Alfie Steele: mother and partner jailed 59 years for nine-year-old schoolboy's death after 'sadistic' torture

Career criminal Dirk Howell has been jailed for a minimum of 32 years for murdering nine-year-old Alfie Steele, who was found submerged in a bath with dozens of injuries, while his mother has been jailed for 27 years for manslaughter.

Prosecutors said that Alfie Steele was repeatedly assaulted, beaten and put in a cold bath as part of a cruel and “sinister” regime of correction by Carla Scott and Dirk Howell in Droitwich, Worcestershire, in February 2021.

Jurors at Coventry Crown Court found his mother, 35-year-old Carla Scott guilty of Alfie’s manslaughter after a six-week trial, returning their verdict on Tuesday (13 June). She was cleared of his murder. Her partner Howell, 41, was found guilty of Alfie’s murder by unanimous verdict.

On Thursday (15 June), Howell was sentenced life with a minimum term of 32 years for Alfie's murder. Scott was handed jail sentences totalling 27 years at Coventry Crown Court for child cruelty and the manslaughter of her nine-year-old son.

Passing sentence on the pair, Justice Wall told them: “You have both refused to tell the truth about the day of Alfie’s death, preferring to lie to pretend that it was no more than a tragic accident and to cover up for one another.

“What is clear is that Alfie did not have the quiet death you tried to portray: a death in which he had an epileptic fit and gently fell asleep in the bath," he continued. “His death was violent and brutal.”

February 18 had been yet another day on which the couple had decided that Alfie was “to be tortured”, the judge said. During the six-week trial, jurors heard Alfie was denied food as an act or cruelty and routinely subjected to other “sinister” punishments, including being locked outside his Vashon Drive home in cold weather, and made to stand in a statue-like pose.

“Alfie died either through drowning, concussive head trauma or mechanical asphyxia. The doctors could not determine which it was. For the purposes of this sentence, it does not matter which," the judge continued.

“Whatever the mechanics of his death, the true cause of his death was your cruel and unlawful conduct towards him.” The judge told Howell: “Some of your actions can only properly be described as sadistic. I am sure you got pleasure from inflicting pain.”

During their trial, both defendants had denied the charges against them. Opening the case last month, prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said that the pair 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”. These included "dunked" in cold water baths.

Alfie had 50 injuries across his head, back, legs, and buttocks, she said, with only a handful likely to be due to normal childhood bumps and scrapes.

Jurors at the six-week trial were told Scott and career criminal Howell tried to cover up the killing by delaying calling 999 after Alfie was either drowned, asphyxiated or went into cardiac arrest.

The court heard Alfie, who was found lifeless with a body temperature of 23C, may have been put back in a warm bath as the couple tried to pass off the murder as an accidental drowning.

Police body-cam footage and audio of Scott's 999 call were released by the CPS during the couple's murder trial at Coventry Crown Court, SWNS reported. Jurors were played the emergency call, made at 2.24pm on February 18, 2021, where Scott claimed her son had "fallen asleep" and drowned in the bath.

She remained calm as she told the operator she could "feel a rattle" in her son’s chest and added: "He’s not breathing, but he keeps making noises."

After being told an ambulance was on the way Scott said: "He fell asleep in the bath. He's got asthma. When he was a baby he got pneumonia."

The operator proceeded to provide instructions on giving CPR to Alfie before Scott said: "I can see him breathing a bit. Not a lot but I can see him breathing a bit."

She claimed her son is starting to make noises, at which point the call handler asks "What noises?" and Scott replied: "Lots of gargling noises." As Scott confirmed to the operator that the ambulance had arrived she added: "He's banged his head as well."

Body-cam cameras captured the landing full of paramedics and officers, and Scott standing in the doorway of a "dark, dirty and dishevelled" bedroom where Alfie was found. Scott could be heard telling officers "I think he banged his head when he was in the bath because he's got an [inaudible] on his head."

In an unrelated video clip, taken by a neighbour and shown to the jury, the schoolboy was heard screaming and begging to be let inside, 18 months before he was found dead in the bath.

The minute-long clip, filmed in August 2019, captured Alfie's piercing screams, and finished with him repeatedly shouting: "Let me in, let me in".

A neighbour told the court he had been locked out of the house, and was not let back in for up to half an hour.

In another 999 call played to the jury, one neighbour said he could hear a child whimpering at the property in Droitwich, at 5.31am on April 4, 2020, Daniel Grindrod told the operator he had heard "banging and crashing" coming from the house.

In the call he said: "It sounded like a child in distress, a child whimpering - crying, pleading almost." He added: "I can't ignore this. He was crying to be let in, it's pretty horrendous."

Justice Wall remanded both defendants into custody to be sentenced at 11am on Thursday (15 June).