Tragic Ellie ‘wanted to speak to judge who sent her to killer dad’
SIX-YEAR-OLD Ellie Butler, who was battered to death by her father, asked to speak to the judge who decided to send her back to her parents, her inquest heard yesterday.
Ellie was placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after her father Ben Butler was accused of shaking her.
But she was taken from them and returned to the care of Butler and her unstable mother in 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the family division of the High Court. Ellie was battered to death by her father at their home in Sutton, south London, in October 2013.
Yesterday the headteacher of Ellie’s school said she was concerned after being told that Ellie had expressed a wish to speak to the judge.
Beddington Infants’ School head Elizabeth Kearney also said she was concerned that Ellie would not be able to continue the ‘loving relationships’ she had formed with her grandparents and that she may be moved to another school, away from her friends.
Miss Kearney told South London Coroner’s Court in Croydon that she wrote a letter to Mrs Justice Hogg to outline her fears, but did not send it after deciding that it would not change things.
Miss Kearney said: ‘ I was aware that this girl loved her current family, I was aware that there was a concern that she might not see that current family after the move because there was a difficult relationship.
‘I put myself in the child’s position and I imagined losing my entire family and my dog and moving to a whole new family, and while she had by now met her mother and father a few times, that’s not a relationship.
‘Ellie was happy at school and I wanted to keep that as a safe space, untainted.’
The scope of the inquest will not consider the ‘ merits or wisdom’ of Mrs Justice Hogg’s ruling. She retired as a judge just a week before Ben Butler’s murder trial began at the Old Bailey in 2016. He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 23 years.
Miss Kearney said that considering ‘ a child had asked to speak to the judge... I felt I needed to do something about that’. This led her, ‘rightly or wrongly’, to write the letter. Unrepentant Butler, who was listening to proceedings via a link from prison, interrupted her by shouting: ‘Who says she asked?’
His numerous interruptions prompted retired High Court judge Dame Linda Dobbs, who is sitting as coroner for the inquest, to urge him to ‘ bite his tongue’.
Ellie’s mother, Jennie Gray, was given a 42-month prison term after being found guilty of child cruelty. She had also admitted perverting the course of justice.
Miss Kearney said she had concerns raised with her about the language used in a meeting between an independent social work agency worker and Ellie, where a ‘good judge’ and a ‘bad judge’ were mentioned.
In another meeting, Ellie was put in an ‘extremely difficult position’ by being told that whoever she chose not to live with would be upset, she said.
Asked about what she felt the impact of the move was on Ellie, Miss Kearney admitted she did not observe a significant change of behaviour.
But she said Ellie attended the school for only eight and a half days over a number of weeks after she started living with her parents – a steep fall compared to her previous attendance rate in the 90 per cent range.
The inquest will examine whether there were failures on the part of the authorities with regard to Ellie’s murder, including the sharing of information, co-operation and communication between organisations. It is expected to last two weeks.