"Jennie Gray, 36, arrived home to find her daughter motionless before picking up the phone to call police almost an hour later.The Old Bailey heard how Gray maintained the story for the next year and a half that she had phoned authorities immediately when she found Ellie – despite police beginning to unravel the lies. The six-year-old girl was found dead on her bedroom floor by Gray at the family's south-west London home in Sutton in 2013. Her partner, Ben Butler, denies murdering her daughter and denies a charge of child cruelty. Gray sobbed as she gave evidence, claiming her actions at the time were out of fear that partner Butler would be blamed – as he had been in 2007 when he was accused of shaking Ellie as a baby. Giving evidence today at Old Bailey, Gray told jurors: "Mr worst fear came true – exactly what I thought would happen." Explaining why she initially lied, she insisted: "I said those things in reaction because I was terrified they were going to blame him when he has never laid a finger on my child, as they did this before." Ben Butler was jailed for 19 months for violently shaking Ellie as a baby in 2007. He was later cleared and the family were reunited in 2011after a long legal battle. The couple won a custody battle to get their child back just 11 months before she was allegedly battered to death by Butler while he was home alone with her and another child. The former car salesman is now accused of losing his temper and bashing Ellie's head in while Gray was at work on October 28, 2013. Jobless Butler, 36, urgently called her home to Sutton, south-west London, that afternoon – but waited two hours before ringing 999, the Old Bailey heard.
Free Event: Andrew L. Urban, October 16, 2024
9 hours ago