A mother and her partner have been convicted of killing her nine-year-old son in the bath after subjecting him to months of abuse.

Alfie Steele was found unresponsive at his home in Droitwich, Worcestershire, in February 2021.

Following a six-week trial at Coventry Crown Court, Dirk Howell, 41, was found guilty of murdering the young boy and his mother, Carla Scott, was convicted of manslaughter after jurors cleared her of Alfie’s murder.

Jurors deliberated for 10 hours over the case after weeks of harrowing evidence about the schoolboy’s final months, and how, by the time he died, he had suffered more than 50 injuries.