Killer father of Ellie, six, given £2m in legal aid
... as granddad loses all in custody fight
THE father of murdered Ellie Butler milked taxpayers for nearly £2million in legal aid as he ran rings around the courts.
Killer Ben Butler, 36, was handed a ‘blank cheque’ to fund a ‘Rolls-Royce’ team of lawyers at the much criticised and secretive Family Court.
The monster and Ellie’s cruel mother Jennie Gray received more than £1million just to fight to win custody of their daughter.
The rest of the bill was run up over 15 years of hearings, including a three-month Old Bailey trial which was repeatedly delayed as Butler twice sacked his legal team.
By contrast, Ellie’s foster parents – her grandparents Neal and Linda Gray – were left penniless after being denied assistance.
They spent their £80,000 life savings battling their daughter for custody, taking up cleaning jobs to meet the legal bills.
But they ran out of cash in the final weeks of the Family Court hearing, leaving Butler and Gray’s lawyers free to claim the case as Sutton Council also dropped its opposition.
In October 2013, 11 months after Ellie was handed over, Butler bludgeoned the sixyear-old to death at their home in Sutton, South London, and persuaded Gray, 36, to help him cover up the crime.
Last night, Mr Gray, 70, whose wife, 69, died of cancer on the first day of the murder trial in April, said it was ‘unbelievable and shocking’ that Ellie’s parents were given so much money, while campaigners described the payments as a ‘disgrace’.
Mr Gray said: ‘We fought tooth and nail. But it wasn’t an even playing field, we ran out of money and ended up not being represented in the case.
‘It makes me very angry, it’s unbelievable. We were turned down for legal aid but because they were on benefits they were able to get it. I’m sure the ordeal killed my wife and now I don’t have her or Ellie.’
The payments will fuel the row over the Government’s decision to water down its reform of the legal aid system. Ministers boasted that the budget has been slashed from £2.4billion to £1.6billion, but suspended further cuts and changes earlier this year.
The figures were obtained by the Daily Mail under Freedom of Information laws and show that, in total, the pair were handed £1,449,899 over 15 years. This figure included £1,185,285 in ‘civil representation’, which includes cases at the Family Court.
Of this, £223,266 funded Gray’s legal team in the four-month hearing that led to the return of Ellie. Butler’s final bill is yet to be submitted.
The bill could rise by at least another £500,000, as it does not include the cost of the trial that brought Butler and Gray to justice.
Butler, who has been sentenced to serve a minimum of 23 years, has also threatened to take his conviction to the Court of Appeal, claiming key evidence was not shown to the jury, which will incur further cost to taxpayers.
A source close to the Family Court battle said the size of the legal aid bill reflected Butler’s ruthless determination to get his way. ‘It funded a Rolls-Royce team of lawyers who were instructed to use every possible avenue to get Ellie back,’ he said.
Campaigner Marilyn Hawes, of Enough Abuse, said: ‘This just shows how our system is skewed towards the offender who has got the lion’s share of legal aid.’
In its response to the Freedom of Information request, the Ministry of Justice said legal aid is only available to those who cannot afford to pay their own fees.
A spokesman said though there are ‘merits of the case’ tests in civil legal aid cases, parents in care proceedings are exempt.
‘Legal aid is only available for the highest priority cases, which includes care proceedings,’ he added.
‘The system is skewed towards the offender’