Ben Butler has been jailed for life with a minimum of 23 years for murdering his daughter Ellie - 11 months after winning her back in a custody battle.

His partner - and Ellie's mother - Jennie Gray was jailed for 42 months for covering up the killing and child cruelty.

In a crime described as “breathtakingly deceitful”, the court heard how Ellie was taken away from her parents in March 2009, after her father was accused of violently shaking her as a newborn baby.

But in 2010, his conviction was quashed, as appeal judges could not rule out an unknown cause for her injuries.

“The recovery cast doubt on a severe shaking injury; indeed it told against a major shaking incident,” the appeal court judge said.

At this point, Ellie had been placed in the care of her maternal grandparents - and Butler was determined to take her back.

Launching a brazen media campaign, he and Gray appeared on ITV’s This Morning in a bid to clear his name.

He told Eamonn Holmes: “The nightmare doesn't end the mistakes that were made we will pay for the rest of our lives, it's the old adage of no smoke without fire from some people."

You can watch part of Ben Butler’s appearance on ITV’s This Morning below:

The campaign had the desired effect; Ellie was soon placed back in the care of her parents - a move which would eventually lead to her death.

Less than a year after Ellie was placed back in her father's care, following a catalogue of violent abuse including a broken shoulder that went untreated for a month, he murdered the six-year-old.

Speaking at the trial, Mr Justice Wilkie said: "You struck her head so hard against a flat surface, or hit her so hard on the head with a blunt implement that, whether you hit her once or more than once, you inflicted catastrophic skull and brain injuries from which she very quickly died."

Now, following the conviction, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby have spoken out about Ben Butler’s crimes - and his “sham” appearance on ITV’s This Morning.

Phil said: “Let’s reflect on one of the worst cases of child cruelty that was played out right in front of us on our This Morning sofa by a man who would go on to kill his 6 year old daughter.”

He then went on to explain that “even our own Denise Robertson was taken in by Butler’s lies”, sharing a clip of the agony aunt insisting that the family’s lives had been wrongfully disrupted by the courts.

“How did Ben Butler weave his web of lies and dupe so many?” the silver-haired presenter wondered aloud.

Holly and Phil then turned to Neal Gray, the grandfather who cared for Ellie and who wishes he could have done more to protect her from her father.

Speaking about Butler’s appearance on This Morning, Neal said firmly: “It was a farce and a sham.

“[Me and my late wife] said it was a joke.”

Holly asked him: “You always had a deep mistrust of him, from the moment he met your daughter, didn’t you?”

Neal agreed, admitting that he had been put off by Butler’s “attitude, his swearing, his actions [and] his body language”.

“He was just one nasty person,” he added flatly.

Phillip relayed an incident when Neal met his daughter Jennie – who would reportedly have sooner see her daughter die than turn against her boyfriend Butler – and Ellie, who was covered with an Everton badge to mask bruises on her forehead and cheek.

"I thought it was pathetic putting an Everton badge on a girl that age," he said. "[Jennie] went berserk; shouting and swearing at my wife."

Neal then went on to explain how Ellie began to fear the visits of social workers - and used to beg him and his wife not to let her take her away.

“With me, Ellie was a beautiful, bubbly, bouncy, and normal little girl… but social workers scared her.

"She used to cry, she was scared of them coming to the house. She'd hide under the curtains and cry, 'Nana, please don't let them take me away'."

He went on to add that Ellie had no relationship with her estranged parents at all, and that she hadn’t seen them for over two and a half years.

Breaking down into sobs, he said: “I was devastated and broken when she was returned to them… she was one unique little girl.”

Holly Willoughby rushed to hug him as he struggled to regain his composure, comforting and offering him a tissue.

It was then revealed that, due to Justice Hogg’s ruling, teachers at Ellie’s school were not allowed to voice their concerns about the little girl’s wellbeing.

Phillip explained: “Anybody who felt there could be something here, were prevented from saying anything about it.

“The school said that they were deeply concerned about Ellie’s wellbeing, but they could only approach it from a truancy point of view… they couldn’t go any further than that.”

Addressing the horrifying number of mistakes that had been made, Neal added: “I was powerless and nobody listened to me.

“The family court has got to change drastically and the social services have got to be brought into the 21st century."

He finally went on to say that Ben Butler and his partner should serve a longer sentence than the courts have given them - a comment which alarmed Phillip.

“[You just called your daughter] ‘Ben’s partner',” he said.

A clearly shaken Neal replied: “She’s not my daughter anymore - how can you accept an offspring of your own committing such a terrible crime?

“I hate her, I hate her for everything she’s done.”

While many of the show’s viewers took to Twitter to offer their support to Ellie’s grieving granddad, others slammed the show’s producers for allowing themselves to be duped by Butler in the first place.

One wrote scathingly: “How could @itvthismorning have accommodated that monster? He didn't even LOOK normal!

“The show should have done its homework.”

Others disagreed, with many saying that Ben Butler had duped thousands with his lies.

Instead they praised Holly and Phillip, with one saying: "@Schofe @hollywills beautifully handled #KillerBenButler interview.

"The poor grandad and more importantly the poor girl who suffered. So sad"

This Morning airs weekdays at 10.30am on ITV.