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".
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The schoolboy was also heard screaming in a harrowing video taken by a neighbour as he allegedly begged to be allowed inside his home in Droitwich, Worcestershire, 18 months before he died, the court heard.
Scott told her trial she had not "belted" Alfie, while Howell said he did not beat the schoolboy or attempt to stage a cover-up, instead claiming to have attempted CPR to revive his alleged victim, reports the Mirror.
Police bodycam video and audio of a 999 call was released by the CPS during the couple's murder trial at Coventry Crown Court. Jurors were played the emergency call made by Scott at 2.24pm on February 18, 2021, in which she claimed her son had "fallen asleep" and drowned in the bath.
She remained calm as she told the operator she could "feel a rattle" on her son’s chest, adding: "He’s not breathing, but he keeps making noises." After being told an ambulance was on the way, Scott says: "He fell asleep in the bath. He's got asthma. When he was a baby he got pneumonia."
The operator then gives 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."
Bodycam camera footage shows the landing of the home full of paramedics and officers, and Scott standing in the doorway of a "dark, dirty and dishevelled" bedroom where Alfie was found.
Scott 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."
She ends the phone call by saying "I will do, I love you too" and makes a kissing sound down the phone.
Jurors at Coventry Crown Court took 10 hours and 13 minutes of deliberation to find Scott, of Vashon Drive, Droitwich, guilty of Alfie's manslaughter, returning a majority verdict of 11 to one on Tuesday, June 13. She was cleared of his murder.
Howell, also known as Dean, of Princip Street, Birmingham, was found guilty of Alfie's murder by unanimous verdict.
The judge, Mr Justice Wall, remanded both defendants into custody to be sentenced at 11am on Thursday.
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