Ben Butler trial: murder accused was good father, court hears

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/26/ben-butler-trial-accused-court

Version 0 of 1.

A man accused of battering to death his six-year-old daughter was described by his partner as a “bloody good” father who would not have hurt her, a court has heard.

Ben Butler, 36, is on trial at the Old Bailey for allegedly murdering Ellie on 28 October 2013 while Jennie Gray was working as a graphic designer in the City of London.

The court has heard that Gray, 36, has admitted perverting the course of justice by destroying evidence and staging the scene after rushing home but before dialling 999.

The next day, the prosecution said she gave a “lying account” to police of events leading to Ellie’s death.

Jurors were shown a recording of the interview with a police officer in which Gray said she heard Ellie playing in her room after she got home.

She told the officer she left work early that day because there were not many staff around and she thought she “might as well”.

In the taxi, she said she received a text from Butler saying he “fancied chilli tonight” and she thought: “Great, thanks a lot.”

When she arrived home, Gray said she could hear Ellie “playing in her room” with the door closed before she called her downstairs for cake – a treat she would “normally jump at”.

She told the officer: “We thought she was messing about because sometimes she says she can’t hear us. You think she’s having a joke.”

She became worried after another child in the house went to rouse her saying: “Ellie wake up.”

Weeping, Gray described finding Ellie lying on the floor of her bedroom not breathing. She said: “I was like ‘Ellie, what’s going on?’ and she’s just lying there on her back and I’m like ‘Ellie what are you doing’. Stop mucking about. I screamed so much I lost my voice.”

Gray went on to describe the fraught 999 call and efforts of medical staff to resuscitate Ellie before she was pronounced dead at St George’s hospital at 4.01pm. She said: “I was saying ‘please, please bring my baby back’. It was just chaos.”

Butler “went to pieces” but Gray said she tried to stay strong as she told the other child Ellie was “with Jesus now”.

Gray tearfully told the officer how she blamed herself for not doing more to save her daughter: “I felt like it’s my fault I didn’t resuscitate her properly. I didn’t check on her when I got in. I just feel so bloody bad. If I had known something I could have done something.”

On whether her partner could have had anything to do with Ellie’s death, she said: “I don’t know what happened here and all I can say to you is I don’t believe Ben has done anything to her. I have got no reason to think that.”

She added that if she had seen or thought anything untoward, she would say so.

On Butler, her jobless partner of seven years, she said: “He does a bloody good job. He does the school run, takes into town. All the things I feel as a mother I should do and he does it really well. I have a skill, I have a trade. He does not have that. It’s the only way.”

She added: “Part of me ... I keep thinking if I had not gone to work … all these ifs and I’m just blaming myself. I will never forgive myself.”

Butler denies murder and has pleaded not guilty to child cruelty with Gray over a shoulder injury Ellie sustained weeks before her death.

The hearing continues.