Grandfather says he was ‘ignored’ over concerns for tragic girl
THE GRANDFATHER of murdered Ellie Butler said he is disappointed that social services and other agencies involved in the six-year-old’s care have not faced criticism after an inquest into her death.
Retired high court judge Dame Linda Dobbs concluded, after a two-week inquest which comes five years after the girl was killed by her father, that the organisations could not be said to have “possibly or probably” contributed to her death.
Ellie was unlawfully killed, having suffered fatal head injuries inflicted by her father, the inquest at South London Corner’s formally ruled yesterday.
The child was placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after her father Ben Butler was accused of shaking her. She was returned to the care of Butler, and her mother, in 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg. Ellie was battered to death at the family home by Butler in Sutton, south London in October the following year.
Butler was convicted of her murder in June 2016 after a trial at the Old Bailey and jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.
Ellie’s mother, Jennie Gray, was given a 42-month term after being found guilty of child cruelty after the Old Bailey trial.
She had admitted perverting the course of justice. Ellie’s grandfather Neal Gray, speaking after attending court, said any input to authorities from him or his late wife Linda during Ellie’s short life was “ignored”. An NSPCC spokeswoman said: “The circumstances surrounding Ellie Butler’s death are truly harrowing.”