Man jailed for life for murder of toddler whose body he wheeled round in buggy

A man who murdered his partner’s two-year-old daughter then continued to wheel her body around in a buggy on shopping trips has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 26 years.

Isabella Wheildon’s mother Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, who was in a relationship with Scott Jeff at the time, was jailed for 10 years for causing or allowing Isabella’s death.

Judge Mr Justice Neil Garnham, sentencing the two at Ipswich Crown Court on Friday, said Jeff, also 24, subjected Isabella to a “cruel campaign of violence and abuse which ended in her death on June 26” last year.

Jeff was handed a life sentence and must serve at least 26 years in prison before he can be considered for release.

The judge described former nursery worker Gleason-Mitchell, who “stood back and let that abuse and violence happen to your little girl”, as a “weak and spineless person”.

He said she was “so concerned about her own comfort and pleasures, and about maintaining a relationship with this man, that you would tolerate anything, including these dreadful assaults on your daughter”.

Gleason-Mitchell appeared to shake as she was sentenced on Friday, while there was no visible reaction from Jeff.

Isabella’s body was found in a locked bathroom at a temporary housing unit in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, on June 30 last year.

It is believed she died four days earlier and her mother and then-partner had continued to wheel her body around in a pushchair.

The judge told Gleason-Mitchell: “You felt able to go shopping with Jeff, the two of you pushing Isabella’s body around in a pushchair covered with a blanket, as if you were enjoying a family day out.”

He said the two eventually left Isabella’s dead body in a bathroom at a hostel for the homeless and took a train to Bury St Edmunds, where Gleason-Mitchell was seen “sitting happily with a glass of wine in a pub … smiling and laughing”.

They were found and arrested in Bury St Edmunds in the early hours of July 1.

The judge said the two defendants had previously been in a relationship in 2019 which ended.

Gleason-Mitchell had a daughter, Isabella, with a man called Thomas Wheildon and after this relationship broke down she contacted Jeff again in May 2023, the judge said.

Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff decided to take Isabella on holiday to the Norfolk coast where they stayed initially in hotels then spent four nights in a tent on the beach at Caister, and began seeking council accommodation.

The judge said Jeff took over potty training of Isabella who would sometimes wet herself and Jeff “couldn’t tolerate such accidents and began punishing her when they occurred”.

He said her injuries were concealed with a puffer jacket and sunglasses, with her arms fractured and her pelvis later “in effect shattered”.

The judge said the pelvic injury was caused when Jeff either stamped on her or “kicked her between her legs with enormous force”, resulting in her death hours later.

Her medical cause of death was recorded as “bone marrow embolism caused by skeletal trauma”.

Jeff, of no fixed address, had denied her murder but was found guilty following an earlier trial.

He was also found guilty of two counts of child cruelty.

Gleason-Mitchell, of no fixed address, had pleaded guilty to causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of child cruelty at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor Sally Howes KC said at the start of the trial that Isabella was a “healthy, contented, well cared for little girl until Scott Jeff came into her young life”.

She said that when the two wheeled Isabella’s dead body to shops, the stores visited included ones that “sold products he (Jeff) wanted” such as X Box games and “even his own favourite aftershave”.

Sasha Wass KC, for Gleason-Mitchell, said the defendant was “possibly not the most intelligent young lady” and a friend described her as “easily manipulated”.

She said Gleason-Mitchell “failed to protect her daughter”.

Christopher Paxton KC, for Jeff, said the defendant’s “intention was to cause serious bodily harm” rather than to kill.

“There was a lack of pre-meditation,” he said, adding that Jeff was of previous good character and aged 22 at the time.

In a victim impact statement read by the prosecutor, Thomas Wheildon described his daughter Isabella as an “extension of me” adding: “I miss her every single day.”

He said she was “perfect in every way” and “loved going to visit farms and the zoo”.

Mr Wheildon said there was “something wonderful about seeing life in your child’s eyes, it’s exhilarating”.

“That light inside of me when I’m around Isabella is now gone forever,” he said.

Isabella’s paternal grandmother Michelle Wheildon said it “haunts me to think what was being done to her and how terrified she must have been”.

Her maternal grandmother Ann Mitchell, mother of Gleason-Mitchell, wept and said that “a large piece of me and my family has been taken”.

She said that “just to spend time with her” she goes to the crematorium with Isabella’s favourite crisps Wotsits, and Fruit Shoots, and “sits talking to her”.

Isabella’s aunt Jade Anglum said she was the “shining light of all of our lives”.

After the two defendants were led to the cells the judge praised the families for their dignified conduct through the trial.