Ellie killer tortured her sister

THE killer father of six-year-old Ellie Butler also tortured her younger sibling in the days before the murder, it emerged yesterday after a secret court order on the case was lifted.

Ben Butler regularly attacked his youngest child, administering beatings with a belt, before he murdered Ellie.

The killing came less than a year after a court fatally handed the children back into the custody of their abusive father from their grandparents. New details about the shocking case were revealed after a judge ruled that a secret judgment about the children’s treatment should be published.

Last month Butler, 36, was jailed for 23 years for Ellie’s murder while her mother, Jennie Gray, 36, was sentenced to 42 months for child cruelty and perverting the course of justice after helping to cover up the crime.

Ellie was found dead from catastrophic skull fractures in her bedroom in Sutton, South London in October 2013.

Following the lifting of the gagging order on a 2014 family court judgment, it can now be revealed that on the day of the murder, Ellie’s younger sibling had also been beaten by Butler, causing deep bruising.

The youngster, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, saw Ellie lying dead and may have witnessed Butler battering her to death in an explosion of rage.