A mum and her boyfriend were found guilty of killing her nine-year-old son.
Carla Scott, 35, and fiancé Dirk Howell, 41, subjected young Alfie Steele to months of abuse, including repeated assaults. The court heard they would often force him into cold baths as part of a cruel and "sinister" regime of correction.
At the time of his death in February 2021, Alfie had 50 injuries all over his body, with only a handful likely to be due to normal childhood bumps and scrapes. Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC claimed both defendants 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".
