Ben Butler’s ex-girlfriend tells of life with killer who murdered his daughter
THE former lover says she felt 'sick' when the killer was acquitted of GBH and child cruelty and allowed to take the girl home
BEN Butler's ex-girlfriend has told of her life with the killer who murdered his daughter, as she admits: "I knew he would kill her."
Hannah Hillman suffered a year of abuse at the hands of the evil 36-year-old and says she wishes she'd spoken up sooner to save Ellie.
The 32-year-old admitted she feels guilty about not coming forward when Butler's six-year-old daughter was handed back to him by a judge.
Butler was jailed for four months and had his daughter taken off him after being found guilty of shaking her as a baby.
He was later acquitted of the charge and started a PR campaign to win back custody of the daughter he killed 11 months later.
Hannah, who was strangled beaten by the "incredibly jealous" ex, told Good Morning Britain: "I felt guilt where maybe I could have stood up and said something a bit sooner.
"I turned on the TV and saw him on it [talking about trying to win back Ellie]. I thought 'he's going to get this girl back' and I said, 'he's going to kill her' and within 11 months he had."
Hannah said police came to speak to her when Butler was being investigated for shaking Ellie as a baby, but she refused to give evidence as she feared for her newborn baby's safety.
She said: "I had got myself out of this really bad situation with him, which my whole family had to go through as well.
"He'd got away with so much where the police were concerned and I wasn't ready to put myself back in the firing line. I had to think of my son's safety and my family, so I didn't [testify] and that's where the guilt came from."
Hannah admitted: "I was still extremely frightened of him, even to this day it makes me feel uneasy inside.
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"I think if you've been in the hands of someone like that for a year-and-a-half you're always going to be scared of them and frightened.
"When I heard he'd killed her there were a lot of tears, I was very, very sad."
She added: "He used to have this look in his eyes when he had these attacks and they would almost go black. I knew how she would have felt because I've felt that with him."
Speaking about the judge who went out of her way to clear Butler "and make sure no-one could come near him again", she said: "I can't believe there wasn't more background down on this because he's had so many accounts of violence towards men, myself even animals."
Butler's conviction for assaulting Hannah was on the record, yet he was on TV saying he'd "never been violent towards anyone".
Hannah said: "I wanted to fall off my chair, I was thinking 'how is he getting away with this?' It's just so sad."
Butler was jailed for 23 years last week for murdering six-year-old Ellie.
The back of Ellie's head was a "boggy mess", the court heard, and a post-mortem revealed she was either beaten over the head with a heavy object or thrown against the floor or wall.
A series of texts and letters used as evidence in the trial revealed Butler regularly criticised the young girl, calling her a c*** when she wet herself in front of him.
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