Ben Butler trial: murder trial is like Hillsborough victims' fight for justice,' says father

Ben Butler is accused of killing his daugther and staging her death
David Crump/Daily Mail
Hatty Collier18 May 2016
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A father accused of murdering his six-year-old daughter in a fit of rage has likened his case to the fight for justice for victims of the Hillsborough disaster.

Ben Butler, 36, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of battering his daughter Ellie, 11 months after winning a custody battle to get her back.

The former car salesman was previously convicted of violently shaking Ellie when she was a baby in 2007 but that was later quashed on appeal.

Under cross-examination, the Everton football fan ranted about a documentary on the Hillsborough tragedy he had watched.

He said: "The families there were fighting for justice like we were. Lady come on and said the problem you don't see is the ripple effect the one action has on everyone's life.

"That 2007 (conviction) had a ripple effect on everyone's life."

But prosecutor Ed Brown QC said Butler was "determined to deflect the case from the evidence" and accused him of putting on a "truly impressive performance" as he allegedly tried to cover up the killing.

Mr Brown told the court that Butler allegedly involved another child in the household who is heard on a 999 call to say: "I tried to wake her up but she did not wake up."

Butler had known Ellie was dead two hours before alerting the emergency services, the jury has heard.

An hour before, he told his partner Jennie Gray, 36, that "Ellie might be dead" when she arrived home after dashing back from her graphic design work in the City, the court heard.

But during the delayed 999 call, they both screamed and shouted at the operator to hurry up and Gray carried out mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the court heard.

Mr Brown cross-examined Butler on the call at 2.46pm on October 28, 2013, which was played to the jury for a second time in the trial.

The prosecutor said: "You two were blaming the 999 operator for delaying. You were there on the phone blaming a person who was trying to help you for delaying when you had sat on her death for two hours. Because you killed her."

Butler replied: "Not because I killed her. What happened in 2007 was the reason I reacted like that."

Butler denies murder while both defendants, of Sutton, south-west London, deny child cruelty. Gray, 36, has admitted perverting the course of justice in the wake of Ellie's death.

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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