- Carla Scott and Dirk Howell were found guilty in the murder of nine-year-old Alfie Steele.
- Alfie suffered repeated beatings and cruelty, including immersion in a cold bath.
- Concerns were raised by neighbors and authorities prior to Alfie’s death.
The trial of Carla Scott and Dirk Howell revealed that after his mother met Howell, Alfie “suffered assaults and cruelty by being beaten, assaulted, punished with cold water, and forced to live a life that no child should have to endure.”
The mother and her partner were found guilty of murdering her nine-year-old kid, who had 50 injuries.
Alfie Steele died after enduring “sinister” beatings and a frigid bath.
Coventry Crown Court found Dirk Howell, 41, guilty of murder and Carla Scott, 35, guilty of manslaughter but not murder.
Mr. Justice Wall remanded both defendants into detention to be sentenced on Thursday at 11 a.m.
Alfie’s numerous injuries included bruising all over his body and evidence of oxygen deprivation.
Alfie “suffered assaults and cruelty, including being beaten, assaulted, punished with cold water, and forced to endure a life that no child should endure” after his mother met Howell, according to testimony at his trial.
Scott called 999 on 18 February 2021 to report that her son was not breathing. Alfie had fallen asleep in the bath at their residence in Droitwich, Worcestershire, she informed the call handler.
When two police officers arrived at his residence at 2.30 p.m., Howell was not present.
Scott reported to the officers that she discovered Alfie “submerged” and added that he had previously “struck his head.”
Just six minutes after the 999 calls, Alfie was already unresponsive, not breathing, and already chilly to the touch.
Both defendants testified that Alfie was never “dunked” in a bath at home before his death.
The six-week trial heard that Scott and career criminal Howell attempted to conceal the murder by prolonging the dialing of 999 after Alfie drowned, asphyxiated, or suffered cardiac arrest.
Alfie, who was discovered lifeless with a body temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, may have been placed back in warm water as the couple attempted to pass off the murder as an accidental drowning, according to evidence presented in court.
Scott lied to the police that she had seen Howell a few days before Alfie’s murder. Surveillance footage captured him fleeing the residence around the time the 999 call was made.
Shortly thereafter, he was arrested while attempting to enter a train at Droitwich station.
The trial heard that both Scott and Howell believed it was permissible to strike Alfie with ‘belts, or a slider, similar to a heavy-duty flip-flop, and use other more sinister forms of punishment’.
This included subjecting Alfie to “cold baths while naked” and compelling him to “stand outside in the middle of the night while cold water was thrown over him.”
Alfie can be heard repeatedly yelling “Open the door” on a recording made by a neighbor after being locked out of his home. The recording was presented during the trial.
On numerous occasions, the authorities were made aware of Alfie-related concerns, and police and social workers were involved.
In the year preceding Alfie’s demise, several 999 calls were made by nearby residents.
On April 4, 2020, a neighbor named Daniel Grindrod called the police to report, “I’m hearing some very disturbing sounds from next door” and “I’ve heard what sounds like a child in distress.”
The next day, Graham and Rosemary Willetts contacted 999 to report “something very strange” about the residence.
The following month, they called the police again, and Mrs. Willetts described disciplining a boy in the backyard.
“He’s standing like a statue,” she commented. When asked if they had previously reported the family, she responded, “Yes, we believe this boy’s name is Alfie.”
In August 2020, approximately six months before Alfie’s death, next-door neighbor Gemma Allcott made a harrowing 999 call to the police, stating, “It sounds like my neighbors are doing something terrible to their child in the bathtub as if they are hurting them.”
The caller reported that Alfie was “being hit and held under water or something” at his Vasson Drive home.
The couple ignored social workers’ protection plan that forbade Howell from staying overnight.
Social worker Hayley Waldron said that legal negotiations were underway to remove Alfie from Scott’s custody in March 2020. Scott was seen working with social workers, hence the circumstance did not reach the threshold.
A review of child protection practices is currently underway to determine whether more could have been done to protect Alfie.
