A THUG who beat a toddler to death before wheeling around her body in a pram for four days have been jailed.
Isabella Rose Wheildon, two, suffered numerous traumatic injuries as evil Scott Jeff carried out brutal and ultimately fatal attacks.
East Anglia News ServiceLittle Isabella was found dead under blankets at her home[/caption]
East Anglia News ServiceScott Jeff beat the toddler to death and was convicted of her murder[/caption]
East Anglia News ServiceIsabella’s mum Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell did nothing to stop the beatings[/caption]
The tot’s mum Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell “stood back, watched and did nothing” as Jeff carried out a “regime of escalating brutality”.
Isabella is believed to have died at a temporary housing unit in Ipswich on June 26 last year.
But the warped couple, both 24, kept her death a secret.
They instead pushed her body around in a wheelchair with a hood and sunglasses to help cover her face and disguise the heinous injuries.
This included taking her lifeless body on a shopping trip to buy computer gaming equipment.
She was eventually found under blankets in a shower at the housing unit four days later.
Jeff was convicted of murder and two counts of cruelty to a child at Ipswich Crown Court last month.
He was today jailed for life with minimum term of 26 years.
Gleason-Mitchell, who admitted causing or allowing Isabella’s death and two counts of child cruelty, earlier wept as she was cleared of murder.
She appeared to shake in the dock as she was jailed for 10 years.
Passing sentence, Judge Mr Justice Neil Garnham said Jeff subjected Isabella to a “cruel campaign of violence and abuse which ended in her death”.
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”.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Isabella’s dad Thomas Wheildon described his daughter Isabella as an “extension of me”
He said: “I miss her every single day.”
The dad added that the little girl was 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.
Their trial earlier heard how cops had been greeted by a “very strong smell” when the bathroom was unlocked at their home.
One of the officers pulled back the blankets to see the horror of “the face of a young child who was not moving”.
Sally Howes KC, prosecuting, said: “He was aware of severe bruising on her face. She was cold to the touch.”
The discovery same after a woman made a report to police when she 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”.
The severe injuries were likely caused by “either kicking or stamping or both”.
The court heard Isabella was a “health, well-cared for little girl” before Scott came into her life.
He began a relationship with Gleason-Mitchell in May 2023.
Ms Howes added: “From that time up to her death, Isabella was subjected to a regime of escalating brutality which was callous, cruel and ultimately fatal.”
The couple 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.
East Anglia News ServiceIsabella was subjected to brutal attacks[/caption]
East Anglia News ServiceThe two-year-old was found dead at a temporary housing unit[/caption]
Jeff and his partner were drug users
Gleason-Mitchell had falsely claimed she and her daughter were “homeless” and escaping domestic abuse from her ex.
She also made bogus claims 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 a temporary housing unit in Ipswich, CCTV showed Isabella being pushed around in her chair, wearing sunglasses with the hood up, concealing her head.
The couple took the toddler out for a haircut on June 26, before returning home at around 3.15pm.
Footage showed Isabella’s legs still moving – believed to be the last time she was seen alive.
She is understood to have died later that day.
Ms Howes also told the court that both Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were habitual drug users.
The couple had been remanded in custody before the sentencing today.
East Anglia News ServiceGleason-Mitchell was sentenced today[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
