Ben Butler, accused of killing his child, says he is fighting for justice just like the families of the Hillsborough victims.
13:51, UK,Wednesday 18 May 2016
A father accused of battering his six-year-old daughter to death has compared his case to those fighting for justice in the Hillsborough disaster.
Ben Butler, 36, is on trial charged with murdering Ellie Butler in a fit of rage 11 months after winning a custody battle.
He had been convicted of violently shaking Ellie when she was a baby nine years ago, but that conviction was later quashed on appeal.
Butler, an Everton football fan, told jurors at the Old Bailey about a documentary on the footballing tragedy he had watched.
He said: "The families there were fighting for justice like we were. Lady come on and said the problem you don't see is the ripple effect the one action has on everyone's life.
"That 2007 (conviction) had a ripple effect on everyone's life."
But prosecutor Ed Brown said Butler was "determined to deflect the case from the evidence".
He also accused him of putting on a "truly impressive performance" as he allegedly tried to cover up the killing.
Emergency services found Ellie dead with "catastrophic head injuries" in her bedroom on 28 October, 2013.
Lawyers said Butler and his partner, 36-year-old Jennie Gray, only called 999 two hours after Ellie was fatally injured and an hour after Gray had rushed back from work.
The delayed call, where the couple both screamed and shouted at the operator to hurry up, was played to the jury for a second time in the trial.
Mr Brown said: "I suggest the story that you and Jennie Gray had agreed upon was largely in place by now."
Butler said: "It was more of a heat of the moment thing."
Mr Brown said: "You two were blaming the 999 operator for delaying.
"You were there on the phone blaming a person who was trying to help you for delaying when you had sat on her death for two hours.
"Because you killed her."
Butler replied: "Not because I killed her. What happened in 2007 was the reason I reacted like that."
Butler has said he panicked and did not call for help immediately because he feared he would be blamed again.
Butler, of Sutton, south-west London, denies murder and child cruelty.
Gray denies child cruelty but has admitted perverting the course of justice after Ellie's death.
The trial continues.
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