Alfie Steele’s killer mother is jailed for 27 years: Cruel mother who tortured, beat and held the nine-year-old down in a cold bath is sent to prison while her career criminal boyfriend who murdered the little boy is jailed for life
Alfie Steele’s killer mother and her career criminal boyfriend who tortured the schoolboy to death in a ‘cruel and sinister’ regime of abuse in lockdown have been jailed for 27 years and 32 years respectively.
Little Alfie was beaten, ‘held’ in cold bath water, locked out of the house or in a shed and whipped with belts in actions described by a judge today as ‘sadistic’.
Concerned neighbours and even passers-by in the street reported the treatment doled out by Dirk Howell, 41 and Alfie’s mother, Carla Scott, 35, to police, social services, the council and Alfie’s school.
But despite Alfie being on the radar of social services since he was a young boy, a catalogue of potential opportunities to save the youngster were missed.
Howell was convicted of his murder yesterday and jailed for life today with a minimum term of 32 years. Scott was found guilty of manslaughter and handed jail sentences totally 27 years at Coventry Crown Court.
The ‘gorgeous’ schoolboy was found unresponsive in cold bathwater at the new-build housing association property where he lived with Scott and Howell in Droitwich, Worcestershire, in February 2021 during the third national lockdown.
Alfie Steele died after his lifeless body was pulled from a bath having suffered more than 50 injuries at the hands of the evil mother and her partner in February 2021
Dirk Howell (pictured) is pictured on police body-cam footage being arrested at a railway station shortly after Alfie’s death was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 32 years
Alfie’s mother Carla Scott, 35, (pictured) has been handed jail sentences totalling 27 years
So sickening was the abuse, that a judge told jurors they would never need to sit on a jury again after hearing about the poor child’s final moments.
The death became the latest addition to a heartbreaking roll call of children killed during the pandemic which includes Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Finley Boden, Logan Mwangi and Star Hobson.
Scott remained composed in the dock as her partner Howell was sentenced.
Howell slumped forward in the dock, with his right hand cupping his chin, as Mr Justice Wall told the 41-year-old: ‘I am sure that you got pleasure from inflicting pain and discomfort.
‘In my judgment some of your actions can properly be described as sadistic.
‘The risks of killing him by your conduct were real and obvious.’
Scott’s neighbours in Droitwich said Alfie’s death was ‘avoidable’, as they condemned social workers and other authorities for failing to intervene sooner, with one calling for a public inquiry into the failings.
One neighbour who reported seeing Alfie being screamed at by Howell in the garden said: ‘All of us living in the houses that back on to their garden reported it to the police.
‘We reported (the defendants) to the police, social services, the school where Alfie went and even the housing association but nothing was done.
‘On one occasion, we saw a police officer in one of the upstairs windows looking out at the garden so we knew the police had gone in. They must have seen the conditions they were living in.’
She said the couple were nicknamed the ‘ferals’ because they didn’t get involved with anyone in the street.
‘The house was always shut up, the windows closed and the curtains drawn, it makes you think now ‘What was going on?’
The six-week trial heard that Howell had repeatedly flouted a requirement from social services that he did not stay overnight at the property, where Alfie was found with more than 50 different injuries.
Howell had been at the house when Alfie died, but cowardly fled to a train station, where police bodycam footage which was played to the court captured his arrest as he tried to board a train.
Howell was alleged to have picked Alfie up and thrown him in the bath – causing a ‘sickening thud’ – after repeatedly beating him in one of the bedrooms where jurors heard just a mattress lay on the floor.
The trial was played the emergency call made by Scott – who was still dressed in a vest and knickers when police arrived at the address that afternoon – claiming her son had ‘fallen asleep’ and drowned in the bath. Displayed on her living room wall were the words: ‘Family, where life begins.’
Alfie was pronounced dead after being admitted to hospital.
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