Image source, Met Police

February 2007: At six weeks old and in the sole care of her father, Ellie was found to be "suddenly soft and limp". Scans showed she had serious injuries. 

June 2007: Ellie was placed in the care of her grandparents. 

January 2008: The Family Court found that, on the balance of probability, Butler caused Ellie's injuries and Gray failed to protect her. 

March 2009: Butler was convicted of grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He had a history of offending and violence. 

June 2010: His criminal conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal on the basis of new medical evidence. 

July 2012: The Family Court overturned an order which protected Ellie from her parents. It exonerated Butler and said that any injury caused to Ellie was "purely accidental". 

An independent social work agency was appointed to replace Sutton Council's social workers to oversee the children being returned to their parents. The children were not subject to any court orders which had an effect of preventing agencies (social workers, child protection, schools etc) from having any further involvement. 

November 2012: Ellie was returned to her parents' care. 

October 2013: Ellie was murdered.

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Maximum temperature 21C (70F).

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Six-year-old Ellie Butler died less than a year after she was returned to her parents. 

Social services, police and the courts had all been involved in her care since shortly after she was born on 30 December 2006. 

So how could it happen that Ellie was murdered at home, in her own bedroom, at the hands of her father Ben Butler?

Sutton Guardian

The Sutton Guardian has full coverage of the Ben Butler and Jennie Gray verdicts, external plus a timeline of events leading up to the six-year-old Ellie's death.

Image source, Met Police

Jailing Ben Butler, Mr Justice Wilkie told him: "You are a self-absorbed, ill-tempered, violent and domineering man who, I am satisfied, regarded your children and your partner as trophies, having no role other than to fit in with your infantile and sentimentalised fantasy of family life with you as the patriarch whose every whim was to be responded to appropriately." 

He told a sobbing Jennie Gray that she may have been "exceptionally naive and stupid" to believe Butler and take part in the cover-up.

Christine Davies CBE, independent chair of the Sutton Local Safeguarding Children Board, has expressed deep sadness at Ellie Butler's death.

In a statement she says: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who knew and loved her, particularly her maternal grandparents for the love and care they showed to her in the 5 years that she lived with them.

"The SCR found that this was an exceptionally unusual case. Ben Butler had previously been found guilty of Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) on Ellie in 2007 and then had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal. His conviction for GBH on Ellie was quashed because it was considered to be no longer beyond reasonable doubt. 

"This was on the basis of new expert medical evidence. This does not mean he did not injure Ellie.

"After Ben Butler’s conviction was quashed, Ellie’s mother, Jennie Gray, took their case to the Family Court to have the finding of fact, that Ben Butler was responsible for injuring Ellie, overturned.

"The Family Court Judge went much further than the Appeal Court ruling and stated that ‘any injury caused was purely accidental’, that Ben Butler should be exonerated and that he was a victim of a miscarriage of justice. 

"The Family Court Judge went on to state that she did not attach any culpability to Ben Butler for the 2007 injury. The Family Court appointed an independent social work agency called Services for Children to assess and oversee Ellie and her younger sibling’s placement with their parents. 

"Sutton Council strongly contested the decision made by the Family Court to have Ellie and her sibling placed with their parents. The SCR found that neither Sutton Council social workers nor staff from other LSCB agencies could have done anything more to save Ellie’s life. Sutton Council fought to keep Ellie in care and away from her parents but this was ultimately dismissed by the Family Court."

Jennie Gray is sentenced to a total of 42 months for perverting the course of justice and child cruelty

Ben Butler is given life with a 23 years minimum term.  

Danny Shaw
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

Ben Butler  starts shouting from dock as the judge recounts how he cynically covered up Ellie's murder.

Danny Shaw
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

Image source, Met Police

During sentencing, the court heard that Jennie Gray only learned today that her mother died two months ago. Her father Neale Gray - didn't want to tell her. 

Jennie Gray sobs uncontrollably in the dock as her barrister tells the court that she was handed a letter by police about her mother's death.

Mr Justice Wilkie says Ben Butler is a violent, ill tempered, domineering man who attacked Ellie with "lethal violence" and arranged the scene.  

Ellie Butler's maternal grandparents described their utter devastation at her death, saying: "She was our shining light." 

Grandmother Linda Gray died on the first day of the murder trial and her husband Neal was understood to be too ill to give evidence. 

The couple had cared for Ellie after her father Ben Butler was accused of shaking her as a baby, but they were forced to hand her back 11 months before her death. 

In a joint statement written ahead of the trial, they described how they struggled to come to terms with the "shock and horror" of her death. 

They said: "Our lives have changed so dramatically due to the impact and shock and horror of this event that we struggle every day to deal with the reality of the death of our dear granddaughter Ellie. She was our shining light. 

"Ellie was a very beautiful, bubbly and intelligent little girl who always had a smile on her face and even at such a young age she was nobody's fool. She was our life and she gave so much pleasure to us and our family too, how we all miss her." 

Image source, Met Police

Ellie Butler's absences from school and bruises should have been "a red flag" that she was being mistreated, a leading children's charity has said.

An NSPCC spokesman said: "This tragedy raises serious questions about why Ellie was returned to the man who would eventually kill her - questions which a serious case review must address.

"There were signs such as absences from school and bruising which should have acted as a red flag that Ellie was in danger. 

"Despite this she was left at the mercy of Ben Butler, who has shown himself to be a violent, aggressive and manipulative man, more concerned with covering his tracks than seeking medical help for his daughter.

"He was aided in this sickening crime by his partner Jennie Gray, who has been revealed to be just as conniving, deceptive and duplicitous. There are obviously lessons to be learned from such a harrowing case." 

Danny Shaw
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

Sentencing has begun in the Butler case. Ben Butler is in tears in the dock, chatting to Jennie Gray. They're flanked by dock security officers.

The judge has warned Butler that if he interrupts he'll be removed to the cells.

As prosecutors read out Butler's lengthy list of previous convictions - some for violence - he and Gray weep in the dock.

Jennie Gray has previous convictions for benefit fraud.

Butler passes a paper hanky to Gray to wipe her tears. The pair's heads bowed with dock officer between them.

Image source, Met Police

The senior officer in the Ben Butler case has rubbished the defendant's claims of a police stitch-up, saying he was convicted of killing his daughter by "overwhelming evidence". 

From the very first day, Detective Inspector Dave Reid said he was "suspicious" about the circumstances surrounding little Ellie's death because of the extent of her horrific injuries.

But it took another two and a half years of "painstaking" work - in the absence of any CCTV or reliable eyewitnesses - to bring the case against Butler, pictured above, to court.

The BBC's Gaetan Portal says the judge in the Ben Butler trial has indicated sentencing of him and his partner Jennie Gray, which is just beginning, could take up to an hour.

The Sutton Safeguarding Children Board has just issued this statement following the guilty verdicts in the Ben Butler trial:

The report will be published at 13:30 , external

The Sutton Safeguarding Children Board's serious case review into the Butler case will be published early this afternoon, external.

After the guilty verdicts Ben Butler's lawyer Di Middleton asked for sentencing at the Old Bailey to be adjourned.

But Butler shouted out: "Di I want to be sentenced now. There is no need - you can sentence me now so I can fight in the appeal court and prove this wrong. I will fight forever to prove this wrong." 

Mr Justice Wilkie adjourned sentence to 12:30.

Mrs Justice Hogg, who "exonerated" Ben Butler at the Family Court in 2011 retired earlier this year.

Image source, Family handout/PA

In some of her final words on the matter, she wrote: "It is seldom that I see a 'happy end' in public law proceedings. It is a joy for me to oversee the return of a child to her parents… the story does not end today. There is still work to be done."

The BBC has approached her for comment.