A YOUNG boy died after allegedly being forced to stand outside while cold water was thrown over him as punishment by his mum and her fiancé, a court heard.
Alfie Steele, nine, died in February 2021 from over 50 different injuries.
His mum Carla Scott and her partner Dirk Howell are accused of subjecting him to a campaign of "sinister" abuse.
Their murder trial at Coventry Crown Court was told that little Alfie was covered in bruises and that the pair dunked him "in cold baths" and forced him to "stand outside, in the middle of the night and have cold water" thrown over him.
The schoolboy, from Droitwich, Worcestershire, was allegedly beaten with belts and shoes before being found naked in his "dark" and "dirty" bedroom.
Among his wounds, some abrasions on the left side of his face were allegedly caused by "direct pressure", with jurors told they would "hear evidence about him being held under water".
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PC Stacey Hegenbarth, of West Mercia Police, recalled finding the poor boy, saying: "There was a boy who was completely naked lying on a wooden floor, a young boy, and a female I now know to be the mother giving chest compressions.
"There was a large, dirty, badly stained mattress on the floor. No bedding, no bed.
"The floor was dirty and sticky. I think there was a broken wardrobe in one corner. Just very untidy.
"But I recall downstairs, the living room and kitchen, I would describe it as a show home. It was spotlessly clean.
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"It was the polar opposite upstairs, it was a completely dishevelled property."
The couple claimed that Alfie had fallen asleep in the bath and wasn't breathing when they called the ambulance.
PC Hegenbarth also said that Scott had explained some of his facial injuries by saying that he had fallen off his bike without a helmet.
Opening the prosecution on Wednesday, Michelle Heeley KC said: "Alfie died as a result of the deliberate and unlawful actions of Carla Scott and Dirk Howell and, together, they are guilty of his murder."
Ms Heeley said Scott had Alfie during a previous relationship - in which children's services was involved - with the boy's father and it broke up in 2017.
Scott, 35, was "no stranger to social services and knew what was expected of her in terms of co-operating with them".
In July 2019 she started dating 41-year-old Howell and within six months they became engaged, though they had made no plans for a wedding.
The relationship was "not a happy one" for Alfie, added Ms Heeley, with family and neighbours raising with authorities "concerns within a short period of time of these two getting together".
Ms Heeley said: "Dirk Howell believed in discipline, on the face of it not a bad thing when bringing up young children, but whereas you might think of discipline as being the naughty step, or having set bedtimes, for Dirk Howell discipline was far more physical and psychological.
"The prosecution will call evidence from neighbours who, on occasions, saw a child standing outside the house begging to be let in, with both defendants refusing them entry."
She added that Alfie "suffered assaults and cruelty, by being beaten, assaulted, punished with cold water and made to endure a life that no child should lead".
Howell, of Newtown, Birmingham, admits child cruelty against other children but denies murder, manslaughter, cruelty or causing or allowing the death of Alfie.
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Scott, of Droitwich, denies murder, manslaughter, causing or allowing the death of Alfie and child cruelty offences against Alfie and other children.
The trial continues.
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