Alfie Steele.

The surname Steele, holds a very special place in my heart. Growing up, I had two Mum’s one was old and the other was young. The older one was strict the younger one was not. They were poles apart in every single way. I loved them both.  My younger Mum is now in her eighties and has dementia. My other Mum her surname was Steele and she died shy of her nighty second birthday, many years ago. I haven’t met anyone with the name spelt Steele with an e at the end. The news today and recently caught my attention.

To me the name Alfie conjures up an older person.  The person I am writing about, his name was Alfie Steele.  What a lovely name. Sadly Alfie Steele, is not an old man, but a child that was attacked many times over, and died age just nine years old.

He had the sweetest little face. He was SO innocent and defenceless. He was too young to fight back, too young to protect himself. He did try. A neighbour recorded him shouting outside in the dark, “LET ME IN, I WANT TO COME IN.” Over and over again.     

It is hard to watch out for someone in danger. Maybe I have talked to people at the bus stop or at the tills in Tesco, and not know about their secret lives.

It is very sad, that in this day and age, in England that a child age nine can die from abuse. He had fifty injuries on his little body when he died

As I was eating my meal tonight, it was hard to hear some of the things that he went through. He is a child, his Mum should have protected him, instead he was whipped with a leather belt by his Mum’s boyfriend. He was beaten up, he was held face down under the water, given cold baths, he was put outside in his underpants and had cold water thrown on him while he was outside, in cold weather.  Alfie was told to stand still like a statue. All of this and more, as punishments.

Mr Justice Mark, said of the suffering that Dirk Howell, inflected on Alfie was, “Sadistic,” Mr Justice Mark went on about Howell, “I am sure you got pleasure from inflecting pain and discomfort.”

Howell and been in jail for battery and was not allowed to sleep over at Carla Scott’s house, but he always did. It was lockdown and he often attacked Alfie.

Alfie was denied food as punishment he weighed just 4st 2lb (27kg) when he died and he had defensive injuries on his body.

Mr Justice Mark said, “February 18th had started out like another day for them to torture Alfie….” He said to the couple, “Alfie did not have a quiet death, but a violent and brutal one.”

Alaina who had met him, described Alfie as, “Gentle, loving, considerate, warm polite little boy who would help people of all ages.” Alfie was described by his family as, “Charming, funny and inquisitive.”

One of his last words, were of him crying for his, “Grandad, come and help me!” Paul Scott, is now unable to sleep thinking of his grandson. Paul describes Alfie as a, “Mini me.”

Today his mother went to jail for twenty-seven years for manslaughter and her boyfriend was sentenced to thirty-two years, for murder.

So, although the name Alfie Steele, to me sounds like an older name, he was sadly just nine years old.

Rest in Peace, little man. xXx

(BBC News)