Man is jailed for 23 years for murdering 6year old daughter in one of the ‘worst ever cases of domestic violence’

A 36-year-old man Ben Butler beat his 6 year old daughter, Ellie to
death. He has been sentenced to 23 years imprisonment in what has been
termed one of the ‘worst ever cases of domestic violence’ after Little
Ellie was found dead on her bedroom floor in 2013 with ‘catastrophic
head injuries’ more commonly associated with car crash victims.

Ben
Butler shouted at a judge from the dock of the Old Bailey yesterday as
he was led away to start a minimum 23-year jail sentence after it was
found that he was a bullying and cruel stay-at-home dad and Ellie’s mum
Jennie Gray, 36, was also convicted of child cruelty and jailed for
three and a half years, having already admitted perverting the course of
justice.

Sentencing Butler, senior judge
Mr Justice Wilkie said: ‘I am satisfied, having conducted this trial and
having observed you closely for in excess of two months that you were
very far from being a good parent.

 

‘You were a self-absorbed,
ill-tempered, domineering man who regarded your children and partner as
trophies, having no role other than to fit in with your infantile and
sentimentalized view of family life, with you as the patriarch, whose
every whim was to be catered for.’

 

‘You murdered her in a brutal assault prompted by your evil temper.

‘You
struck her head so hard against a flat surface, or hit her so hard on
the head with a blunt implement that, whether you hit her once or more
than once, you inflicted catastrophic skull and brain injuries from
which she very quickly died.’

‘Within weeks,
you were complaining in vilely abusive and self pitying terms of your
lot and were taking out your inadequacies on your partner, violently and
vilely, both physically and verbally.

‘Within a year Ellie was dead having suffered a series of injuries, some serious, in the last few weeks of her life.

‘I
am satisfied that from, at the latest, late summer 2013, you subjected
Ellie to a series of physical attacks, when she was in your sole care,
in which she sustained injuries for none of which you sought medical
attention.

‘You lied to Jennie Gray about how she came by
these injuries and she, totally beholden to and dominated by you, felt
she had no option but to believe you and collude in your ill treatment
of her.’

Medical experts have described the incident as one of the worst cases of violence in a domestic setting.

Butler
had claimed Ellie sustained the horrific injuries when she hit her head
as she was jumping up and down in her bedroom while watching Peppa Pig.

But prosecutors insisted Ellie’s injuries were too ‘extreme’ and ‘catastrophic’ to have been caused by an accidental fall.

 

The
back of Ellie’s head was a ‘boggy mass’, the court heard, and a
post-mortem examination attributed her death to Butler either beating
her over the head with a heavy object or throwing her against the floor
or wall.

‘All of this took some two hours during all of
which you left your dead daughter lying unattended on her bedroom floor
like a carefully placed prop in a stage scene,’ said the judge.

‘Your
performance in the 999 call was not only breathtaking in its level of
deceit, but your cruel disregard for any dignity to be afforded Ellie,
lying there dead, is evidenced by her body being subjected repeatedly to
CPR by Jennie Gray.’

Ten
days before Ellie’s death, her mother, Gray, turned up at work with a
large injury on her forehead, claiming she had slipped on some steps the
previous evening.   

Ms Gray added: ‘Ben was not violent to me and he certainly was not violent to my daughter and I maintain that 100 per cent.’  

 

Police
also analysed a series of text messages between the pair in which
Butler called Gray a ‘dog w****’, ‘a snake’, a ‘fat loser’ and an ‘ugly
b****’ and warned her: ‘Stay out my way.’  

In a particularly
vile rant, Butler – who admitted in court that finding out about Gray’s
pregnancy with Ellie was the ‘kiss of death’ – lambasted Gray for
falling pregnant. She later sought counselling after having an
abortion. 

The message said: ‘Im disg that ur preg again and
think its irresponsible and shocking…had engh of ur weight and
looks..and the trble you bring.

‘The weight you whacked on its quite amazing and im sick of it… no baby just massive and I just want out of this.’ 

But
Gray continually tried to appease her partner, texting him messages
such as: ‘I luv U and want U’.  Another sent in August said: ‘Just so U
know – I am obsessed and in awe of U!