BABY WHO NEVER STOOD A CHANCE
How adoptive father was left to murder his new daughter
SOCIAL workers and medical staff missed a series of chances to save a baby murdered by the father allowed to adopt her, it emerged yesterday.
Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31, shook 18month-old Elsie to death before smacking her head against a floor or wall less than a fortnight after the adoption was formally granted.
The fitness instructor had subjected Elsie to seven months of assaults and beatings while his husband Craig, a company director, was away on business. In a series of text messages, he had described the girl as ‘Satan in a baby grow’, ‘The Exorcist’ and a ‘psycho’, while neighbours heard him bellowing expletives at her when she was crying.
Yet, despite visiting the family’s home 15 times in the months before Elsie’s adoption, the abuse went unnoticed by social workers.
Medical staff failed to spot the significance of a string of injuries which could have alerted them to the abuse – including a second fracElsie ture to her leg and bruising to her head. They accepted Matthew Scully-Hicks’s claims all her injuries were caused by domestic accidents.
Health staff even left glowing appraisals of Scully-Hicks and his parenting abilities.
Last night, there were questions over why no member of social services was cross-examined during the criminal trial. A major review has been launched. As Scully-Hicks faced life in prison after being convicted of his daughter’s murder, it emerged that: ■Social workers visited the Scully-Hicks family 15 times between September 2015, when came to live with them after years of stringent vetting, and her formal adoption in May last year; ■A Child Practice Review, an inquiry into the death and whether social services missed opportunities to save her, will be carried out; ■The judge attacked Scully-Hicks for refusing to admit he could not cope with his daughter and using the extensive help he was offered.
Scully-Hicks and his husband Craig, 36, were granted formal adoption just 13 days before Elsie was killed.
Craig stood by his husband throughout his three-week trial at Cardiff Crown Court. The gay couple insisted that Elsie died as a result of health problems undiagnosed by doctors.
The extent of Elsie’s suffering was revealed after she died, when her medical records were re-examined and evidence of abuse came to light. Jurors unanimously convicted ScullyHicks after four days of deliberation.
One-and-a-half stone Elsie was first taken to her GP with a fractured shinbone in November 2015, less than a month after she was taken in by the couple.
Scully-Hicks told Craig she fell in the kitchen while playing on a toy table. But he told the GP she ‘slipped and twisted her leg while using a baby walker’.
Elsie was X-rayed and put in a full leg cast for a month. But the trial heard doctors missed a second leg fracture to her right thigh bone. It was only spotted in a re-examination of the X-ray after her death. Medical expert Dr Sarah Harrison compared the injuries to those caused by a car crash and said she had never examined anything like it.
A month later, on December 16, Elsie developed a deep bruise on her forehead. Scully-Hicks claimed she ‘whacked’ her head on a toy kitchen.
Social workers visited the family the next day but no one appeared to raise any concerns. Five days later, ScullyHicks lied to health visitor Jodie Golten that Elsie had been seen by a GP. Nobody checked his claim.
The first 999 call came on March 10, 2016, where he claimed Elsie had fallen down the stairs after opening a baby gate. Elsie could be heard vomiting in the call and was taken to University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. She was discharged after four hours of observation.
Elsie was formally adopted on May 12 last year. On May 25, she enjoyed a normal day at her playgroup. At 6.20pm that night, Scully-Hicks called 999 claiming Elsie had gone ‘limp and floppy’.
She was taken to University Hospital of Wales, where doctors were immediately suspicious of how calm and collected Scully-Hicks appeared.
She died four days after she was admitted. A post-mortem examination found bleeding behind both eyes, rib fractures and a skull fracture that the pathologist said was a ‘result of an impact to the head’.
Dr Stephen Rose said he believed Elsie was shaken violently before being thrown against a hard surface.
Scully-Hicks, originally from Delabole, Cornwall, met Craig in Swindon in 2006. They bought a threebedroom property in Cardiff for £150,000 in September 2010 and in August 2012, had a beachside wedding in the Algarve.
The judge, Mrs Justice Nicola Davies, noted: ‘This was a defendant who had regular access to health visitors and social workers. He could have disclosed that he was unable to cope.’
Vale of Glamorgan Council, which oversaw Elsie’s adoption, said it would not comment until the Child Practice Review is complete.
Scully-Hicks will be sentenced today.
‘He could have said he was unable to cope’ ‘Slipped and twisted her leg’
IT’S a depressingly familiar story. A baby suffers a litany of abuse at the hands of an adoptive or foster parent. NHS staff and social workers miss the obvious signs. Eventually the child is murdered.
Matthew Scully-Hicks shook and beat baby Elsie to death just two weeks after he and his husband formally adopted her.
She had lived with them for nine months before her death, during which time she suffered two leg fractures, deep bruising to her forehead and was hospitalised with facial injuries after allegedly falling down stairs.
Each time, Scully-Hicks managed to convince medics that the injuries were the result of accidents. And in 15 visits to the house, social workers found nothing out of the ordinary.
As with every heartbreaking case from Victoria Climbie to Baby P and Liam Fee, we are assured lessons will be learnt from Elsie’s death.
What a dark tragedy that history tells us otherwise.