Ellie Butler's maternal grandparents described their utter devastation at the murder of the six-year-old they described as "our shining light".

Grandmother Linda Gray died on the first day of Ben Butler's murder trial and her husband Neal was understood to be too ill to give evidence.

The couple had cared for Ellie after her father was accused of shaking her as a baby, but they were forced to hand her back 11 months before her death.

He was found guilty of killing her today.

In a joint statement written ahead of the trial, Ellie's grandparents described how they struggled to come to terms with the "shock and horror" of her death.

They said: "Our lives have changed so dramatically due to the impact and shock and horror of this event that we struggle every day to deal with the reality of the death of our dear granddaughter Ellie. She was our shining light.

"Ellie was a very beautiful, bubbly and intelligent little girl who always had a smile on her face and even at such a young age she was nobody's fool. She was our life and she gave so much pleasure to us and our family too, how we all miss her."

The couple went on: "Local people, some of whom we did not even know, came to express their sadness upon hearing of her death and we received over a hundred messages of sympathy. This gave us great comfort in our time of mourning. Ellie had many friends in school and the community all of whom were totally grief-stricken.

"We have difficulty facing people and people have difficulty facing us and visiting our home. It affects our everyday lives. It was such a great privilege and pleasure to have been Ellie's grandparents and to be able to have loved her in her short life. This goes for our family and friends too."

The couple did not directly refer to their daughter Jennie Gray or Butler.

However, they said: "We did not realise that some people could be so wicked in life."

They added: "Our beautiful granddaughter Ellie, we all miss her very, very, much, more than any words can express. Life will never be the same for us again."

Alex Clark, headteacher of Avenue Primary Academy, where Ellie was a pupil, described her as "gentle and thoughtful".

She said: "Ellie was happy at school. She was gentle and thoughtful. Ellie loved art, drawing and doodling. She enjoyed talking to staff, worked well with everyone and had some lovely friends.

"She was only at our school for 10 months but left a lasting impression.

"The shock of her death has affected the whole school community and we have relived the experience through the recent court case."

She added: "We are all deeply saddened by what happened and our concern now is to ensure that the school community can recover from the terrible loss of Ellie."