New Light On Ellie Butler Parents' Relationship

New light has been shed on the abusive relationship between the parents of Ellie Butler - the five-year-old girl killed in 2013.

Ben Butler, 36, was convicted in June of murdering Ellie in October 2013 and was given a minimum 23-year jail term.

The girl's mother, Jennie Gray, was sentenced to 42 months in prison after being convicted of child cruelty. She had admitted perverting the course of justice.

Newly released court documents have shown the extent to which Butler abused his partner as well as Ellie and her sibling.

Mrs Justice Eleanor King said: "The mother has been the victim of domestic violence of the most serious type, including physical and psychological brutality.

"She was/and is so dominated and controlled by the father that she has been incapable of defying him, separating from him or protecting her children from him."

Butler, from Sutton, southwest London, killed his daughter just 11 months after winning her back in a custody battle. The girl had previously been placed with grandparents.

Mrs Justice King said Ellie had been admitted to hospital on 28 October 2013 after suffering a "significant head injury" when in the "sole care" of her father.

The judge also said in the weeks leading up to the death, Butler became more and more angry and frustrated about his relationship with Gray and resentful at having to look after the children.

The violence towards the children escalated and Ellie's sibling too was beaten in the days before Ellie's death, leaving marks on the sibling's back.

On the day the sibling was admitted to care, Butler inflicted an injury seen on the sibling's back and bottom, probably from a belt.

In 2012, Gray had an opportunity to separate from Butler but she sought the return of the children to their joint care knowing she was a victim of chronic domestic violence, said Mrs Justice King.

And the father was routinely violent, volatile and aggressive to her, the judge added.

Both parents gave evidence categorically denying domestic violence or verbal abuse between them, with Gray blaming botox for bruising to her face when domestic violence was suspected, the judge found.

Mrs Justice King also said a carer who looked after the sibling following Ellie's death kept a log of what the sibling said, including: "Head put down the toilet and toilet flushed."

The judge's remarks were in a behind-closed-doors ruling in the summer of 2014, which had previously stayed under wraps.

She analysed the case and was asked to make findings to help social workers take decisions about the sibling's future.

In the ruling, she concluded on the balance of probabilities that Butler was "responsible for Ellie's death".

The judge said Ellie had suffered a skull fracture. But her full ruling was not revealed at the time.

Earlier this month, another judge, Mrs Justice Pauffley, rejected an application from the media which argued the publication of Mrs Justice King's ruling would be in the public interest following Butler's conviction.

Mrs Justice Pauffley concluded Mrs Justice King's ruling should not be published in case reporting prejudiced any retrial.

But now the second most senior judge in England and Wales, Lord Dyson, has said Mrs Justice Pauffley "reached the wrong conclusion".

Lord Dyson and two other Court of Appeal judges said there was "no real possibility" that publication would prejudice Butler's rights to a fair retrial.