by A child died of “callous, cruel and ultimately fatal” abuse at the hands of her mother’s alleged boyfriend, and her body was found in a reclining chair in the bathroom of temporary housing in Ipswich, a court has heard.
Two-year-old Isabella was also found with cocaine in her system, having suffered major injuries believed to have been “kicked or stamped on”.
Her mother, former nursery school worker Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, pleaded in court as she went on 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 young person dead at a temporary housing unit run by Ipswich Borough Council in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, on June 30 last year.
Her body was discovered after the couple’s wife reported the couple to police shortly after 11am, after receiving a communication on Facebook Messenger “from a friend of hers”.
“That message showed that her friend’s daughter had died in her sleep three days earlier and she was in a pushchair in the bathroom,” Ms Howes said.
“That friend was the first defendant, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, and Isabella was her daughter.”
She said the woman did not know Gleason-Mitchell’s current address but the police recognized him and officers arrived just after 1pm the same day and found Isabella dead.
Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff deny murdering Isabella between June 26-30 last year.
Jeff denies one count of causing or permitting 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 a post-mortem on Isabella identified “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 her wrists and a “complex pelvic fracture involving several bones”.
She said the cause of her death was given as “bone marrow embolism due to skeletal trauma”.
The barrister said the damage to Isabella’s pelvis was described as “severe” and the “probable cause… kicking or stamping or both”.
“It is the prosecution’s case that Isabella Wheildon was a healthy, happy, 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 became involved with Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell.
“From that time until her death, Isabella was subjected to a regime of increasing brutality that was noisy, cruel and ultimately fatal.”
She said Isabella’s own mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, “stood back, watched, did nothing and let this happen”.
The Gleason-Mitchell family home was in the Biggleswade area of Bedfordshire, Ms Howes said, and Jeff’s last known address was that of his parents in the same area.
But they left the area together, staying in hotels in Great Yarmouth, a caravan park and “camping in a very small tent on Caister beach” in Norfolk before ending up in Ipswich.
Ms Howes said Gleason-Mitchell had previously been in contact with housing services at Great Yarmouth Borough Council.
“She said she, her daughter and her partner were homeless, had been kicked out of their home in Bedfordshire and were escaping domestic abuse from her ex-partner,” Ms Howes said.
“She also said Scott Jeff was Isabella’s father.”
The council found Gleason-Mitchell responsible for authorities in Bedfordshire.
They later “offered her a place for her and Isabella but that was not acceptable to her because 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 spotted by police.
In a prepared statement to police, Jeff said he had “never assaulted or committed any unlawful act in relation to Isabella at any time”.
He said he “started noticing a rash on his face” and “raised concerns with my partner who said the marks were nothing to worry about”.
Ms Howes said Gleason-Mitchell told police “she didn’t kill her daughter and she thinks it was Scott Jeff’s harm to her that killed her”.
She said the violence “started when there were problems with potty training”, adding: “If Isabella said she was a mummy’s girl, Scott would beat 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 its biproduct – was identified in Isabella’s blood and the results “show that Isabella had ingested cocaine”.
She said the “concentration is low” and it was not possible to determine how much was ingested and when, but that it was “probably the day or so before death”.
Counsel said it was not known how it was ingested, but suggested it could have been second-hand smoke from someone who smokes crack cocaine.
She said analysis of hair samples also noted the presence of a substance consistent with “passive exposure to cannabis”.
The trial, which will last between six and eight weeks, continues.
