Alfie Steele: Mother and partner convicted of killing nine-year-old boy after months of abuse
A mother and her partner have been convicted of killing the woman’s nine-year-old son who had 50 injuries all over his body at the time of his death.
Alfie Steele died after being repeatedly beaten and held in a cold bath as part of a “sinister” regime of punishment inflicted on him.
Dirk Howell, 41, was found guilty of murder and Carla Scott, 35, was convicted of manslaughter but found not guilty of murder at Coventry Crown Court.
The judge, Mr Justice Wall, remanded both defendants into custody to be sentenced at 11am on Thursday.
Alfie’s many injuries included bruises all over his body and signs he had been deprived of oxygen.
The trial heard that after his mother met Howell, Alfie “suffered assaults and cruelty, by being beaten, assaulted, punished with cold water and made to endure a life that no child should lead”.
On 18 February, 2021, Scott called 999 to report that her son wasn’t breathing. She told the call handler that Alfie had fallen asleep in the bath at their home in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
When two police officers arrived at 2.30pm, Howell was not at the house.
Scott told the officers that she had found Alfie “submerged”, adding he had previously “hit his head”.
By that stage Alfie was lifeless, not breathing and was already cold to touch – just six minutes after the 999 call.
During their trial, both defendants told jurors that Alfie was not “dunked” in a bath at his home as a punishment prior to his death.
Carla Scott has been convicted of the manslaughter of her son Alfie Steele and Dirk Howell has been convicted of his murder
The six-week trial was told Scott and career criminal Howell tried to cover up the killing by delaying calling 999 after Alfie was either drowned, asphyxiated or went into cardiac arrest.
The court heard Alfie, who was found lifeless with a body temperature of 23C, may have been put back in a warm bath as the couple tried to pass off the murder as an accidental drowning.
Scott lied to police that she had last seen Howell a couple of days before Alfie’s death. In fact, CCTV showed him running away from the house around the time the 999 call was made.
He was arrested a short time later as he tried to board a train at Droitwich station.
The trial heard both Scott and Howell 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 “dunking” him “in cold baths whilst naked” or forcing Alfie to “stand outside, in the middle of the night and have cold water” thrown over him.
A recording made by a neighbour in which Alfie can be heard screaming “open the door” repeatedly after being locked out of the house was played to the trial.
Carla Scott speaks to paramedics
Concerns about Alfie had been raised with the authorities on many occasions and police and social workers had been involved.
In the year before Alfie’s death, neighbours had made a number of 999 calls.
On 4 April, 2020, neighbour Daniel Grindrod called to tell police “I’m hearing some really worrying noises from next door”, adding: “I’ve heard what sounds like a child in distress.”
The following day neighbours Graham and Rosemary Willetts called 999 to report “something very strange” about the house.
They called police again the next month and Mrs Willetts described seeing a boy in the garden being disciplined.
“He’s standing like a statue,” she said. Asked by the caller if they’d reported the family before, she said: “Yes, yes, this lad we believe is called Alfie.”
In August 2020, just over six months before Alfie died, next-door neighbour Gemma Allcott made a harrowing 999 call telling police: “It sounds like my neighbours are doing something bad to their kid in the bath, like they’re really hurting them.”
The caller told police it sounded like Alfie was “being hit and held under the water or something” at his home in Vashon Drive.
Social workers had put in place a protection plan that meant Howell was not allowed to stay overnight at the house, a rule the couple repeatedly flouted.
Social worker Hayley Waldron told the trial that in March 2020 there had been legal discussions over whether to remove Alfie from Scott’s care, but because Scott had been seen to be working with social workers at that stage it was deemed the situation did not cross that threshold.
An independent child safeguarding practice review is under way to establish whether more could have been done to protect Alfie.
The dates for Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK have been announced, with the US president due to be welcomed by the King from 17 to 19 September.
Buckingham Palace also confirmed that President Trump and first lady Melania will be hosted by the King and Queen at Windsor Castle.
It was expected that the three-day state visit would take place in September after Mr Trump let slip earlier in April that he believed that was when his second “fest” was being planned for.
Windsor was also anticipated to be the location after the US president told reporters in the Oval Office that the letter from the King said Windsor would be the setting. Refurbishment works at Buckingham Palace also meant that Windsor was used last week for French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit.
This will be Mr Trump’s second state visit to the UK, an unprecedented gesture towards an American leader, having previously been invited to Buckingham Palace in 2019.
Donald Trump and Melania Trump posing with Charles and Camilla in 2019. Pic: Reuters
He has also been to Windsor Castle before, in 2018, but despite the considerable military pageantry of the day, and some confusion around inspecting the guard, it was simply for tea with Queen Elizabeth II.
Further details of what will happen during the three-day visit in September will be announced in due course.
On Friday, Sky News revealed it is now unlikely that the US president will address parliament, usually an honour given to visiting heads of state as part of their visit. Some MPs had raised significant concerns about him being given the privilege.
But the House of Commons will not be sitting at the time of Mr Trump’s visit as it will rise for party conference season on the 16 September, meaning the president will not be able to speak in parliament as President Macron did during his state visit this week. However, the House of Lords will be sitting.
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Labour MP: ‘Trump isn’t welcome here’
In February this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer presented the US president with the letter from the King inviting him to visit during a meeting at the White House.
After reading it, Mr Trump said it was a “great, great honour”, adding “and that says at Windsor – that’s really something”.
In February, Sir Keir Starmer revealed a letter from the King inviting Donald Trump to the UK. Pic: Reuters
In the letter, the King suggested they might meet at Balmoral or Dumfries House in Scotland first before the much grander state visit. However, it is understood that, although all options were explored, complexities in both the King and Mr Trump’s diaries meant it wasn’t possible.
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This week, it emerged that Police Scotland are planning for a summer visit from the US president, which is likely to see him visit one or both of his golf clubs in Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire, and require substantial policing resources and probably units to be called in from elsewhere in the UK.
Precedent for second-term US presidents, who have already made a state visit, is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.
A small plane has crashed at Southend Airport in Essex.
Essex Police said it was at the scene of a “serious incident”.
Images posted online showed huge flames and a large cloud of black smoke, with one witness saying they saw a “fireball”.
A police statement said: “We were alerted shortly before 4pm to reports of a collision involving one 12-metre plane.
“We are working with all emergency services at the scene now and that work will be ongoing for several hours.
“We would please ask the public to avoid this area where possible while this work continues.”
A huge fireball near the airport. Pic: Ben G
It has been reported that the plane involved in the incident is a Beech B200 Super King Air.
According to flight-tracking service Flightradar, it took off at 3.48pm and was bound for Lelystad, a city in the Netherlands.
One man, who was at Southend Airport with his family around the time of the incident, said the aircraft “crashed headfirst into the ground”.
John Johnson said: “About three or four seconds after taking off, it started to bank heavily to its left, and then within a few seconds of that happening, it more or less inverted and crashed.
“There was a big fireball. Obviously, everybody was in shock in terms of witnessing it. All the kids saw it and the families saw it.”
Mr Johnson added that he phoned 999 to report the crash.
Southend Airport said the incident involved “a general aviation aircraft”.
Four flights scheduled to take off from Southend this afternoon were cancelled, according to its website.
Flightradar data shows two planes that had been due to land at Southend were diverted to nearby airports London Gatwick and London Stansted.
Plumes of black smoke. Pic: UKNIP
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said four crews, along with off-road vehicles, have attended the scene.
Four ambulances and four hazardous area response team vehicles are also at the airport, as well as an air ambulance, the East of England Ambulance Service said.
Its statement described the incident as “still developing”.
Fire engines at the airport
David Burton-Sampson, the MP for Southend West and Leigh, posted on social media: “I am aware of an incident at Southend Airport. Please keep away and allow the emergency services to do their work.
“My thoughts are with everyone involved.”
Local councillor Matt Dent said on X: “At present all I know is that a small plane has crashed at the airport. My thoughts are with all those involved, and with the emergency services currently responding to the incident.”
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UK
Heidi Alexander says ‘fairness’ will be government’s ‘guiding principle’ when it comes to taxes at next budget
Another hint that tax rises are coming in this autumn’s budget has been given by a senior minister.
Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was asked if Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of the cabinet had discussed hiking taxes in the wake of the government’s failed welfare reforms, which were shot down by their own MPs.
Trevor Phillips asked specifically if tax rises were discussed among the cabinet last week – including on an away day on Friday.
Politics Hub: Catch up on the latest
Tax increases were not discussed “directly”, Ms Alexander said, but ministers were “cognisant” of the challenges facing them.
Asked what this means, Ms Alexander added: “I think your viewers would be surprised if we didn’t recognise that at the budget, the chancellor will need to look at the OBR forecast that is given to her and will make decisions in line with the fiscal rules that she has set out.
“We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people. We have stuck to that.”
Ms Alexander said she wouldn’t comment directly on taxes and the budget at this point, adding: “So, the chancellor will set her budget. I’m not going to sit in a TV studio today and speculate on what the contents of that budget might be.
“When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle.”
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Afterwards, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Phillips: “That sounds to me like a barely disguised reference to tax rises coming in the autumn.”
He then went on to repeat the Conservative attack lines that Labour are “crashing the economy”.
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Chris Philp also criticsed the government’s migration deal with France
Mr Philp then attacked the prime minister as “weak” for being unable to get his welfare reforms through the Commons.
Discussions about potential tax rises have come to the fore after the government had to gut its welfare reforms.
Sir Keir had wanted to change Personal Independence Payments (PIP), but a large Labour rebellion forced him to axe the changes.
With the savings from these proposed changes – around £5bn – already worked into the government’s sums, they will now need to find the money somewhere else.
The general belief is that this will take the form of tax rises, rather than spending cuts, with more money needed for military spending commitments, as well as other areas of priority for the government, such as the NHS.
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