Ok.. long post coming up...
Okay, I'll record my thoughts about the defendants, as some might be interested to hear.
Knowing that Gray has admitted staging the scene for the call to emergency services, I think I had been expecting that she had had a change of heart about what had happened to Ellie before she arrived home, or had possibly accepted that Ellie's injuries were non-accidental. This is not the case.
I think I was also expecting to see some signs of distress and/or a mother's pain, and a somewhat helpless or downtrodden person, and/or a fractured partnership/relationship, on the basis of her letters and the abuse/power wielded by Butler in the relationship, which we've heard about in evidence. I saw nothing like that.
They are an extremely defiant couple and I've seen them operating in court as a very close team. Neither party comes across as weaker/stronger, it was very apparent that their priority is only themselves. They are working in unison, constantly bending forwards to talk to each other across the security officer who sits between them. Also writing notes constantly to send up to their respective counsels. The defiance on their faces is incredible, and the muttering or speaking out can be heard when they disagree with what is being said in court, which was everything that was said in court. Made even worse, in my view, by shaking their heads in a very exaggerated display of opposition, at every utterance from the expert witnesses. Even things like Ellie's earlier broken shoulder blade, they are refuting by fiercely shaking their heads from side to side for minutes on end. I expected the judge to tell them to stop because I found it to be so disruptive. And Butler sat vainly tweaking his spiky hair in the reflection of the glass of the dock, occasionally leaning to the side with his hand over his eyes, in a pose, and then glancing up to see if the jury was looking at him, while Ellie's horrific injuries were being explained to the jury.
It was most disconcerting to see this 'operation' almost like a business being run in the dock, with paperwork and notes strewn all about them, and not see any shame or humility, or signs of being affected by their daughter's suffering and injuries.
My personal opinion about the peppa pig jump/fall off the chair is that it is beyond ludicrous.
Given that she herself suffered DV at his hands, I really can't see how she can dismiss the possibility he murdered Ellie. I think she only cares about being acquitted of cruelty regarding Ellie's broken shoulder. Why she is standing by him and even with him, I have no clue. I hope their other daughter is safe now, from both of them, forever.
I've considered the possibility she has a learning disability but she was working in a professional environment previously and appears in court to be understanding everything, and looks to be of normal intelligence and to have self-esteem. I know that's a bit of a strange thing to say given that she was a victim of abuse, but to maintain this level of defiance and image of blamelessness does require an amount of self-esteem I believe. I don't think it's possible to say more until she gives evidence.
I'll be interested to see if flutterby gets a similar impression. Butler just gave me the creeps, arrogant is how I would describe his facial expression.
This is the exactly the impression I got. That they felt they were the victims in all of this. Shaking their heads, talking, passing notes between themselves and their legal teams. He kept looking up at the public gallery and the jury, I think to see how people were responding. He almost made eye contact with me at one point, he freaked me out too. A telling point was when she tried to say something to her and he waved his hand and just dismissed her.
What really got me was they both had paper work everywhere, taking lots of notes. There was absolutely no emotion, no crying, just blank faces whilst these awful injuries were being talked about.
Regarding his posing while Ellie's injuries were described, and seeing if the jury were looking at him - what expression/feeling was he trying to convey to the jury with this posing?
I honestly think he just wanted to be the centre of attention. At one point there was some pretty intense evidence and he pretty much flew out of his chair and then mumbled something about "a bee." I don't know how the Judge didn't say anything. It was clearly an attention play.
Am wondering what the jury are making of the pair's behaviour and if the poor grandparents are there.
Edit - note for Gigi - Ellie was fostered with the grand-parents so assume the four adults are not on the best of terms.
I don't think they were. Purely because, they called families in first and nobody went in at that point.
some other things:
I arrived there just after 12, but the clerk told me that the court was empty and to wait. Eventually they said that the case would resume at 2pm and the jury were present at that point. They adjourned until 10am tomorrow, so not sure what happened to discussion about the earlier case.
The first witness said there was evidence of 2 skull fractures and 1 skull trauma, alongside the broken scapula. 1 skull fracture was over a year old and may date back to birth or just after. The skull trauma was 3-5 weeks old, as was the scapula but the healing process showed that they had occurred in separate incidents.
The defence tried to argue that they could have happened at the same time, but the witness said that that was absolutely not the case. He had produced a report for the defence in 2014 and another more recent one for the Crown, and there was some discrepancy about the time periods. This was discussed for a while because the first suggested similar time frames for the skull trauma and scapula, but the second one had different time frames. The defence stated that the witness was writing what the Crown wanted to hear in the second report, but he said this was not the case. He had reviewed the evidence, and the time frames had changed (I think from 3-5 weeks to 3-4 weeks), and what absolutely mattered was the healing process was in different stages.
Now for the awful bit... the second skull fracture happened 1-6 hours before death. I didn't really understand the science, but I think he knew this because the immediate healing process has begun and this doesn't happen post-mortem.
He had checked for metabolic bone diseases and there was nothing to suggest that Ellie would have had brittle bones.
The second witness just talked about the scapula and said that Ellie would have been in a lot of pain. Apparently 75% of patients with a broken scapula present with other, usually life threatening illnesses and it's extremely rare for a broken scapula to be seen in isolation. It would initially need to be treated by morphine and over the counter meds would be nowhere near strong enough. The pain would be terrible for 7-10 days and then subside a little. He said that the injuries would have to be caused by a high energy activity, such as a RTC or a fall of at least 5 feet. He was questioned about whether this could be caused by a fall down the stairs. This would be possible but have to involve direct impact with the bone, and it's unlikely because falling down the stairs involves de-accelerating energy.
BB's defence suggested that a child with a high pain threshold may not cry or protest too much about the injury and would be ok with just paracetamol. The witness said this was absolutely not the case.
JG's questioned whether there would be any outward symptoms that would be displayed to somebody who hadn't witnessed the incident. The witness said that in the first few days the child would absolutely be crying in pain. I can't remember the exact wording for the next bit, but they said if the incident had happened in front of parent 1, and the child felt unable to verbalise their pain would parent 2 know what had happened? I can't remember what the witness said, but I think he said no, but that was extremely unlikely.
Both legal teams mentioned that there isn't much evidence on scapula breaks in isolation, but the surgeon talked about his 15 years as a consultant and said that cases always present in the same way.
Finally, BB went back into custody but it looks like JG is on bail. She left the court room. She and BB didn't really seem to interact or talk with each other at the end of the day though.
I really hope I've remembered everything, and remembered everything correctly.
