Alfie Steele: The sports-mad boy killed by brutal punishments

Alfie Steele loved sport and would watch Worcester Warriors and Arsenal with his grandfather

Alfie Steele died at the hands of his mother and her partner who enforced a regime of punishments that made his short life a misery. With several neighbours raising the alarm before his death, could more have been done to save him?

At the home where Alfie was killed, the walls were bare with the exception of pages of hand-written rules and a wall sticker in the living room that read: "Family, where life begins."

For the nine-year-old, it would be where his life ended, dying bruised, thin and cold after a brutal regime of so-called "discipline" meted out by his mother's partner.

His final punishment, to be dunked in a freezing bath as his mum stood by, put an end to a life punctuated by abuse.

Questions are now being asked about what could have been done to save him, with both social services and police made aware of what he was being subjected to through several calls from worried neighbours.

The man who would become his murderer had been considered such a risk that social services had forbidden him staying overnight at the family's home. But for Dirk Howell, rules were there to be flouted.

Warning: this article contains distressing content.

Before his death, Alfie was said to be a smiley, sports-mad boy. Alongside his grandad, he loved watching Arsenal and Worcester Warriors play. At school, teachers recalled his pride in his work.

But behind Alfie's smile, it was abuse that marked the beginning and end of his life story.

When his mother Carla Scott, 35, split from his violent father in 2017, perhaps he expected things to get better.

In fact they were to get worse, when two years later she moved to Droitwich, in Worcestershire, and met known troublemaker Howell, who moved himself into the family home.

Scott was found guilty of manslaughter and Howell guilty of murder after 10 hours of jury deliberations

Alfie was confronted by Howell's desire for control, with daily demands and rules stuck up in his bedroom as well as in the bathroom and kitchen.

The punishment for not following Howell's instructions was nothing short of cruel - the 41-year-old admitted that himself in court.

Alfie was beaten, locked outside in the middle of the night, drenched in cold water, forced to sit on one spot for hours, shouted and sworn at.

'They're doing something really bad to their kid'

On Vashon Drive, at the house they lived in on a new-build estate, neighbours started to notice something was wrong as Howell's grip tightened on the family.

"There's a man in the house and they've put the young lad outside, which they've done before," a concerned neighbour reported to police in May 2020 - two months into lockdown.

"The man was having a verbal go at him, obviously giving him a real good telling off."

At the time, coronavirus restrictions meant schools were closed and Alfie was cut off from the safety net of teachers, friends and wider family.

Neighbours, intimidated by Howell's reputation, made regular reports to police about what they could see and hear. One told call handlers: "He's a nutcase, from what I gather."

The rules on Alfie's bedroom door

After one police call-out, he instructed Scott from a window "tell them to mind their own business" before adding directly to a neighbour: "I'm gonna burn your [expletive] house down."

A resident who lived opposite recorded a video of Alfie repeatedly crying and screaming "let me in the door, let me in".

Through the thin walls of their semi-detached home, another woman told police she could hear what the trial revealed to be a preferred punishment and ultimately the final act of violence Alfie suffered.

"It sounds like my neighbour's doing something really bad to their kid in the bath," she told police in August 2020.

"It sounds like he's being hit and held under the water or something and loads of thrashing around."

Despite the tip-offs, the reports and the alarm being raised, the nine-year-old died a cruel and senseless death.

It was 14:24 on 18 February 2021 that Scott called 999 asking for an ambulance.

Her son had hit his head and fallen asleep in the bath, she said. He was no longer breathing.

The community was left shattered by news of Alfie's death in February 2021

• Mum and partner guilty of killing boy in bath

In truth, as had become a routine punishment, Alfie died after being repeatedly dunked head first into the freezing water and held under the surface. It is thought he was being reprimanded for bed wetting.

It took an hour before Scott called for help, she claimed. Or had it been 10 minutes? Her story was already changing as she spoke to officers on the landing outside the bathroom while paramedics tried to save her son.

When Alfie's lifeless body arrived in hospital barely an hour later, his core temperature was so low - 23C (73F) - it was likely he had been dead for some time. It was also unlikely, as his mother had claimed, he had been enjoying a comfortable, warm bath.

His body, a patchwork of more than 50 injuries, revealed a childhood of repeated assaults.

Teachers at Witton Middle School recalled an underweight boy, known to be so hungry he would stuff fish fingers, chips and beans, a jacket potato and then a sandwich into his mouth in just one sitting.

Standing at 129cm tall and weighing barely 4.2st (27kg), defensive injuries to his tiny body suggest Alfie nevertheless tried to resist the attacks of the adults he depended on.

Carla Scott denied the murder of her son along with her partner Dirk Howell (r)

Exactly how he lost his life remains a mystery. Alfie's cause of death was recorded as "unascertained" but pathologists agreed it was not natural.

"Something happened to Alfie to cause him to die," prosecutors said.

Neither Scott nor Howell ever provided a plausible explanation and jurors were satisfied it was their actions which extinguished Alfie's life.

No IOPC referral

His death stunned the community and the shockwaves spread further afield as again a child known to authorities was killed at a time when lockdown made it harder for others to intervene.

West Mercia Police and Worcestershire social services will now be scrutinised in a safeguarding review that will look into whether any more could have been done to save Alfie.

The force said after the convictions the case had never been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) despite officers' regular contact with Scott and Howell.

Det Ch Insp Leighton Harding told reporters outside court the contact the force had had with the family "did not meet the criteria for a referral" to the IOPC and a review had left them "satisfied" this remained the case.

"We are, of course, committed to learning from this sad case and will be actively engaging with the Independent Child Safeguarding Practice Review," he added.

A serial offender with dozens of convictions, Howell was reprimanded in court for disrupting proceedings and evidence showed a belligerent attitude to police: refusing to give his name, not answering a single question in interview and repeatedly lying.

Scott also revealed herself to be a liar. As her dying son's body got colder and colder, her instinct was to cover her and Howell's tracks, pretending she had not seen him for days and inventing a fantasy that Alfie's last day alive was spent enjoying a "movie day".

'Courageous like a lion'

In May, Alfie should have turned 11.

"He had a smile that would melt butter," was how his grandfather Paul Scott chose to remember him when his life was cut short at nine.

"He was intelligent and inquisitive, and was courageous like a lion.

"He would never shy away from anything and had no fear."

But after weeks of evidence at Coventry Crown Court, jurors heard the painful truth about the boy lockdown had prevented Mr Scott from seeing.

Faced with vicious beatings and cruel punishments, his grandson lived with fear every single day.

After being found guilty of killing Alfie, the couple who wrought that fear are due to be sentenced on Thursday.

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