Father Who Got Custody Of Daughter To Increase Benefits, Then Beat Her To Death, Jailed For Life


Carl Wheatley, 31, may have pretended to be father of the year. However, he was a very evil person who won custody of his four-year-old daughter so he could claim more financial benefits. She was in foster care previously. He ultimately beat her to death just two months later, a court heard, according to the Mirror.

He admitted in court to killing his daughter, Alexa-Marie Quinn, in March, 2014, but denied it was murder. The St. Albans Crown Court heard the following evidence. Wheatley beat his toddler daughter so badly that he caused several of her teeth to fall out. He even conducted internet searches regarding how to reduce swelling and what glue can I use to put teeth back in.

The “frustrated” supermarket worker repeatedly lost his temper. Apparently, he had extreme anger management issues. The evidence showed that he delivered a “sustained period of hard beating” to his daughter.

He claimed to have called an emergency number after the girl stopped breathing, whereas the prosecution said she could have been dead for hours. When he called emergency services, he stated the following, according to the Mirror.

“She’s drowned. She’s drowned in fluid, she might have internal fluid on her lungs. She needs an ambulance right away. I’ve had her for a few months, I got a bit frustrated with her and I harmed the poor child. I’m being honest with you I need to think about my child.”

Prosecutor Christopher Donnellan, QC, said that Wheatley fought for custody of Alexa-Marie and his three year-old son so that he could claim more benefits and receive more money, and said the following, according to the Mirror.

“This wasn’t just a single blow, this was a sustained period of hard beating of her. [A pathologist said Alexa-Marie’s injuries were caused by] ‘blunt force trauma to the skin.’ In the weeks before she died when he hit her he hit her hard and he hit her more and more. He went to considerable lengths to avoid Alexa-Marie being seen by anyone. He knew at the time what he was doing and that he was causing her harm. Harm that was visible to the paramedics who witnessed the level of bruising to her lower body. That is why we say the charge in this case is murder.”

A judge called the “final and fatal” attack on the young girl “relentless and sadistic to a horrifying degree.” He sentenced Wheatley to a minimum of 21 years in jail, according to METRO. The court heard that Wheatley suffers with ADHD. However, experts could not agree regarding whether he was on the autistic spectrum.

It was such a disgusting act that Professor Rupert Risdon, who carried out the post-mortem, stated that he had never witnessed such injuries to a child so young. He indicated that there were 65 bruises on her body. The 66th caused her death.

There are many people who abuse their children, and, hopefully, they are caught and justice is served. lberto Benitez, 42, was captured after being on the run for 15 days. He was the subject of a massive manhunt. He horribly abused his 10-year-old stepdaughter by allegedly impregnating her, according to an article in the Inquisitr.

[Photo by Peter MacDiarmid/Getty Images]

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