‘Battered and bruised’ Alfie Steele had 50 separate injuries to his head, back, legs, and buttocks after being assaulted by his mother and fiancee, jurors at Coventry Crown Court heard. A mother “wanted to protect her partner” rather than her nine-year-old son after he was beaten to death with belts and shoes during a “sinister” campaign of punishment, a court has heard.
He was pronounced dead after Carla Scott, 35, called 999 claiming her son had “fallen asleep” and drowned in the bathroom. Michelle Heeley KC, the prosecutor, said today that Scott’s instinct was to “protect his relationship” with his partner Dirk Howell, who the court heard favored “physical and psychological” forms of child discipline, rather than his own son.
She added: ‘Carla Scott stood by and let it happen. She placed her loyalty to her mate. The case for the prosecution is that her mother’s account of what happened to Alfie is not true… her first thought was to lie about what really happened and protect her partner from becoming a suspect.
Alfie Steele Age
Alfie Steele was 9 years old.
Alfie Steele was beaten to death with belts and shoes
The court heard that both defendants would inflict beatings with instruments such as belts or sliders, as well as immersing them in a cold bath. Alfie was also made to ‘stand outside in the middle of the night and have cold water poured on him,’ the court heard.
Heeley said Alfie endured a “sad family life” in the months leading up to his death in February 2021, suffering “attacks and cruelty, being beaten, assaulted, punished with cold water and forced to endure a life no child should lead. “.
‘Alfie did not die a natural death… and we say these two defendants were responsible.’ The court heard that Scott and Howell got together 19 months before Alfie’s death and became engaged six months later, although they had no plans to marry.
But the court heard that relatives and neighbors were quick to “contact the authorities” with their concerns about the couple and social services instituted a care plan that prohibited Howell from spending the night at their property in Droitwich, Worcestershire, where he died. Alfie. Jurors were told the couple paid lip service, with Howell regularly staying over. Ms. Heeley added: ‘Carla Scott stood by and let it happen. She placed her loyalty to her mate.
The prosecutor said Scott dialed 999 on the afternoon of February 18 “and explained that Alfie had ‘fallen asleep in the bath and submerged below the surface and she had tried to revive him but he wasn’t breathing’.” But the court heard that when the police and paramedics arrived, the boy showed no signs of life and was “already very cold”, with “lumps and bruises” visible.
The court heard that paramedics tried to revive the child and noticed water coming out of her airway. But it was not possible to establish whether the water had entered Alfie when he was alive or dead.
Alfie was pronounced dead at the hospital later that afternoon, and a postmortem examination found that the cause of death had not been determined, although the jury was told that drowning or suffocation were both possible causes. The court heard Scott told police at the scene that she had not seen Howell, now 41, in several days and that he had his own address.
But by chance, a policeman had seen him near his house when he arrived. Howell was then caught on CCTV making his way to the railway station, then attempted to force open the doors of a departing train and was arrested. Heeley said Scott’s first thought was lying. “(Howell) had actually been in the house since the night before.”
Ms Heeley said: “Dirk Howell believed in discipline, on the face of it it’s not a bad thing when raising young children, but whereas you might think of discipline as the naughty pace, or having a set bedtime, for Dirk Howell’s discipline was much more physical and psychological.
“The prosecution will ask for testimony from neighbors who, on occasion, saw a child standing outside the house begging to be let in, and were denied entry by both defendants.” The lawyer said that Alfie “had not simply fallen asleep in the bathroom”, but that he had first been “beaten”, an assault “carried out jointly” by the defendants.
The boy did not have a pre-existing medical condition that could have caused his death, and some of the injuries to his body may have been caused by kicking, he said. Scott later admitted to police that Howell had been in the house when Alfie died and that he had beaten the boy with a belt four days before Alfie’s death.
Scott, of Droitwich, denies murder, manslaughter, causing or allowing Alfie’s death, and child cruelty crimes against his son and other children. Howell, from Birmingham, has previously admitted to child cruelty charges against other children. He denies murder, manslaughter, cruelty, or causing or allowing Alfie’s death.
Ms. Heeley said both defendants “thought it was acceptable” to beat Alfie with “belts, or a slider, like a sturdy flip-flop, and use other, more sinister forms of punishment.” Prosecutor Scott was “no stranger to social services” because they had been involved with a previous partner and therefore “knew what was expected of her in terms of cooperating with them”.
The trial continues.
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