Former fitness instructor who said toddler Elsie was ‘difficult’ attacked her less than fortnight after he and husband adopted her

A former fitness instructor has been found guilty of murdering his 18-month-old daughter less than a fortnight after he and his husband adopted her.

Matthew Scully-Hicks gripped Elsie around the rib cage, shook her and may have banged her head against a hard surface.

Paul Lewis QC, for the prosecution, told the jury at Cardiff crown court that Scully-Hicks lost his temper with Elsie and caused her “catastrophic injuries”.

Lewis said: “He shook her and he struck her head against some hard surface, or he used a hard object to hit her to the back of the head. She was just 18 months old. She was defenceless and vulnerable.”

Scully-Hicks, who denied murder, gasped and wept as jurors unanimously convicted him on their fourth day of deliberations. He will be sentenced on Tuesday afternoon.

The attack happened at the four-bedroom house Scully-Hicks, 31, shared with his husband, Craig, in a Cardiff suburb in May 2016.

Elsie had been placed with the family in September 2015 by the Vale of Glamorgan council after being removed from her mother, who was a drug user. Scully-Hicks took full-time care of Elsie and her adoptive sibling while his husband, an account manager, worked.

The court heard that Scully-Hicks had complained in a series of texts that Elsie was a difficult child, describing her as “Satan dressed in a babygrow” and calling her a “psycho” and “monster”. He once wrote he was “ready to explode”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elsie Scully-Hicks. Photograph: PA

In the months before the fatal attack, Scully-Hicks, 31, physically abused Elsie on a number of occasions, causing broken bones and bruises. She was treated in hospital twice but Scully-Hicks’s explanations that she had fallen were believed. She also twice sustained bruises to her forehead.

The adoption was formally approved on 12 May 2016. Thirteen days later Scully-Hicks dialled 999 and said his daughter had collapsed. When paramedics arrived she was not breathing and was in cardiac arrest. She died four days later. She had suffered three separate areas of bleeding on her brain, retinal bleeding, a skull fracture and three rib fractures.

An independent review will consider whether social workers and health professionals missed chances to step in and protect Elsie before she was shaken and battered to death by Scully-Hicks. At least four social workers, a GP, a health visitor and hospital staff including a registrar saw or treated her injuries.

A child practice review – the Welsh equivalent of a serious case review – will look into the contacts Elsie and Scully-Hicks had with various agencies after she was placed with him and his husband.

It is also expected to look at how the adoption was approved and monitored, although the National Adoption Service for Wales has made it clear the process is in-depth and robust.

From the outside, the Scully-Hicks household appeared happy, peaceful and well-run. The couple had a network of friends and relatives who helped look after Elsie.

Previously unreported transcripts of police interviews reveal that within weeks of beginning their relationship in 2008, the couple had talked about the possibility of children.

“It was one of the first things that [Craig] was asking me on the first couple of dates, if I wanted children,” Scully-Hicks told detectives following Elsie’s death.

The pair married in Portugal in August 2012. Initially they thought about finding a surrogate mother, but Scully-Hicks told police that one of Craig’s relatives, who worked in social services at the Vale of Glamorgan council, had suggested they consider adoption.



After a holiday in September 2014, they discussed contacting social services after which assessments, interviews and visits then began.

Meanwhile, in November 2014, Elsie was born and almost immediately removed from her birth mother by the Vale of Glamorgan council and was taken in by a foster carer.

In September 2015, when she was 10 months old, Elsie was placed with the Scully-Hickses. In court the couple described her as tiny and delicate, but with a happy, bouncy personality.

As they had discussed seven years before, Scully-Hicks was to be the stay-at-home dad while his husband, an account manager at a company that provides job placements for people with disabilities, carried on working.

But Scully-Hicks found looking after Elsie hard work. The girl developed slowly; she did not begin teething until shortly before her death and never walked unaided.

On 5 November 2015, Elsie suffered a leg injury, which according to Scully-Hicks happened when she fell from an activity table in the kitchen. He took her to a GP who suggested she should be checked over at hospital.

An x-ray was taken and a registrar saw a fracture just above her right ankle but missed a second break in her right thighbone. Had that second injury been spotted, more questions may have been asked.

Elsie’s leg was in a cast for three weeks, during which time she would have been seen by at least two social workers, who visited the family home every fortnight.

On 16 December Elsie sustained a bruise to her forehead. Scully-Hicks claimed she had fallen as she pulled herself up on a toy kitchen.

The bruise was seen by three social workers who visited next day and a health visitor on 21 December. The health visitor advised Scully-Hicks to have the bruise checked by a doctor and he lied that he had already done this.

Elsie suffered another bruise to her head on 18 January 2016. Again, given how often the couple were visited by social workers, it is likely that it was seen but, again, no alarm bells rang.

On 10 March, Elsie was back in hospital after – according to Scully-Hicks – falling head over heels downstairs. She was seen by a paediatric registrar, kept under observation for four hours and allowed home.

All still seemed well. Needing more space, the family moved to a bigger house in April 2016. On 12 May, the adoption of Elsie was formally approved, meaning all legal parental responsibility was passed to them.

Less than two weeks later, on 25 May, the fatal attack took place. During the day Elsie had attended a toddler gym class and played on the swings in a local park. By the late afternoon she was at home and Scully-Hicks said he put on a video for her while he got her room ready for bedtime.

At 6.18pm, he made a 999 call in which he claimed Elsie had gone floppy and limp while he changed her. When paramedics arrived she was not breathing and in cardiac arrest. She died on 29 May.

In court, Scully-Hicks insisted he had never been violent towards Elsie. The postmortem examination told a different story. She was found to have suffered subdural bleeding and fractures to her skull and ribs.

The prosecution claimed that Scully-Hicks had gripped his daughter by the rib cage, shaken her and struck her head against a hard surface or used a hard object to hit the back of her head. The prosecution said the injuries were “catastrophic”. A vulnerable child who ought to have been protected by her adoptive father had been abused and killed by him.

Mrs Justice Nicola Davies said after the verdict: “This was a defendant who had – and much was made of it – regular access to health visitors, social workers. He could have disclosed that he was unable to cope. He could have said ‘I’m struggling’. The defendant didn’t disclose to Craig that when Craig wasn’t present he couldn’t cope.”

Speaking outside court, temporary detective chief inspector Stuart Wales, of South Wales police, said: “This case represents an extremely rare and distressing set of circumstances. We at South Wales police continue to respect and value the role that adoption, and those involved, play in our society.”