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Is He Dead Or Alive?
A monster mother and her partner have been convicted of killing her nine-year-old son in the bath after torturing him for months.
Carla Scott, 35, and her partner, Dirk Howell, 41, killed little Alfie Steele after months of harrowing abuse during lockdown at his home in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
The defenceless schoolboy died after his lifeless body was pulled from a bath having suffered more than 50 injuries at the hands of the evil pair in February 2021.
A court heard Alfie had been tortured and beaten to death after being subjected to a ‘cruel and sinister’ regime of punishment at the property in Vashon Drive.
So sickening was the abuse, a judge told jurors they would never need to sit on a jury again after hearing about the Alfie’s harrowing final moments.
The brutal discipline techniques included Alfie being whipped with belts and flip flops as well as being ‘dunked’ in cold baths. He was also made to stand outside at night and have water thrown over him.
Shockingly, the ‘physical and psychological’ abuse which led to his murder was able to continue despite Alfie being under a social services protection plan.
Legal discussions had also been ongoing to remove him from the house the horrors but it proved too late as he was eventually battered to death.
Nine-year-old Alfie Steele (pictured) had 50 separate injuries across his head, back, legs and buttocks after being assaulted by his mother and her fiancé, Coventry Crown Court heard
Carla Scott (left) and Dirk Howell (right) were on trial at Coventry Crown Court. They have both been convicted of killing Alfie
Today Howell, who has spent more than half of his life in prison, was found guilty of murder following a six week trial at Coventry Crown Court.
Scott was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter by a majority verdict following more than ten hours of deliberations.
Judge Mark Wall KC thanked the jury and told them they would never had to sit on a case again.
Both defendants will be sentenced on Thursday morning.
The court heard how the cruel pair thought it was acceptable to hit Alfie with ‘belts, or a slider, like a heavy-duty flip flop, and use other more sinister forms of punishment.’
This included holding Alfie under cold water in the bath for a prolonged amount of time whenever they believed he was lying.
Medical experts said bruises suggested he had been ‘manhandled’ and others marks on his buttocks were from being kicked by an adult who ‘had lost control.’
Michelle Heeley KC said Alfie died after being ‘beaten and deliberately put in a cold bath’ and he had been ‘made to endure a life that no child should lead’.
Dirk Howell (pictured) is pictured on police body-cam footage being arrested at a railway station shortly after Alfie’s death
Police video footage captured Scott making a phone call to Howell, to ask him where he was and tells him: ‘He’s gone up to hospital they won’t let me go up there yet.’
She added: ‘Alfie had not simply fallen asleep in a comfortable bath.
‘He had been deliberately and repeatedly assaulted, beaten, and put into and held under a cold bath as a punishment.
‘That unlawful course of conduct, that unnecessary punishment, was carried out jointly by Carla Scott and Dirk Howell.
‘It was their actions that led to his death’.
Jurors sitting on the trial were played harrowing footage during the case – including of Alfie screaming and begging to be let in after being locked outside his house.
The chilling clip captured Alfie crying for help repeatedly shouting: ‘Let me in, let me in’ 18 months before he was found dead in the bath.
The court heard both defendants would inflict beatings with instruments such as belts or sliders as well as dunkings in a cold bath. Pictured: Officers outside Droitwich
Other footage showed Scott lying to police who were called to the ‘dishevelled’ house telling them Alfie had fallen asleep after banging his head in the bath.
She can also be seen telling cops a ‘fantasy story’ as she phoned her boyfriend pretending to not know where he was.
On the living room wall in the background are the haunting words: ‘Family, where life begins.’
Scott initially denied Howell had been at the home but later changed her account admitting her boyfriend of two years had been there.
Further disturbing footage included a 999 call from neighbour Gemma Allcott who reported: ‘It sounds like my neighbours are doing something bad to their kid in the bath.
‘Like they are really hurting them.’
The 999 call Scott made to request an ambulance at 2.30pm on February 18, 2021 was also played to the court.
She can be heard telling operators she could ‘feel a rattle’ on her son’s chest and added: ‘He’s not breathing, but he keeps making noises.’
Howell can be seen rushing across the bridge over the railway tracks before trying to board a stationary train before he was arrested by police for murdering his stepson
Alfie was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham after he was found in a critical condition at his home. Pictured: Flowers and tributes left outside the home of Alfie
When the call handler asks ‘What noises?’ Scott replies: ‘Lots of gargling noises.’
Police arrived at the property to find Alfie not breathing and cold to the touch just six minutes after Scott made the call.
Meanwhile Howell fled the house and police body-cam footage captured him being arrested at Droitwich Railway Station trying to board a train.
Alfie was later pronounced dead at Worcester Royal hospital and his injuries were later found to have been caused caused by ‘direct pressure’ which left him ‘susceptible to drowning whilst unconscious.’
The court heard how Scott had remained calm when she told 999 operators her son ‘fell asleep in the bath’
‘He’s got asthma. When he was a baby he got pneumonia,’ she told the call handler as she tried to cover her up the attack against her son.
The operator proceeded to provide instructions on giving CPR to Alfie before Scott says: ‘I can see him breathing a bit. Not a lot but I can see him breathing a bit.’
Jurors were played the emergency call made by Scott at at 2.24pm on February 18, 2021 claiming her son had ‘fallen asleep’ and drowned in the bath. She is pictured on police body-cam when officers arrived at the home
Scott (right) was filmed sobbing to police officers as she told them her son had ‘banged his head in the bath’
She says her son is starting to make noises, at which point the call handler asks ‘What noises?’ and Scott replies: ‘Lots of gargling noises.’
As Scott confirmed to the operator that the ambulance had arrived she also adds: ‘He’s banged his head as well.’
Police bodycam captured the landing full of paramedics and officers and Scott standing in the doorway of a ‘dark, dirty and dishevelled’ bedroom where Alfie was found.
Scott can be heard telling officers ‘I think he banged his head when he was in the bath because he’s got an [inaudible] on his head.’
She can also be seen making a phone call to Howell in another clip to ask him where he was and tells him: ‘He’s gone up to hospital, they won’t let me go up there yet.
‘There’s loads of police, they’ve got detectives and everything.’
On the living room wall in the background are the words: ‘Family, where life begins.’
She ends the phone call by saying ‘I will do, I love you too’ and makes a kissing sound down the phone.
Body-cam cameras captured the landing full of paramedics and officers with Carla Scott standing in the doorway of a ‘dark, dirty and dishevelled’ bedroom where Alfie Steele was found
Police video footage also captured Scott making a phone call to Howell, to ask him where he was and tells him: ‘He’s gone up to hospital they won’t let me go up there yet.’
The court heard Scott had Alfie with a man from a previous relationship and she started dating Howell in July 2019 and got engaged six months later.
Neighbours raised concerns with the local authorities ‘within a short period of time of these two getting together’.
Alfie had been under a social services protection plan and legal discussions had taken place on whether to remove him from Scott’s care.
It came after teachers raised concerns that Alfie was ‘constantly hungry’ at school in the months before his death
Howell, of Newtown, Birmingham told the court he had not killed Alfie and only fled the house because his ‘head was a mess’ and he didn’t want to be ‘around that situation.’
In her evidence, Scott denied covering up her sons death and told jurors she did not smack Alfie, starve him or give him cold baths as punishment.
Jurors deliberated for 10 hours over the case after weeks of hearing harrowing details of Alfie’s final months.
They were told they would never have to sit on a jury again.
