Dad cleared of attacking his baby and 'then he kills her'

A brutal dad killed his six-year-old daughter after successfully appealing against a conviction for assaulting her as a baby.

Ben Butler, 36 – described as “an angry and violent man” – was found guilty of causing serious head injuries to tiny Ellie  and she was put into foster care.


Less than a year later,, she was found dead in her bedroom having suffered “catastrophic head injuries”
allegedly inflicted by her father.


The court heard Ellie died at the family home in Sutton, south-west London, while wife Gray was at work in her City offices only yards away from the court. The couple then allegedly set out to hide what had happened in a “carefully co-ordinated and elaborate” cover-up.

Jurors heard graphic designer Gray left work when Butler rang her – but they did not call 999 until an hour after she got home, “screaming for help” and telling paramedics they found Ellie by an overturned stool. In the meantime Butler had taken his dog for a “nonchalant” stroll.

Prosecutor Edward Brown QC said   Butler was a house-husband who hated his responsibility to look after Ellie but that he dominated Gray because she felt “irrational devotion” to him.


The trial continues...