Adoptive father who killed toddler abused her for months
Investigation into social services after murderer claimed girl suffered injuries falling down stairs
AN 18-MONTH-OLD girl fell down the stairs, broke her leg and suffered multiple bruises in the months before she was murdered by her adoptive father but no one stepped in to prevent her death.
An investigation has been launched into whether opportunities were missed to save the life of Elsie Scullyhicks, who was visited by health and social workers 12 times and examined by doctors at least five times.
Matthew Scully-hicks, 31, was allowed to adopt her despite months of abuse. He eventually killed her while his husband was at work.
Two weeks after the fitness instructor and his husband, Craig, 36, formally completed the adoption process, the “delicate” little girl was beaten and shaken to death. She died in hospital on May 29 last year, four days after being admitted with several broken ribs, a broken leg, bleeding on the brain and a fractured skull.
Scully-hicks, who referred to Elsie as a “psycho” and “Satan in a Babygro”, was unanimously convicted of murder by a jury following a four-week trial at Cardiff Crown Court and will be sentenced later today. An independent review will now consider the various opportunities that professionals may have had to step in and protect Elsie before she was killed.
At least four social workers and a health visitor made regular visits to the family home in Llandaff, Cardiff, between Sept 2015, when she was placed in the couple’s care, until her death, eight months later.
During that time, she was rushed to hospital after apparently falling down the stairs, suffered two fractured legs, two bruises to her head and developed a squint in one eye.
A GP and hospital staff including a registrar saw Elsie or treated her injuries and yet no action was taken.
Vale of Glamorgan Council, which placed the girl with the couple, gave formal approval to the adoption just two weeks before she was murdered.
A Child Practice Review has now been commissioned “into the tragic circumstances” of Elsie’s death, a spokesman for the Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan Regional Safeguarding Children Board said. The review will examine the contact Elsie and Scullyhicks had with various agencies after she was placed in his care. It is also expected to look at how the adoption was approved and monitored.
Harry Ferguson, professor of social work at the University of Birmingham, said the outcome would be dependent on whether each injury was approached as an isolated incident or whether anyone took an overview of the history and noticed a pattern. He
‘Research shows that professionals can find it very difficult to change their view of carers’
said it was “poignant” that the injuries were inflicted while the couple were being approved as adopters and that Elsie was murdered very soon after that decision was formalised.
“Research shows that professionals can find it very difficult to change their view of carers once this has become established and thereafter any behaviours that could be construed as raising concerns about children are filtered through this (positive) view of parents’ moral character,” he added. “This may be accentuated when the family are middle-class.”
Scully-hicks had opted to stay at home to raise Elsie and her adopted sibling while his husband, whom he married in 2012, worked full time.
But the jury heard the former lifeguard had struggled to cope, yelling “shut the f--- up” at Elsie and calling her a “little f------- brat” and a “silly little c---” when she cried.
In Nov 2015, she was found to have fractured her right tibia above her ankle. A second fracture – above her right knee – was not spotted until the X-rays were reviewed after death.
Dr Sarah Harrison said she had never seen fractures of both bones like that in a child of that age. On the day of her
death, Scully-hicks claimed he had been changing his daughter for bed when she “went all floppy and limp”.
Tests showed that she had suffered three separate areas of bleeding on her brain, bleeding in both eyes, a skull fracture and three rib fractures.
Dr Stephen Rose, a consultant paediatrician, said her injuries could be explained by her being “shaken violently” and that her fractured skull would have been caused by a blow to her head. The rib fractures were likely caused by Scully-hicks gripping her.
Mrs Justice Nicola Davies said the attacks were a “gross abuse of trust”.