A grieving granddad has pleaded for his six-year-old granddaughter to be allowed to rest in peace after learning the abusive father who murdered her is to appeal his conviction.

Neal Gray has spoken of his “dismay” at learning Ben Butler plans to fight his guilty verdict and life sentence for beating to death his daughter Ellie at their home in Westover Close, Belmont.

Butler is serving a minimum of 23 years after being convicted of murder and child cruelty at the Old Bailey last month.

His partner and Ellie’s mum, Jennie Gray, was jailed for 42 months for cruelty and perverting the course of justice after helping to cover up the October 2013 murder.

Mr Gray, Ellie’s maternal granddad, said after learning Butler was appealing on Friday: “I’m not happy about it and nor are my family after the horrendous crime he committed. Let’s hope he doesn’t get far with it.

"I want Ellie left in peace and I think that Butler should have got a much longer sentence.”

The 70-year-old, of Royston Avenue, Wallington, added: “We were a bit dismayed that he was allowed to appeal so quickly following the sentence, but that is the way the law works.”

In 2009 Butler was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to Ellie by shaking her when she was a baby two years earlier.

But his conviction was overturned on appeal and in 2012 he won back custody of his daughter despite the protest of Sutton Council social workers.

Eleven months later, Ellie died of catastrophic head injuries inflicted by her father.

After being found guilty of murder on June 21, Butler, 36, shouted in court: “You can sentence me now so I can fight in the appeal court and prove this wrong. I will fight forever to prove this wrong.”

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Ellie Butler pictured with parents Jennie Gray and Ben Butler

Details of his appeal emerged at a Court of Appeal hearing in London on Friday, when senior judges were considering whether a behind-closed-doors ruling relating to Ellie’s murder should be made public.

The ruling was made by Mrs Justice Eleanor King following a private family court hearing in the summer of 2014 – after Ellie had died, but before her father had been convicted of murder.

Another family court judge had decided the ruling should not be published in case reporting prejudices any re-trial if Butler mounts an appeal, but it will now be made public after an appeal from media organisations were upheld.

Mr Gray, whose wife died on the first day of Butler’s murder trial, has been pushing for a public inquiry to examine a family court judge's decision to return the little girl to the custody of her parents.

Mrs Justice Hogg’s 2012 ruling also prevented Sutton Council from playing any role in her care after the judge ordered the authority to send letters to education, child protection and health bodies stressing Butler’s innocence, and appointed private social workers to work with the family.

Mr Gray said he held the judge partly responsible for Ellie's death.

He and and wife Linda took care of Ellie after her father was arrested and jailed for shaking her as a baby.

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Ellie Butler was murdered by her dad in October 2013

Butler was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to his daughter at Croydon Crown Court in 2009 but his conviction was overturned on appeal in 2010 and family court judge Mrs Justice Mary Hogg allowed the little girl to return to her parents two years later.

Her decision came despite Butler’s extensive criminal record and in the face of protests from Ellie’s grandparents and council social workers.

Less than a year later Butler beat the six-year-old to death in a violent rage.

In chillingly prophetic remarks, Mr Gray had warned the judge – who retired six days before Butler’s trial – that she would have “blood on her hands” when she handed Ellie back to her parents.

He told the Sutton Guardian this week: “When they took Ellie away from us, it felt like a bereavement for a year. We had a special guardianship and thought we would have her until she turned 18.

“Justice Hogg thought the parents were good, although the evidence was there that he had a long criminal record and I said to her in the court that I hope they had a conscious because they might have blood on their hands.

“I had gone to [family] court as an observer, but somehow ended up in the witness box and they did not treat me with courtesy and I was not prepared. I was bamboozled by the questions and Justice Hogg said that she had made her decision and Ellie is going back to her parents.

“She didn’t really know them and I blame Hogg... for Ellie’s demise as much as the parents who did it.”

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Mrs Justice Hogg

The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said earlier this month there was no prospect of it probing the judge’s decision to return Ellie to her parents.

But Mr Gray is now pushing for a public inquiry into how Ellie was allowed to return to the hands of her father, who had a string of violent offences on his criminal record.

He said: “I’m doing it because if we get something published and it can help any other family, or stop any other child from getting harmed it’s worth it.

“In my eyes, going through this experience all the judges should be accountable and transparent to the home secretary.

“Also, the family courts should all be open and answerable to the home secretary as well. It should all be brought into the 21st century.”

Linda Gray, Ellie’s grandmother, died on the first day of Butler and Jennie Gray’s trial.

And her husband believes the grief and stress caused by losing her granddaughter contributed to her death.

Mr Gray said: “Linda had cancer and I’m convinced that all the stress that this trial did to her caused her to die.

“I think if there hadn’t been a trial and Ellie had been with us that she might still be here. She died on the first day of the trial.

“It’s still as raw now losing Ellie and losing my wife.”