The grandmother of Alfie Steele has described how the nine-year-old’s killer threatened to torture her to death and burn down a neighbour’s home.
Alaina Scott said people had bravely shared their concerns about Dirk Howell, despite his threats and aggressive behaviour towards them.
A Freedom of Information request found that West Mercia Police and Worcestershire County Council were contacted about Alfie 64 times between them over a three-year period before he was murdered in 2021.
The figures were released on Thursday as a review was published by the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership, which laid bare a string of missed opportunities to intervene.
According to the report, Howell had threatened to burn a neighbour’s house down in 2020 after they expressed their worries.
Alfie Steele died in February 2021 at his mother Carla Scott’s new-build housing association property in Droitwich, Worcestershire, where he suffered ‘sadistic’ punishments including beatings and being held under bath water
Alfie’s grandparents Alaina Scott and Paul Scott. In a video interview they said they felt the worries expressed to social services had not been seriously considered
‘People tried and when they were threatened people continued to try and help, but they were threatened again,’ Mrs Scott told BBC News.
‘He [said he] was going to torture me to death.’
People had taken ‘great risks’ to help protect Alfie and more should have been done when they were threatened by Howell, the report said.
The youngster died in February 2021 at his mother Carla Scott’s new-build housing association property in Droitwich, Worcestershire, where he suffered ‘sadistic’ punishments including beatings and being held under bath water.
A trial heard the sports-mad schoolboy was locked out of the house or in a shed – where he would be forced to stand still – or whipped with belts during a ‘sinister’ regime of correction and abuse by Scott and her career criminal lover Dirk Howell.
Jurors were told concerned neighbours and even passers-by in the street reported the treatment doled out by Howell, 41, and Scott, 35 – who they said turned a blind eye – to police, social services, the council and Alfie’s school.
Mr Scott said he would like to thank members of the public who had attempted to provide assistance by making reports about Howell. ‘If you hear any of this, I say thank you for your part to try to stop it, but it didn’t get stopped,’ he added
Body cam cameras captured the landing full of paramedics and officers with Scott standing in the doorway of a ‘dark, dirty and dishevelled’ bedroom where Alfie was found
Dirk Howell, who has been jailed at Coventry Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 32 years for murdering nine-year-old Alfie
Six months before Alfie’s murder, a neighbour made a harrowing 999 call reporting ‘thrashing’ sounds coming from the bathroom ‘like they are really hurting him’.
Alfie died after being found unresponsive in bath water, with Scott claiming he had fallen asleep while bathing.
Alfie’s grandfather Paul Scott said he would like to thank members of the public who had attempted to provide assistance by making reports about Howell.
‘If you hear any of this, I say thank you for your part to try to stop it, but it didn’t get stopped,’ he added.
Carla Scott was asked by social services to supervise the contact between Alfie and Howell, which Mr Scott said was ‘just wrong’.
‘She didn’t even sort out a proper meals for Alfie,’ he added.
‘So they’re going to give responsibility to someone who can’t even sort out food.’
Police video footage captured Scott making a phone call to Howell to ask him where he was. She told him: ‘He’s gone up to hospital they won’t let me go up there yet’
Alfie’s grandparents said they felt the worries expressed to social services had not been seriously considered.
‘We could never get communication with them, even to talk about any aspect,’ said Mr Scott.
‘You’d ring them and they just wouldn’t bother ringing back.’
He said the couple had looked into Howell’s criminal past online and flagged it to social workers before Alfie’s tragic death.
He said they were told they were aware of it and that they ‘were sorting things’.
Mr Scott said they knew that he was involved in drugs and that there were various things to consider.
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 the Droitwich home
Dirk Howell was captured on police body-cam footage being arrested at a railway station shortly after Alfie’s death
At times ‘social services acted like it was our fault [with] the way that they were fighting us,’ he said.
The couple also said they were only handed a copy of the safeguarding report just 45 minutes before it was made public on Friday.
The council’s director of children’s services had shown them a piece of paper that included recommendations in a previous visit but did not permit the family to view the entire report or keep the information.
‘We want the right people to admit that they made mistakes. We want them to learn,’ Mr Scott said.
He said they still want answers and wish to speak to other families whose loved ones were murdered by their carers.