A sixth child has died of his injuries after a suspicious house fire in the central English city of Derby killed five of his siblings last week, police said on Monday.
Duwayne Philpott, 13, died overnight in hospital with his parents at his bedside, Derbyshire Police said in a statement. His brothers and sisters who died were aged five to 10.
“Despite the intensive care team's greatest efforts, the injuries that Duwayne received in the fire were too great for him to survive,” a spokesman for Birmingham Children's Hospital said: Police have released without charge a man and a woman who were initially arrested over the fire that broke out early on Friday. On Saturday they said they were still treating the fire as suspicious.
The children's father was named in media reports as 57-year-old Mick Philpott, a father of 17 who made headlines in 2007 when he appeared in a television documentary about welfare made by a former prisons' minister, Ann Widdecombe.
He demanded that local authorities give him a larger house to share with his wife, girlfriend and eight of their children.
During the fire Philpott made a “valiant attempt” to rescue the children, who had been sleeping on the first floor, police said. - Sapa-AFP