How did we let this little girl down

“It’s a joy for me to oversee the return of a child to her parents.”

These were the words uttered by senior judge Dame Mary Hogg as she concluded the custody trial that saw six-year-old Ellie Butler and her younger sibling returned to the care of their parents, Ben Butler, 36, and graphic designer and former East Enders actress Jennie Gray, also 36.

Within months, Ben Butler beat Ellie to death in a fit of rage.

Little Ellie Butler was subjected to horrific cruelty at the hands of her violent father Ben Butler

The system failed this little girl

The tragic and seemingly preventable story of Ellie Butler’s sad life and atrocious death has rocked Britain, where it’s being seen as an appalling failure of child protection.

The little girl was taken away from her parents when she was just seven weeks old, after her father was accused of causing her brain injuries after shaking her severely. Even earlier she’d been taken to hospital with burns to her head and hands that her mother said were caused when she rolled into a heater.

Ben Butler was convicted of grievous bodily harm in this case and jailed briefly but publicly denied all charges and eventually managed to get his conviction overturned.

Meanwhile Ellie’s maternal grandparents, Neal and Linda Gray, were given custody of the little girl but her parents waged a high profile campaign to have her returned - appearing regularly on television demanding that their slate be wiped clean.

Ben Butler and Jennie Gray appeared regularly on British TV protesting their innocence

“Happy ending” says judge

Eventually they succeeded, with Judge Hogg saying at the conclusion of their custody trial that she found Ben Butler, who had a series of convictions for violence against women including beating one with a metal pole, to be of sound character, and that the case had a “happy ending”.

”I was impressed by the father,” Judge Hogg said in her verdict. “He came through as a reflective, thoughtful individual, who at times over-reacts through frustration.”

“I note the convictions include assault on adults, not on children. I accept that he can act out of frustration but that does not necessarily mean he will lose control of his temper however fleetingly towards his baby daughter.”

Ellie’s grandfather warned that his precious granddaughter was not safe with her violent father

When Ellie Butler’s grandfather Neal heard that the girl, who he had loved and cared for since she was a baby, was to be returned to her violent father, he warned the judge “You are going to have blood on your hands.”

Horrifically, he was right. Detectives who found Ellie after the horrendous bashing she suffered at the hands of her enraged father in 2013 said her injuries were so catastrophic that her head was a “boggy mess.” Medical experts said it was one of the worst cases of violence they had ever seen in a domestic setting.

Ellie’s mother Jennie - who detectives believe was terrified of her violent and controlling partner - helped Ben concoct an elaborate ruse to make it look like the little girl’s death was an accident, even calling 999 hours after she died and giving the little girl CPR, despite knowing full well she had passed away.

Ellie’s mother Jennie Gray

“Violent and vile”

Yet even when all the evidence was presented, Ellie’s murderous father showed no remorse. Ben Butler claimed that little Ellie had hurt her head while jumping up and down watching Peppa Pig, despite the fact that experts said her injuries were more in line with a horrific car crash.

This time, however, the judge was not so impressed. Not that this realisation came fast enough to help little Ellie.

“You murdered her in a brutal assault prompted by your evil temper,” said senior judge Mr Justice Wilkie when he sentenced Ben Butler for murder. “You struck her head so hard against a flat surface, or hit her so hard on the head with a blunt implement that, whether you hit her once or more than once, you inflicted catastrophic skull and brain injuries from which she very quickly died.”

He then spoke of Ellie’s last few months when she was first returned to her parents: “Within weeks, you were complaining in vilely abusive and self pitying terms of your lot and were taking out your inadequacies on your partner, violently and vilely, both physically and verbally,” he said.

“Within a year Ellie was dead having suffered a series of injuries, some serious, in the last few weeks of her life.”

“I am satisfied that from, at the latest, late summer 2013, you subjected Ellie to a series of physical attacks, when she was in your sole care, in which she sustained injuries for none of which you sought medical attention.”

“You lied to Jennie Gray about how she came by these injuries and she, totally beholden to and dominated by you, felt she had no option but to believe you and collude in your ill treatment of her.”

Screaming his innocence to the last

Yet even this staggering indictment did not stop Ben Butler’s rage.

Following the guilty verdict, Butler shouted to the courtroom: “I’ll fight for the rest of my life - unbelievable,” before adding: “I want to be sentenced now so I can fight in the Appeal Court.”

He added: “I will fight forever to prove this wrong. My daughter was jumping in the house. I’m 100% not guilty.”

He finished with “Big mistake. Spend another 10 years proving you wrong.”

He was then led away to jail, where he will spend a minimum of 23 years. Ellie’s mother Jennie was also convicted of child cruelty and sentenced to three and a half years jail.

Ellie’s grandfather will never recover from the pain

Ellie’s grandfather Neal - who loved little Ellie as his own daughter - has a heart broken into a million pieces. Tragically, his wife Linda died on the first day of Ben Butler’s murder trial, further compounding this poor man’s grief.

“Our lives have changed so dramatically due to the impact and shock and horror of this event that we struggle every day to deal with the reality of the death of our dear granddaughter Ellie. She was our shining light,” he said in a statement.

“Ellie was a very beautiful, bubbly and intelligent little girl who always had a smile on her face and even at such a young age she was nobody’s fool. She was our life and she gave so much pleasure to us and our family too, how we all miss her.”

All of us should grieve for Ellie, and miss her deeply, even though we did not know her. We owe it to this brave, tormented little girl to remember her, to think of what she went through so we can see that something like this never happens to a defenceless child again.

Violence is not something that we can ever hope to stamp out in the world. But turning a blind eye to it is. Men like Ben Butler are calculating and manipulative. His history should have been a dire warning - he was a violent, angry and dangerous man and a judge should never have been so duped by his trickery to allow a vulnerable child like Ellie anywhere near his clutches.

You were a beautiful child, Ellie. You deserved so much better. We all let you down.

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