23 years for Ben Butler

The whole Mccann/Healy clan will disagree with you on that...

Of course they would - their relatives are as innocent as the day they were born!

... and I will disagree with you on that.

I hope that you don't think that I was being serious.

The McCann / Healy clans will I hope one day face charges for their part in allowing this hoax to continue.

No, not at all. Was just joking..

And yes. They all need to.

Every single one of them.

I`m not excusing Justice Hogg, because she had been advised by experts on Ben Butler`s history but chose to ignore them. But lawmakers weren`t (and still aren`t) au fait with `coercive control`, although it`s being highlighted in the media recently - it`s a major storyline in The Archers ATM.

The perpetrators are excellent manipulators and appear charming to all, yet no one knows what is going on behind closed doors. They control in the extreme, but each little thing is negligible to outsiders and they see it as the perpetrator being caring and protective. The person being controlled is totally sucked into the bully`s way of thinking and will defend him at the expense of their children - even if the perpetrator murders their child in a fit of temper, as happened with Ellie.

It does make one wonder if something similar is going on with another couple.

I just read the article on the link you gave guinea pig. Shocking her grandparents' life savings wiped out by their legal fight to get custody. The taxpayer paid for the parents to fight for custody (both on benefits). her granny dies from the stress of it all. the child goes back to her parents. He kills her.

If someone set up a gofundme page for the grandad I would contribute. A few comforts wouldn't bring back Ellie or his wife. But better to grieve in comfort than to grieve in poverty.

It's a truly dreadful story on so many levels.

I don't think that Ellie's apology for a mother was unemployed; she was certainly working at the time of the murder as a graphic designer.

I haven't been able to read this in detail; it's so distressing.

One good thing: "Miss Lynch, the South-East London Coroner, listened to an hour of submissions from a barrister and two solicitors, each of whom is working pro bono to see justice finally done for Neal’s granddaughter, Ellie".

It's certainly a more worthy case than others where those involved didn't deserve such an arrangement.