Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HOW COULD HE?
Dad murdered 18-month-old girl two weeks after officially adopting her
A DAD has been found guilty of murdering his 18-month-old daughter just two weeks after adopting her.
Matthew Scully-hicks, 31, assaulted and abused Elsie for seven months before violently shaking her to death.
The killing happened a fortnight after she was formally adopted by the fitness instructor and his husband Craig, 36.
Scully-hicks had denied murdering Elsie but was found guilty by a jury after a four-week trial.
Child protection chiefs will now hold an inquiry to discover whether chances to save the little girl were missed.
Social workers and health visitors were aware she suffered a broken leg, mystery head bruises and other injuries while in her killer’s care.
At the trial, prosecutor Paul Lewis said: “His attack upon her that day was not the first time he had employed violence towards Elsie, nor was it the first time he had caused her serious injury. His actions were the tragic culmination of a course of violent conduct on his part towards a defenceless child.
“An infant he should have loved and protected, but whom he instead assaulted, abused and ultimately murdered.” Scully-hicks and Craig, who married in 2012, started caring for Elsie in September 2015. In court, the stay-athome dad described his daughter as “a lovely little girl”.
But in texts sent to his husband, Scully-hicks wrote that Elsie was “Satan dressed up in a Babygro” and “a diva”.
One message read: “I’m going through hell with Elsie. Mealtimes and bedtimes are like my worst nightmare at the minute.” In another, Scully-hicks added: “she is a psycho” and “she pretty much looks and sounds like the exorcist”.
Neighbours at his home in Cardiff, South Wales, heard him swearing at the tot and calling her a “little f ****** brat” and a “silly little c***” when she cried.
Elsie suffered a broken leg just above her right ankle only two months after