Mum & lover who wheeled tot’s body around in pram for THREE days after she was kicked to death are convicted over horror
A MUM and her lover who wheeled a toddler’s body around for three days after she was kicked to death have been convicted over the horror.
Isabella Rose Wheildon suffered a “regime of escalating brutality” at the hands of evil Scott Jeff.
The two-year-old’s mum Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell simply “stood back, watched and did nothing” as her lover carried out the “callous, cruel and ultimately fatal” attacks.
Little Isabella is believed to have died on June 26 last year in a temporary housing unit in Ipswich.
But twisted Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell, both 24, kept the girl’s death a secret.
Ipswich Crown Court was told they carried on pushing her body around in a pushchair with the hood pulled up to shield her face.
The couple also took her corpse on a shopping trip to buy computer gaming equipment.
She was finally discovered on June 30 under blankets in a shower at the housing unit.
Jeff was today found guilty of murder and two counts of cruelty to a child following a trial.
Gleason-Mitchell, who had admitted causing or allowing Isabella’s death, wept as she was cleared of murder but convicted of child cruelty.
The court was told police officers had been greeted by a “very strong smell” when the bathroom was unlocked at the couple’s home.
One pulled back the blankets to see the “face of a young child who was not moving”.
Prosecutor Sally Howes KC said: “He was aware of severe bruising on her face. She was cold to the touch.”
The discovery was made when a woman reported to police on June 30 that she had received a Facebook message from a “friend of hers”.
Ms Howes said: “That message disclosed that her friend’s daughter had died in her sleep three days before and was in her pushchair in the bathroom.
“That friend was the first defendant, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, and her daughter was Isabella.”
A post mortem found she had “extensive external traumatic injuries to the soft tissues of the body including head, neck, torso, limbs” and other areas.
She had also suffered fractures to both wrists and a “complex pelvic fracture involving several bones”.
Her cause of death was given as “bone marrow embolism caused by skeletal trauma”.
The court heard this “severe” damage to her pelvis was likely caused by “either kicking or stamping or both”.
Ms Howes said: “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.
“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.”
Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff lived together in 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.
The mum told Great Yarmouth Borough Council she and her daughter were “homeless” and escaping domestic abuse from her ex.
She also falsely claimed Jeff was Isabella’s biological dad and refused a home by Bedfordshire Council for her and the youngster as she wanted to stay with her partner.
After moving into the unit, CCTV showed the toddler being pushed around in her chair, wearing sunglasses with the hood up, concealing her head, it was said.
The court heard the couple went with Isabella out on June 26, visiting a barber shop so Jeff could get a haircut.
They returned at 3.15pm with CCTV showing the youngster’s legs and feet moving in her pushchair – suggesting she was still alive.
The court was told this is believed to the last image of Isabella and that she had died later that day.
Ms Howes also told the court that both Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were habitual drug users.
She said a “safe, proper and obvious inference can be drawn that both wilfully exposed Isabella to drugs”.
The couple have been remanded into custody to be sentenced on December 13.