Body of girl, 2, ‘wheeled around for days after being killed by mum and partner’

A two-year-old girl died after being subjected to ‘a regime of escalating brutality’ by her mum’s partner before they spent days wheeling her lifeless body around in a buggy, a court has heard.

Scott Jeff, 22, is said to have repeatedly beaten little Isabella Wheildon, leaving her with several fractures and covered in bruises, and forced her to take cold showers, jurors were told.

The toddler’s mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, also 22, ‘stood back, watched and did nothing’ as Jeff carried out his ‘callous, cruel and ultimately fatal’ attacks, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Isabella is believed to have died from her injuries on June 26 last year while staying with the pair at the city’s East Villa temporary accommodation unit, in Sidegate Lane.

But the couple, who each deny murder, allegedly kept her death a secret and carried on pushing her lifeless body around in her pushchair with a hood covering her face.

Sally Howes KC, prosecuting, told jurors that Gleason-Mitchell had admitted to causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of child cruelty.

Jeff denies one further count of causing or allowing the death of a child and two of child cruelty.

Opening the case, Ms Howes told jurors: ‘It’s the prosecution case that Isabella Wheildon was a healthy, contented, well-cared for little girl until Scott Jeff came into her young life.

‘She was two years and nine months old at the time of her death.

‘Towards the end of May 2023, he entered a relationship with Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell.

‘From that time up to her death, Isabella was subjected to a regime of escalating brutality which was callous, cruel and ultimately fatal.’

She said that Isabella’s ‘own mother Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell stood back, watched, did nothing and allowed this to happen’.

The prosecutor said a post-mortem examination of Isabella identified ‘extensive external traumatic injuries to the soft tissues of the body including head, neck, torso, limbs’ and other areas.

Isabella sustained fractures to both wrists and a ‘complex pelvic fracture involving several bones’, Ms Howes told the court.

She said that her cause of death was given as ‘bone marrow embolism caused by skeletal trauma’.

The barrister said the damage caused to Isabella’s pelvis was described as ‘severe’ with the ‘likely cause… either kicking or stamping or both’.

Ms Howes said it was clear that Isabella had ‘a number of episodes of violence inflicted on her over a period of time’.

Gleason-Mitchell’s family home was in the Biggleswade area of Bedfordshire, Ms Howes said, and Jeff’s last known address was his parents’ address in the same area.

But they left the area together, staying at hotels in Great Yarmouth, a caravan park and ‘camping in a very small tent on Caister beach’ in Norfolk before they ended up in Ipswich.

Ms Howes said Gleason-Mitchell had earlier been in contact with housing services at Great Yarmouth Borough Council.

Jurors heard a receptionist at the St George Hotel in Great Yarmouth used by homeless families said they remembered thecouple regularly going outside to smoke, leaving Isabella in the room, and returning smelling strongly of cannabis.

Ms Howes told them a 14-year-old boy staying in the hotel with his mum went into the couple’s room to roll a cannabis joint and saw Jeff kicking Isabella’s pushchair.

He was then said to have witnessed Jeff and slap her around the face with his open palm which made her cry, she added.

The prosecutor said: ‘Chelsea Gleason–Mitchell witnessed this but apparently did nothing and said nothing.’

Ms Howes said the teenager also claimed to have seen Jeff put Isabella’s pushchair in the shower and turn the water on.

In voice notes on Jeff’s phone dated June 21, he said he was ‘f***ing fuming’ that Isabell kept wetting herself despite his efforts at potty training, the court heard.

A video clip on Gleason-Mitchells’ mobile in the early hours of June 22 showed Isabella ‘lying motionless in her cot with two distinct black eyes’, it was said.

Jurors were told CCTV from the East Villa temporary accommodation unit showed her repeatedly being pushed around in her chair wearing sunglasses with the hood up to hide her head.

The couple took Isabella out on June 26, visiting a barber shop before returning at 3.15pm.

Footage showed her legs and feet moving in the buggy, with Ms Howes telling jurors that is thought to have been the last sighting of her alive.

All later sightings, she added, are said to have occurred after she died.

Miss Howes said they took Isabella to the nearby Applegreen service station to buy a bottle of lemonade just after midnight on the night of June 26.

CCTV at the unit showed Jeff putting her in her chair with Gleason-Mitchell ‘smiling at his side’ as they headed out to the nearby Royal George pub just after 7pm on June 28.

The following day they took Isabella into Ipswich town centre on a bus, visiting shops including Cash Converters and Cash Exchange, where they bought X-Box equipment and chargers.

Ms Howes said: ‘Scott Jeff and Chelsea Gleason–Mitchell are in effect pushing around a dead child in that wheelchair.’

The trial, to last between six and eight weeks, continues.

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