A MUM and her lover wheeled a toddler’s body in a pram for three days after it died from an “escalating regime of brutality”, a court heard.
Isabella Rose Wheildon suffered horrific injuries after she was allegedly kicked or stomped on by 24-year-old Scott Jeff.
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Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell has been charged with murdering her two-year-old daughter
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Isabella Wheildon was found dead in the bathroom
Jurors heard the two-year-old is believed to have died on June 26 last year at a temporary housing unit in Ipswich.
But Jeff and Isabella’s mother Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, also 24, allegedly kept the girl’s death a secret.
Ipswich Crown Court was told they continued to push her body in a pram with the hood up to protect her face.
The couple also allegedly took her body shopping to buy computer gaming equipment.
She was finally discovered on June 30 under blankets in the shower in the apartment unit.
The court was told officers were greeted by a “very strong smell” when the bathroom was unlocked.
One pulled back the blankets to see “a small child’s face that didn’t move.”
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 the police on June 30 that she had received a message on Facebook from “her friend”.
Mrs Howes said: “That message revealed that her friend’s daughter had died in her sleep three days earlier and was in a pram in the bathroom.
– That friend was the first accused Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, and her daughter Isabella.
Gleason-Mitchell is accused of allowing her daughter’s death by “standing by and watching and doing nothing.”
An autopsy showed she had “extensive external traumatic injuries to the soft tissues of the body including the head, neck, torso, limbs” and other areas.
She also suffered fractures to both wrists and a “complex pelvic fracture involving several bones.”
The cause of her death was listed as “bone marrow embolism caused by skeletal trauma.”
‘Mode of Escalation of Brutality’
The court heard that this “severe” damage to her pelvis was likely caused by “either being kicked or pounded or both”.
Ms Howes said: “The prosecution say Isabella Wheildon was a healthy, happy, well-cared-for girl until Scott Jeff came into her young life.
“At the end of May 2023, he entered into a relationship with Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell.
“From that time until her death, Isabella was subjected to a regime of escalating brutality that was callous, cruel and ultimately fatal.”
Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff lived together in hotels in Great Yarmouth, a caravan park and “camped in a very small tent on Caister Beach” in Norfolk before ending up in Ipswich.
A mum has told Great Yarmouth Borough Council that she and her daughter are “homeless” and fleeing domestic abuse from their ex.
She also falsely claimed that Jeff was Isabella’s biological father and was refused a home by Bedfordshire Council for her and the child because she wanted to stay with her partner.
After moving into the unit, CCTV showed the child pushing himself in a chair, wearing sunglasses with the hood up, hiding his head, it was said.
The court heard the couple went out with Isabella on June 26 to visit a barber shop so Jeff could get a haircut.
They returned at 3.15pm with CCTV cameras showing the child’s legs and feet moving in the pram – suggesting she was still alive.
The court was told that it was believed in the last picture of Isabella and that she died later that day.
Ms Howes also told the court that both Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were regular drug users.
She said a “safe, correct and obvious conclusion could be drawn that they both deliberately exposed Isabella to drugs”.
Jeff denied causing or allowing Isabella’s death and murder.
Gleason-Mitchell has pleaded guilty to causing or allowing the death of a child, but denies murder.
The trial continues.
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Scott Jeff is accused of imposing a regime of ‘escalating brutality’ on Isabella
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The two-year-old suffered terrible injuries
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Source: HIS Education