EXCLUSIVE: Neighbours watched little Alfie Steele laughing on his bike days before he was killed by his cruel mother and her boyfriend – as video shows moment emergency crews arrived and frantically tried in vain to save him
- Little Alfie Steele was found lifeless in the bath with more than 50 injuries
This is the dramatic moment two helicopters and a convoy of police cars arrived to the home of nine-year-old schoolboy Alfie Steele after he was murdered by his mother’s lover.
Carla Scott, 35, and Dirk Howell, 41, killed little Alfie after months of harrowing abuse during the third national Covid lockdown at the home they shared in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
A neighbour today said she saw Alfie just days before his killing ‘laughing on his bike’. She said she did not know how he ‘found the strength’ to smile and play while suffering such horrors at home, branding him ‘a very strong character’.
The ‘gorgeous’ youngster was found unresponsive in cold bathwater at the new-build housing association property he shared with his mother and her boyfriend on February 18, 2021.
Footage sent to MailOnline by neighbour Pixie Wilde shows the moment emergency services frantically arrived to the scene in a desperate bid to save the young boy’s life.
Alfie Steele died after his lifeless body was pulled from a bath having suffered more than 50 injuries at the hands of the evil mother and her partner in February 2021
READ MORE: Moment mother who ‘battered her son, 9, to death during lockdown’ tells police the schoolboy had ‘banged his head in the bath’ as officers swoop on home after child’s ‘murder’
Two air ambulances can be seen landing on grass near the row of homes as concerned neighbours gather on the street and watch on.
The emergency services were responding to a 999 call his mother Scott had made to request an ambulance at 2.30pm that day.
In the call, which was played to the court at trial, Scott tells operators she could ‘feel a rattle’ on her son’s chest and added: ‘He’s not breathing, but he keeps making noises.’
When the call handler asks ‘What noises?’ Scott replies: ‘Lots of gargling noises.’
Police arrived at the property to find Alfie not breathing and cold to the touch just six minutes after Scott made the call.
Meanwhile Howell fled the house and police body-cam footage captured him being arrested at Droitwich Railway Station trying to board a train.
Speaking to MailOnline today, neighbour Ms Wilde recalled the moment emergency services rushed to the scene.
She said the atmosphere was at first ‘quite buoyant’ as children were excited by the giant red helicopter.
She added: ‘However it became plainly obvious something was very wrong and the atmosphere changed quickly. With the arrival of so many police, I took my youngest children home, then returned to see if there was anything I could do to help.’
Ms Wilde said there were ‘lots of bystanders on the street just watching’ and that she felt ‘frightened as there was something unfolding in front of me that felt very wrong.’
‘My core being felt anxious and stressed,’ she said, ‘Later that evening when I read the news that Alfie had passed away, I sat and cried.’
She added: ‘The Wednesday before he died I remember seeing him playing as I drove past, it made me smile as he was building ramps on his driveway, as I used to do as a child…
‘He was smiling and seemed happy. I do wonder now knowing what I do how he found the strength for those moments… He must have been a very strong character.’
Jurors at Coventry Crown Court on Tuesday took 10 hours and 13 minutes to find Scott (left) guilty of Alfie’s manslaughter, returning a majority verdict of 11 to one, but cleared her of murder. Howell (right) was found guilty of murder by a unanimous verdict and both him and Scott will be sentenced on Thursday.
Footage shared with MailOnline by a local resident today shows the moment emergency services frantically arrived at the scene in a desperate bid to save the young boy’s life
Ms Wilde said she would be donating any money made from selling the footage of the emergency services to the West Midlands Air Ambulance.
Jurors at Coventry Crown Court on Tuesday took 10 hours and 13 minutes to find Scott guilty of Alfie’s manslaughter, returning a majority verdict of 11 to one, but cleared her of murder.
Howell was found guilty of murder by a unanimous verdict and both him and Scott will be sentenced on Thursday.
Alfie was beaten, ‘held’ in cold bath water, locked out of the house or in a shed and whipped with belts during a ‘cruel and sinister’ regime of correction and abuse, the court was told.
Jurors heard concerned neighbours and even passers-by in the street reported the treatment doled out by Howell and Scott to police, social services, the council and Alfie’s school.
But despite Alfie being on the radar of social services since he was a young boy, a catalogue of potential opportunities to save the boy were missed.
Air ambulances can be seen landing on grass near the row of homes as concerned neighbours gather on the street and watch on
The pair of tormentors had tried to conceal their ruthless abuse of little Alfie, a court heard. On the day of the fatal attack, his mother sobbed crocodile tears as she told police her son ‘bashed his head in the bath’ after torturing him for months.
In footage taken when emergency services reached their home, Scott is shown weeping as she tells officers she found her son 10 minutes before in the bath.
One officer reassures her: ‘It’s alright my love, it’s ok,’ as she tells them she thinks the child banged his head on the tub.
Scott can be heard telling officers ‘I think he banged his head when he was in the bath because he’s got an [inaudible] on his head.’
She can also be seen making a phone call to Howell in another clip to ask him where he was and tells him: ‘He’s gone up to hospital, they won’t let me go up there yet.
‘There’s loads of police, they’ve got detectives and everything.’
On the living room wall in the background are the words: ‘Family, where life begins’, while more lettering adds: ‘Love never ends’.
An air ambulance hovers above the home of little Alfie after his mother called emergency services on the day of his murder
The emergency services were responding to a 999 call his mother Scott had made to request an ambulance at 2.30pm that day
She ends the phone call by saying ‘I will do, I love you too’ and makes a kissing sound down the phone.
A court heard Alfie had been tortured and beaten to death after being subjected to a ‘cruel and sinister’ regime of punishment at the property in Vashon Drive.
So sickening was the abuse, a judge told jurors they would never need to sit on a jury again after hearing about Alfie’s harrowing final moments.
The brutal discipline techniques included Alfie being whipped with belts and flip flops as well as being ‘dunked’ in cold baths. He was also made to stand outside at night and have water thrown over him.
Shockingly, the ‘physical and psychological’ abuse which led to his murder was able to continue despite Alfie being under a social services protection plan.
Nine-year-old Alfie Steele (pictured) had 50 separate injuries across his head, back, legs and buttocks after being assaulted by his mother and her fiancé, Coventry Crown Court heard
Pictured is another set of rules that had been written on paper and stuck to the wall of the house
Carla Scott (left) and Dirk Howell (right) were on trial at Coventry Crown Court. They have both been convicted of killing Alfie
Legal discussions had also been ongoing to remove him from the house of horrors but it proved too late as he was eventually battered to death.
Howell, who has spent more than half of his life in prison, was found guilty of murder on Tuesday following a six-week trial at Coventry Crown Court.
Scott was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter by a majority verdict following more than 10 hours of deliberations.
Judge Mark Wall KC thanked the jury and told them they would never had to sit on a case again.
Both defendants will be sentenced on Thursday morning.
Following the verdict, Alfie’s grandfather, Paul Scott, paid tribute to his ‘precious’ grandson who had a ‘smile enough to melt your heart’.
He said: ‘Our precious grandson Alfie was a charming, funny and inquisitive young boy whose kindness and cheeky smile was enough to melt your heart.
‘He had a unique personality that made him a treasure to be around, whether it was his comical phrases or his quirky dance moves, he knew how to make you laugh and cry joyous tears.
Dirk Howell is pictured on police body-cam footage being arrested at a railway station shortly after Alfie’s death
Police video footage captured Scott making a phone call to Howell, to ask him where he was and tells him: ‘He’s gone up to hospital they won’t let me go up there yet.’
‘It fills us with immense sadness that we will never be able to see that same cheeky smile again.
‘Losing Alfie has left a massive void in our lives, to think that we will never be able to hug him and watch him grow into an accomplished young man causes much anguish. We miss him so much.’
The court heard how the cruel pair thought it was acceptable to hit Alfie with ‘belts, or a slider, like a heavy-duty flip flop, and use other more sinister forms of punishment.’
This included holding Alfie under cold water in the bath for a prolonged amount of time whenever they believed he was lying.
Medical experts said bruises suggested he had been ‘manhandled’ and others marks on his buttocks were from being kicked by an adult who ‘had lost control.’
Michelle Heeley KC said Alfie died after being ‘beaten and deliberately put in a cold bath’ and he had been ‘made to endure a life that no child should lead’.
She added: ‘Alfie had not simply fallen asleep in a comfortable bath.
The court heard both defendants would inflict beatings with instruments such as belts or sliders as well as dunkings in a cold bath. Pictured: Officers outside Droitwich
‘He had been deliberately and repeatedly assaulted, beaten, and put into and held under a cold bath as a punishment.
‘That unlawful course of conduct, that unnecessary punishment, was carried out jointly by Carla Scott and Dirk Howell. It was their actions that led to his death’.
Jurors sitting on the trial were played harrowing footage during the case – including of Alfie screaming and begging to be let in after being locked outside his house.
The chilling clip captured Alfie crying for help repeatedly shouting: ‘Let me in, let me in’ 18 months before he was found dead in the bath.
Other footage showed Scott lying to police who were called to the ‘dishevelled’ house telling them Alfie had fallen asleep after banging his head in the bath.
She can also be seen telling cops a ‘fantasy story’ as she phoned her boyfriend pretending to not know where he was.
On the living room wall in the background are the haunting words: ‘Family, where life begins.’
Howell can be seen rushing across the bridge over the railway tracks before trying to board a stationary train before he was arrested by police for murdering his stepson
Alfie was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham after he was found in a critical condition at his home. Pictured: Flowers and tributes left outside the home of Alfie
Scott initially denied Howell had been at the home but later changed her account admitting her boyfriend of two years had been there.
Further disturbing footage included a 999 call from neighbour Gemma Allcott who reported: ‘It sounds like my neighbours are doing something bad to their kid in the bath. Like they are really hurting them.’
The 999 call Scott made to request an ambulance at 2.30pm on February 18, 2021 was also played to the court.
She can be heard telling operators she could ‘feel a rattle’ on her son’s chest and added: ‘He’s not breathing, but he keeps making noises.’
When the call handler asks ‘What noises?’ Scott replies: ‘Lots of gargling noises.’
Police arrived at the property to find Alfie not breathing and cold to the touch just six minutes after Scott made the call.
Meanwhile Howell fled the house and police body-cam footage captured him being arrested at Droitwich Railway Station trying to board a train.
Jurors were played the emergency call made by Scott at at 2.24pm on February 18, 2021 claiming her son had ‘fallen asleep’ and drowned in the bath. She is pictured on police body-cam when officers arrived at the home
Scott (right) was filmed sobbing to police officers as she told them her son had ‘banged his head in the bath’
The ten missed opportunities to save Alfie:
By Andy Dolan
1: 27/8/19 Neighbour recorded Alfie screaming ‘let me in’ before Howell ‘shoved’ him to the floor and let him back in. She complained to the council over potential drug dealing at the house.
2: 2/3/20 A teaching assistant who knew Alfie saw Howell screaming at him outside a GP surgery, with Scott ignoring the abuse. Reported to school.
3: A PCSO in the area was told of above incident and approached Howell, who wouldn’t engage. Police then arrive, and speak to Howell at a nearby shopping centre. He gave a false name.
4: 4/4/20 Next-door neighbour Daniel Grindrod called police at 5.30am reporting distressed whimpering sounds from Alfie and banging and crashing in house.
5: April 2020 Neighbour saw Alfie mopping floor at 4.30am, and another time Alfie outside in just his underwear on a winter’s day. Reported to social services.
6: 5/4/20: Neighbour called police to report general concerns about Scott and Howell.
7: 10/4/20 Passer-by saw Howell screaming at Alfie outside a supermarket. Reported to police.
8: 4/5/20 Neighbour Graham Willetts called police after seeing Alfie locked outside in his boxer shorts.
9: 4/5/20 PC attended late night, Scott lied about Howell’s presence but the officer saw him at a window and ordered him to leave. Checked on Alfie, who was in bed.
10: 3/8/20 The other next-door neighbour, Gemma Allcott, called 999 to report ‘thrashing’ sounds from Alfie’s bathroom, ‘like they are really hurting him’.
Alfie was later pronounced dead at Worcester Royal hospital and his injuries were later found to have been caused caused by ‘direct pressure’ which left him ‘susceptible to drowning whilst unconscious.’
The court heard how Scott had remained calm when she told 999 operators her son ‘fell asleep in the bath’
‘He’s got asthma. When he was a baby he got pneumonia,’ she told the call handler as she tried to cover her up the attack against her son.
The operator proceeded to provide instructions on giving CPR to Alfie before Scott says: ‘I can see him breathing a bit. Not a lot but I can see him breathing a bit.’
She says her son is starting to make noises, at which point the call handler asks ‘What noises?’ and Scott replies: ‘Lots of gargling noises.’
As Scott confirmed to the operator that the ambulance had arrived she also adds: ‘He’s banged his head as well.’
The court heard Scott had Alfie with a man from a previous relationship and she started dating Howell in July 2019 and got engaged six months later.
Neighbours raised concerns with the local authorities ‘within a short period of time of these two getting together’.
Alfie had been under a social services protection plan and legal discussions had taken place on whether to remove him from Scott’s care.
It came after teachers raised concerns that Alfie was ‘constantly hungry’ at school in the months before his death.
Howell, of Newtown, Birmingham told the court he had not killed Alfie and only fled the house because his ‘head was a mess’ and he didn’t want to be ‘around that situation.’
In her evidence, Scott denied covering up her sons death and told jurors she did not smack Alfie, starve him or give him cold baths as punishment.
After the verdict, the senior investigating officer who led the case, Detective Chief Inspector Leighton Harding, said: ‘Alfie suffered the most horrifying physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Scott and Howell.
‘It is unimaginable to consider the fear and distress Alfie must have felt during the events that led to his collapse and death in his home.
The officer said of Scott and Howell: “Both continued to lie to social services and police to protect themselves from their abuse being discovered, and even confronted and threatened neighbours and members of the public who reported concerns over their treatment of Alfie.
‘At no stage has either of them shown any remorse or acceptance of responsibility for their actions.
‘Today’s verdict will never undo the dreadful abuse Alfie suffered but it will mean those responsible for inflicting such terror and pain will face the consequences of their sickening actions.’
In a short statement issued at the end of the trial of Alfie’s Steele’s mother and her partner, the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership confirmed that a practice review is under way.
The organisation’s independent chair Stephen Eccleston said: ‘Members of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership are shocked and saddened by the death of Alfie.
Body-cam cameras captured the landing full of paramedics and officers with Carla Scott standing in the doorway of a ‘dark, dirty and dishevelled’ bedroom where Alfie Steele was found
Police video footage also captured Scott making a phone call to Howell, to ask him where he was and tells him: ‘He’s gone up to hospital they won’t let me go up there yet.’
‘On behalf of the partnership, I would like to take this opportunity to pass on our condolences to Alfie’s family.
‘Following his death, we began a process of conducting a local child safeguarding practice review.
‘With the completion of the trial, we will now be asking the independent reviewer to complete the review.
‘Alfie suffered the most ‘horrific physical and emotional abuse’ says shocked detective
Murdered Alfie Steele suffered the most ‘horrific abuse’ at the hands of his mother and her partner, a top detective said.
Detective Chief Inspector Leighton Harding, the senior investigating officer who led the case, said: ‘Alfie suffered the most horrifying physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Scott and Howell.
‘It is unimaginable to consider the fear and distress Alfie must have felt during the events that led to his collapse and death in his home.
The officer said of Scott and Howell: ‘Both continued to lie to social services and police to protect themselves from their abuse being discovered, and even confronted and threatened neighbours and members of the public who reported concerns over their treatment of Alfie.
‘At no stage has either of them shown any remorse or acceptance of responsibility for their actions.”
‘Today’s verdict will never undo the dreadful abuse Alfie suffered but it will mean those responsible for inflicting such terror and pain will face the consequences of their sickening actions.’
‘The report is due to be published later this year and we will consider further comment at that time.’
Paul Reid, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘As a mother, Carla Scott tragically put her loyalty to her partner above her duty to protect her child.
‘It is a tragedy that Alfie’s life was cruelly taken away by the people who were supposed to love and care for him.
‘We hope today’s verdict is a reminder that child abuse will not be tolerated, and that those who choose abuse over compassion can expect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
‘Our thoughts are with Alfie’s family at this time.’
Alfie’s murder came during a spate of lockdown killings by parents against their own children, with at least eight youngsters slaughtered during the pandemic.
Last month, two drug addict parents who murdered their 10-month-old son were jailed for a combined total of 56 years for waging a ‘savage and brutal’ campaign of abuse against the helpless infant.
Finley Boden had 130 injuries including a fractured thigh and broken pelvis, burn marks and bruises all over his tiny body, when he died on Christmas Day in 2020.
The once ‘smiley and chuckling’ baby was subjected to ‘unimaginable cruelty’ by his parents Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden, who were jailed for 27 and 29 years respectively.
In October that year, a family court ruled that Marsden and Boden did not pose an ‘unmanageable risk’ to their son, allowing them to subject him to ‘the most horrific abuse’ at their home in Old Whittington, Derbyshire.
By the time of his death he was ‘plainly dying’ and could no longer sit up and play with his toys, feed himself or breathe properly, having been back in his parents’ care for just 39 days.
Sentencing them at Derby Crown Court, Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples told the pair: ‘Neither of you have shown any remorse for what you have done.’
Finley Boden had 130 separate injuries at time of his death in December 2020
Finley’s mother and father Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden
Following what has been a harrowing trial, a juror pointed to the sky as the sentences were passed, while another wept and others smiled.
The couple had denied murdering their son but were convicted in April after a trial at Derby Crown Court.
After the verdict, the senior investigating officer who led the case, Detective Chief Inspector Leighton Harding, said: ‘Alfie suffered the most horrifying physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Scott and Howell.
‘It is unimaginable to consider the fear and distress Alfie must have felt during the events that led to his collapse and death in his home.
The officer said of Scott and Howell: ‘Both continued to lie to social services and police to protect themselves from their abuse being discovered, and even confronted and threatened neighbours and members of the public who reported concerns over their treatment of Alfie.
‘At no stage has either of them shown any remorse or acceptance of responsibility for their actions.’
‘Today’s verdict will never undo the dreadful abuse Alfie suffered but it will mean those responsible for inflicting such terror and pain will face the consequences of their sickening actions.’
In a short statement issued at the end of the trial of Alfie’s Steele’s mother and her partner, the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership confirmed that a practice review is under way.
The organisation’s independent chair Stephen Eccleston said: ‘Members of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership are shocked and saddened by the death of Alfie.
‘On behalf of the partnership, I would like to take this opportunity to pass on our condolences to Alfie’s family.
‘Following his death, we began a process of conducting a local child safeguarding practice review.
‘With the completion of the trial, we will now be asking the independent reviewer to complete the review.
‘The report is due to be published later this year and we will consider further comment at that time.’
Paul Reid, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘As a mother, Carla Scott tragically put her loyalty to her partner above her duty to protect her child.
‘It is a tragedy that Alfie’s life was cruelly taken away by the people who were supposed to love and care for him.
‘We hope today’s verdict is a reminder that child abuse will not be tolerated, and that those who choose abuse over compassion can expect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
‘Our thoughts are with Alfie’s family at this time.’
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