I should have had Elsie, says grandmother
THE family of a toddler killed by her adoptive father said she would still be alive today if social services had not ignored their pleas for custody and allowed her to live with her biological siblings.
Matthew Scully-hicks, 31, was jailed for life yesterday with a minimum term of 18 years for the murder of 18-month-old Elsie.
He referred to the little girl as “Satan dressed up in a Babygro” and inflicted a catalogue of injuries, including broken legs, in the months before he shook and beat her to death at his home in Llandaff, Cardiff, in May 2016.
However, her violent murder could have been prevented, said Sian O’brien, Elsie’s birth grandmother, who launched proceedings in the Family Court to become her legal guardian.
“I wanted to bring her up in a happy, healthy and warm family environment,” she said in a victim impact statement. “That was all taken away from me when social services and the Family Court decided I would not be able to cope.” Ms O’brien already had custody of Elsie’s two older siblings. But the baby was taken into the care of Vale of Glamorgan council before being placed with Scully-hicks and his husband, Craig.
She said the family had still hoped to be reunited with her when they heard the horrifying news in January that she had died seven months earlier.
“In itself this was devastating, but to then be informed that one of the parents who had adopted her had been charged with murder … was completely incomprehensible,” Ms O’brien said. “A person who had been deemed by the authorities to be a fit and proper person to bring up my granddaughter was responsible for her death – and they took her from me telling me I would be unable to cope.”
An independent child practice review will examine the circumstances of Elsie’s death. Experts appear to have missed at least three opportunities to stop Scullyhicks, despite regular visits.
Elsie was named Shayla O’brien and taken into care five days after her birth. The decision to put her up for adoption was taken in May 2015 and she was placed with Scully-hicks and his husband three months later.
Ms O’brien accepted her daughter “was not in a position to care for Shayla”, but was “devastated” when social services told her to say goodbye to Shayla as a suitable adoptive family had been found.
“We continue to fight, even though we are numb with pain, deep in the knowledge that Shayla was loved unconditionally by us all and knowing that, had she not been taken away from us, she would still be alive today,” she said.