A nine-year-old boy died after being “repeatedly assaulted and beaten” by his mother and her fiance, who held him down in cold baths and poured water over him outside at night, a court has heard.
Alfie Steele had 50 injuries on his body when he was found lifeless in a bath at home in Droitwich on 18 February 2021, and was later pronounced dead at Worcester Royal hospital.
His mother, Carla Scott, 35, and her partner, Dirk Howell, 41, are jointly accused of his murder.
Opening the case at Coventry crown court on Tuesday, the prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said Alfie was “made to endure a life that no child should lead”.
“He had been deliberately and repeatedly assaulted, beaten, and put into and held under a cold bath as a punishment, and that unlawful course of conduct, that unnecessary punishment, was carried out jointly by Carla Scott and Dirk Howell,” Heeley told the court.
The jury heard that the couple hit Alfie with belts or a slider – “like a heavy duty flip-flop” – as well as “dunking” him naked in cold baths and making him stand outside at night and have cold water thrown over him.
Scott had Alfie with a man in a previous relationship, at which time social services were involved. The couple broke up in 2017, Scott started dating Howell in July 2019 and within six months they were engaged, the court heard.
Heeley said neighbours raised their concerns with the authorities “within a short period of time of these two getting together”.
“Dirk Howell believed in discipline; on the face of it not a bad thing when bringing up young children,” Heeley said. “But whereas you might think of discipline as being the naughty step, or having set bed times, for Dirk Howell discipline was far more physical and psychological.”
She said neighbours “saw a child standing outside the house begging to be let in, with both defendants refusing them entry”, and Howell was seen shouting and swearing in the street.
After social services became involved again, Howell was banned from staying in the family home overnight, but the couple “flouted this rule wilfully and continuously”, Heeley said.
“Carla Scott clearly knew what he was like, but let him stay anyway.”
On the day of her son’s death, Scott dialled 999 at 2.24pm claiming “Alfie had fallen asleep in the bath” and she had found him “submerged”, adding he had previously hit his head.
Police arrived at the house six minutes later and found Alfie lifeless and “cold to the touch”, Heeley said. A postmortem examination concluded the cause of his death was “unascertained”.
Heeley said: “He didn’t die of natural causes, he had bruises all over his body, and signs that he had been deprived of oxygen.”
Scott told police she had not seen Howell for two days before Alfie’s death, but a police officer is said to have spotted him on a nearby street just minutes after her 999 call and the prosecution allege he had stayed at the home overnight.
He was arrested by police while trying to board a stationary train at Droitwich railway station. “What were they both trying to hide at that point? Their guilt. They knew what they had done and Dirk Howell’s first instinct was to run,” Heeley said.
Jurors were told Howell had admitted cruelty offences against other children before the trial, but denies murder, manslaughter, cruelty or causing or allowing the death of Alfie.
Scott also denies murder, manslaughter, causing or allowing the death of Alfie and child cruelty offences against her son and other children.
The trial continues.
