who did it? We are not here to solve the crime.
"The real culprit may have had the chance to slip away. He would have slipped away in a matter of seconds."3.25pm Anthony Orchard QC, Philpott's barrister, said his client had a lot to feel guilty about, such as the way he had treated women in the past.
"But this does not mean he is guilty of six counts of manslaughter."3.20pm The trial has resumed.3.05pm The trial has been adjourned until 3.20pm.3pm Mr Orchard said the Philpotts were not "the neighbours from hell". He said: "No one who has given evidence has disputed that Mr Philpott was anything other than a good dad.
"There is nothing to suggest he would do anything to harm his children or put them in any danger."2.55pm Mr Orchard said the evidence of Philpott's previous partner Heather Kehoe "did not shed any light" on the trial.
He said: "It's smears. She has been approached by the press and has previously been paid by the press after Mr Philpott appeared on Jeremy Kyle in 2006. She knows the game." 2.50pm Talking about the rear window into Jade's bedroom, which Philpott broke, Mr Orchard said: "If the fire service witnesses who were at the rear of the property were right then the consequences for Mr Philpott would be dire because he would have lied about breaking the window."
He added: "All he wanted to do was get his children, he was not lying."2.45pm Talking about the morning of the fire, Mr Orchard said a number of eye witnesses, including the Stevenson brothers and Butler brothers, neighbours who tried to save the children, said the front window was closed.
Mr Orchard said: "These were people who would have wanted the window to be open."2.35pm Speaking about an alleged practice run that defendant Paul Mosley told his nephew's partner, Melissa John, about, Mr Orchard said: "This really is a flight of fancy, a Paul Mosley flight of fancy, said when Mr and Mrs Philpott were not there.
"There is no forensic evidence of any test run to substantiate what Mr Mosley claims."2.30pm Anthony Orchard QC, Philpott's barrister, said the prosecution "cannot make the evidence fit their petrol theory."
He added: "They are riding a number of horses. It's speculation, pure and simple."2.20pm Anthony Orchard QC, Philpott's barrister, said: "This case is very, very important. It's not a TV trial, not Judge Judy that you can laugh about afterwards.
"It's real life, tragically six children have died. You don't gamble in a criminal trial. It's not red or black."1.55pm Anthony Orchard QC, Philpott's barrister, has opened his closing speech by saying: "This is a trial by smear and scandal. Motive. What motive? Does it not make more sense that someone else did this to him?
"Might someone be disgusted enough to do it? Yes. Be angry enough? Yes. Someone who did not want to kill the children but wanted to teach Mick Philpott a lesson? Yes. Someone wanted to leave a message."
Mr Orchard said: "One crucial point I will come back to again and again - this man did not smell of petrol. Plenty of people saw him that morning and no-one said they could not smell any petrol on him."
Mr Orchard said: "Where was the petrol obtained because there is no CCTV footage within a five-mile radius of any of these three defendants obtaining petrol, none. No purchase of cans of petrol, none.
This morning the court heard the closing speech from the prosecution.12.25pm Mr Latham said Mairead "is not a rag doll that has no control over her life. If she had wanted to draw a line before the fire she could have done but she did not."
Mr Latham said Mosley elected not to give evidence "because he watched Philpott and Mairead being cross-examined. He could see what happened to them and knew if he took to the witness box he would have not answers."
Mr Latham said there was no independent evidence to state that Mosley left the house between 12.45am and 1.30am on the morning of the fire.
The case is adjourned until 1.50pm.12.10pm Mr Latham discussed backgrounds. He said: "We say Michael Philpott is a highly manipulative individual. This is a man who wants his own way and will get it how he can. Charm, persuasion, cajoling, demands, threats, throw a wobbly, have a turn and apologise."
Talking about the minibus trip to Leicestershire where Philpott took the family and friends of Derby darts player Colin Osborne to a match, Mr Latham reminded the jury that Philpott claimed Mairead phoned him to say she had received a silent phone call.
But Mr Latham said in her evidence she had not called Philpott to say that.
Mr Latham said: "He was telling a lie. Why was he doing that? Because he's beginning to set up a plan."
He continued: "By now he knew precisely what was going to happen. I know the plan went wrong, tragically and ghastly, but what did it lead to? Within hours Lisa Willis had been arrested."11.55am Mr Latham said the only explanation Philpott gave about how he ended up with petrol on his clothing was the strimmer.
He said: "For reasons I have just explained, that is a non-starter of an explanation."11.40am Mr Latham continued his speech by further discussing the covert recordings. He said in one Philpott said to Mairead "unless you want me to blab about it, it's your decision".
Mr Latham said: "What is there to be decided if they have both been telling the truth to the police?"
Mr Latham said the petrol found on the clothing of the three defendants did not match the petrol found in the strimmer at neighbour Adam Taylor's address, four doors away, which Philpott lent him days before the fire.11.05am Mr Latham reminded the court about the undercover police recordings at the hotel and how some conversations are whispered and others are spoken out loud, including the fact that Mairead had sex with Mosley.
"The only explanation Mr and Mrs Philpott give about `not sticking to the story' is not telling the police about sex with Mosley on the night of the fire. That just doesn't fit in context, does it?"
Mr Latham said: "You say `stick to the story' when the story is made up, don't you. It's not about sex at all."10.45am Mr Latham asked the jury to look at where Philpott tells the 999 operator and three different police officers where the children were.
He said: "He told them all separately they were in the bedroom. He said `the bedroom' singular."
Mr Latham brought up the evidence of fire investigator Matthew Lee.
"He said there was no evidence of petrol on the outside doorstep which he would have expected had petrol been poured through the letter box," Mr Latham said.
Mr Latham said the front lounge window and curtains were open.
"This has a central significance to the case because there is no petrol container. A container that the only way could have been got rid of is through a window. Handed through the window to Mosley as he left?"10.30am Prosecutor Richard Latham QC is talking through the undisputed evidence.
He said this included the 999 call, who said what and when. He said it also included fire analysis by Matthew Lee and what was said in the covert recordings at the Premier Inn.
"You may like to consider whether or not they were naked, as they claim, or wearing clothes in the first one minute and 32 seconds of the 999 call."10.20am Mr Latham has asked the jury: "Are you sure that any one of these three defendants were involved in a plan and its execution?"
"We cannot give you all the answers because we were not at 18 Victory Road on the night of the fire. You have to look at the case in context."10.15am Philpott is back in the dock, wearing a grey suit, a white shirt and pink tie; Mairead is in a blue cardigan and Paul Mosley is in black coat.
Mosley, 46, of Cecil Street, Derby, is accused of the manslaughter of the six Philpott children. Alongside him in the dock are their parents, Mick and Mairead
Philpott, 56 and 31. The trio are alleged to have started a fire at the Philpotts' home, 18 Victory Road, Allenton, on May 11 last year.
Jade Philpott, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six and Jayden, five, all died at the Royal Derby Hospital on the day of the fire from the effects of smoke inhalation.
Their brother, Duwayne, 13, died of the same cause, at Birmingham Children's hospital, the following day.
The trial continues.*THE PHILPOTT TRIAL: Visit our Philpott trial channel here for all related stories in the fire death case.
