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| Alfie Steele: Mum and partner jailed for boy's 'sadistic' killing | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Alfie had more than 50 injuries on his body when he died, the court heard | |
| A mother and her partner who killed her nine-year-old son in the bath following months of abuse have been jailed. | A mother and her partner who killed her nine-year-old son in the bath following months of abuse have been jailed. |
| Alfie Steele died after being held under the water as punishment at his home in Droitwich, Worcestershire, in February 2021. | |
| He had been subjected to a cruel regime and his body had more than 50 injuries. | He had been subjected to a cruel regime and his body had more than 50 injuries. |
| Dirk Howell was found guilty of Alfie's murder. His mother, Carla Scott, was convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder. | Dirk Howell was found guilty of Alfie's murder. His mother, Carla Scott, was convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder. |
| At their sentencing at Coventry Crown Court, Howell was jailed for life with a minimum of 32 years, while Scott was given 27 with a minimum 17-year term. | |
| Mr Justice Mark Wall said the suffering they inflicted on Alfie could "only properly be described as sadistic". | |
| He told 41-year-old Howell: "I am sure that you got pleasure from inflicting pain and discomfort. The risks of killing him by your conduct were real and obvious." | |
| 999 calls from neighbours over fears for little boy | |
| 999 calls from neighbours over fears for little boy | |
| Scott, of Vashon Drive, Droitwich, and Howell, of Princip Street, Birmingham, both denied murder. | |
| Jurors took 10 hours and 13 minutes to convict them over the killing and Scott was also convicted on four counts of child cruelty, a charge Howell had already admitted. | |
| During the six-week trial, jurors heard how Alfie's final months were punctuated by being repeatedly beaten, forced to stand outside and dunked head first into cold baths. | |
| Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said the defendants thought it was acceptable to hit him with "belts, or a slider, like a heavy-duty flip flop, and use other more sinister forms of punishment". | |
| Jurors were told the pair, on 18 February 2021, tried to cover up the killing by delaying calling 999 after Alfie was either drowned, asphyxiated or went into cardiac arrest. | |
| Scott, 35, claimed Alfie had fallen asleep while enjoying a warm bath, but his many injuries and low body temperature - 23C (73F) - indicated he had been dead for some time. | |
| Prosecutors said he might have been put back in the bath to pass the murder off as accidental drowning. | |
| The sports-mad boy killed by brutal punishments | |
| Alfie was subjected to a regime of punishments and had these rules stuck on his bedroom door | |
| During the trial, it emerged a neighbour had called 999 six months before Alfie's death, warning police the couple were "doing something bad to their kid in the bath". | |
| The caller said it sounded like Alfie was "being hit and held under the water or something" and there was "loads of thrashing around". | |
| It was one of a number of calls made to emergency services by residents concerned about the boy's welfare. | |
| Others said they had seen Alfie being forced to "stand like a statue" outside his home and had filmed him crying "let me in". | |
| The court heard Scott struck up a relationship with Howell in 2019 and his regime of punishments quickly escalated during 2020 when the country went into lockdown during the Covid pandemic. | |
| At the time of Alfie's death, Scott was the subject of a social services plan designed to protect him, with one of the rules being that career-criminal Howell was not allowed to stay overnight at her house. | |
| But she "continuously" flouted the rule, allowing her partner to stay over and assault Alfie and throw cold water at him. | |
| A safeguarding review will now explore what more could have been done. | |
| Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk | Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk |
| Related Topics | Related Topics |
| Droitwich | Droitwich |
| Birmingham | Birmingham |
| Aston | Aston |