Evil child killer Ben Butler’s ex tells of terrifying abuse at hands of Ellie fiend
Hannah Hillman said she was attacked more than 100 times and savagely beaten while she was pregnant with their baby
BRUTAL Ben Butler tried to kill his unborn baby in a vicious attack on his pregnant ex-girlfriend years before he murdered his six-year-old daughter Ellie.
Hannah Hillman, 32, broke her silence on his savage assault on her and said: “I feel like he killed our baby.”
And she told how he attacked her more than 100 times, kidnapped her and demanded sex or he would murder her family.
Hannah cried tears of joy after learning he was jailed for Ellie’s murder and said he should never be freed because he would kill again.
She said: “Ben is a psychopath. That absolute blackness in his eyes and the way he would foam at the mouth — it upsets me so much that Ellie will have died seeing that.
“During our relationship he must have punched, pushed or kicked me over 100 times — it was a horrible, abusive relationship.
“The last time he attacked me I was pregnant — it was our first baby. I fell to the ground and he was kicking me like a football. In the head, in the stomach, all over.
“He did that so in his mind he made me lose that child.”
Butler killed little Ellie after the child was returned to him and her mum Jennie Gray.
He had been convicted in 2010 of shaking her as a newborn.
But the conviction was quashed in 2012 and a family court judge ordered Sutton Council, South London, to write to all agencies telling them that Butler was completely innocent and did not pose a risk.
Hannah first met Butler, 36, in a club in Sutton around October 2004.
He chatted her up and, after they started seeing each other, quickly moved into a flat.
But within a matter of weeks his violent and controlling true nature emerged and he began terrorising her.
Related stories
Hannah said: “He used to keep magazines by the side of his bed that were about knives and guns.
“He took coke on nights out and liked his drink.
"He used to say he was part of a high-profile firm of gangsters. He thought he was a hard man everyone should be scared of.
“I was quite vulnerable. He manipulated me and made sure I had nothing. I didn’t have contact with my family and was cut off from everyone so he had power over me.
“His rages would come out of nowhere. The first time he hit me was after a party.
"He told me to pack my bags but when I went to go he told me if I didn’t stay and have sex he would kill my family.”
A few months later came another hellish episode when he kidnapped Hannah and kept her prisoner.
He flushed her two mobile phones down the toilet and went berserk as she tried desperately to calm him down.
Hannah added: “I thought I was going to die. He locked me in a room for 48 hours and barricaded the doors with a board.
“I was trying to keep him calm but he was just in a furious rage going crazy. I didn’t think I was going to get out of there alive.”
Butler threatened to kill himself as Hannah begged him to let her go and, when he finally did, she moved out for two weeks.
But his control over her meant she was soon back at his flat being tormented as his power over her grew.
He was just in a furious rage going crazy. I didn’t think I was going to get out of there alive
She added: “I left him five times but he would hound everyone around me. I felt like I had to be back with him.”
In June 2005 Butler’s violence towards Hannah spilled out in public as the police finally got involved.
His convictions for strangling her outside a club and that final assault were disclosed in court during his trial for murdering Ellie in 2013.
Hannah said: “When he was in his rages he was capable of anything. Soon after that I fell pregnant but the violence became ten times worse.
"One time he flew off the handle over something and was strangling me against the wall.”
Hannah was helped to escape Butler’s clutches in October by her parents. But he had not finished.
He got a friend to persuade her to meet him to discuss their child.
She said: “He tried to give me a kiss and a cuddle but I said no. There wasn’t even an argument, he just went hell for leather on me.
"He hit my face and head a number of times and I just fell to the floor. He then started kicking me everywhere — my head, my belly.
“It took me weeks to recover. My aunt told him I had lost the baby. He could never have been a dad to that child.”
In fact the baby survived the attack.
Butler was hauled to court again and jailed after admitting assaulting Hannah. Last night he was in prison again, this time for life, for murdering Ellie.
Hannah said: “It doesn’t surprise me he has done this. If the authorities had done their job properly this would never have happened. I’m just glad he can’t hurt anybody anymore.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368.