Sick couple 'wheeled body of toddler around in buggy for 72 hours after death'

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A mum pushed her dead two-year-old's body around in a pushchair for three days before police were told about the child's death, a court has heard. Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, and her partner Scott Jeff, also 24, were allegedly spotted out in public with the body of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon in a buggy under a blanket, reports the Mirror.

Prosecutors allege the tot suffered a “regime of escalating brutality” before her body was found in the couple's bathroom at a unit for homeless families in Ipswich on June 26, 2023, after cops were tipped off by a friend. The pair were seen at a pub and buying Xbox components at a shop with the buggy allegedly containing Isabella's lifeless body in the days after her death.

The youngster's body allegedly had two broken wrists and multiple fractures to her pelvis, consistent with "high impact" injuries including stamping. Gleason-Mitchell told investigators that boyfriend Jeff had attempted to shift the blame onto her for her daughter’s injuries, Ipswich Crown Court heard today.

A transcript of her police interview was read to the court, in which she said: “He told me to lie, to say it was all me. He wanted to lie so he didn't get locked up and it was me [that would be] locked up. It's all him. I have done nothing but he wants to lie and say it's me who has done it, so he can get away with it and I am the one who goes down.”

Gleason-Mitchell, a former nursery childcare assistant, explained to police how she'd never hurt a child and she wanted to call emergency services, but Jeff had been against it, saying they would get in trouble because of the bruises on Isabella’s body.

She described feelings of panic after the death of her daughter. When asked why she had failed to alert authorities, she said she was in “shock” and that she felt “controlled” by her partner.

The court heard that Gleason-Mitchell told police how she "constantly" saw her boyfriend Jeff hitting her daughter on the head, slapping her in the face and force-feeding her until she was sick. Explaining why she continued to wheel the body of her daughter around in the pushchair, she said: “I was heartbroken she was gone. She was the one thing that kept me going. I felt like I wanted a last few days with her.”

Jeff denied harming Isabella, apart from when he tried to give her CPR. He gave a prepared statement to cops in which he said he had noticed bruises on her body prior to her death but Gleason-Mitchell had told him not to worry.

Gleason-Mitchell called Jeff’s version of events “lies”. Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff, formerly of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, deny murdering Isabella between June 26 and June 30 last year. Gleason-Mitchell has admitted causing or allowing the death of a child and two offences of cruelty to a child. The trial continues.

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