Mum wheeled body of toddler around in pushchair for three days after girl 'beaten to death'

Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, and her partner Scott Jeff, also 24, were seen out in public with the body of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon in a buggy under a blanket

A mum pushed the dead body of her two-year-old daughter around in a pushchair for three days before police were alerted to the child’s death, a court has heard.

Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, and her partner Scott Jeff, also 24, were reportedly seen out in public with the body of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon in a buggy under a blanket.

Prosecutors described how the toddler suffered a “regime of escalating brutality” before her lifeless body was discovered in the couple’s bathroom at a unit for homeless families in Ipswich on June 26 last year after cops were tipped off by a friend.

The couple were seen visiting a pub and buying Xbox components at a shop with the buggy allegedly containing Isabella’s lifeless body in the days following her death.

Isabella's body reportedly had multiple fractures to her pelvis, consistent with “high impact” injuries such as stamping - she also had two broken wrists when police found her.

Gleason-Mitchell has told investigators that boyfriend Jeff had tried to get her to take the blame 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, told police she would never hurt a child and that she had 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, the Mail reports.

She described feelings of panic following the loss 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.

Police herd from Gleason-Mitchell how she had “constantly” seen 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.”

For his part, Jeff has denied harming the little girl, 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 ot 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.