Toddler found dead in a stroller in a bathroom suffered “cruel” abuse

A toddler died from “callous, cruel and ultimately fatal” abuse at the hands of her mother’s alleged boyfriend. Her body was discovered in a stroller in the bathroom of a temporary accommodation facility in Ipswich, a court has heard.

Two-year-old Isabella was also found to have cocaine in her system and had suffered serious injuries, believed to have been “kicked or stomped”.

Her mother, former kindergarten teacher Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, cried in court as she stood trial alongside Scott Jeff, 24, both accused of her daughter’s murder.

Sally Howes KC, prosecuting, told Ipswich Crown Court that Isabella was the daughter of Gleason-Mitchell and a man called Thomas Wheildon.

The barrister said emergency services found the teenager dead in an Ipswich Borough Council temporary accommodation unit on Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, on June 30 last year.

Her body was discovered after a woman reported the couple to police shortly after 11am after receiving a message on Facebook Messenger “from a friend”.

“From this message it emerged that her friend’s daughter had died in her sleep three days ago, lying in her stroller in the bathroom,” Ms Howes said.

“That friend was the first defendant, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, and her daughter was Isabella.”

She said the woman did not know Gleason-Mitchell’s current address, but it was identified by police and officers arrived shortly after 1 p.m. that same day and found Isabella dead.

Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff both deny murdering Isabella between June 26 and 30 last year.

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

Ms Howes told jurors that Gleason-Mitchell admitted causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of child cruelty.

She said an autopsy on Isabella found “extensive external traumatic injuries to the soft tissues of the body, including the head, neck, torso, limbs” and other areas.

Ms Howes said Isabella suffered fractures to both wrists and a “complex multi-bone pelvic fracture”.

She gave the cause of death as “bone marrow embolism due to skeletal trauma.”

The barrister said the damage to Isabella’s pelvis was described as “severe”, with the “probable cause…either kicking or stamping or both”.

“The charge is that Isabella Wheildon was a healthy, happy and well-cared for little girl until Scott Jeff came into her young life,” Ms Howes said.

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

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

“From that point until her death, Isabella was subjected to a regime of escalating brutality that was callous, cruel and ultimately deadly.”

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

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 together, staying in hotels in Great Yarmouth, a caravan park and “camping in a very small tent on Caister Beach” in Norfolk before landing in Ipswich.

Ms Howes said Gleason-Mitchell had previously been in contact with Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s housing agency.

“She stated that she, her daughter and her partner were homeless, had been evicted from their home in Bedfordshire and were escaping domestic violence from her ex-partner,” Ms Howes said.

“She also stated that Scott Jeff was Isabella’s father.”

The council found that Gleason-Mitchell fell within the jurisdiction of the authorities in Bedfordshire.

They later offered her “a place for her and Isabella, but that was not acceptable to her as she wanted to stay with Scott Jeff,” Ms Howes said.

The barrister said Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff were arrested in Bury St Edmunds in the early hours of July 1 last year after being seen by police.

In a prepared statement to police, Jeff said he “at no time assaulted Isabella or committed any unlawful act in relation to Isabella.”

He said he “started noticing bruises on her face” and “worried my partner, who said these marks were nothing to worry about.”

Ms Howes said Gleason-Mitchell told police: “She did not kill her daughter and she believes it was the harm Scott Jeff did to her that killed her.”

She said the “violence started when there were problems with potty training,” adding: “If Isabella said she was a mother’s girl, Scott would hit her.”

“She said she had no injuries before she left with Scott Jeff,” Ms Howes said.

“She admitted she should have gotten help.”

Ms Howes said cocaine – and a by-product of it – had been identified in Isabella’s blood and the results “show that Isabella has taken cocaine”.

She said the “concentrations were low” and it was not possible to determine the amount ingested and when, but it was “likely that ingestion occurred approximately the day before or so before death.”

The attorney said it was unknown how it was taken but suspected secondhand smoke from a person smoking crack cocaine.

She said that analysis of hair samples also detected the presence of a substance indicating “passive exposure to cannabis.”

The process takes between six and eight weeks.