Couple wheeled dead body of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon in pushchair for three days

Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, and her partner, Scott Jeff, 24, allegedly spent three days in public with the body of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon, wheeling her in a buggy under a blanket before authorities were alerted.

Prosecutors presented evidence describing how Isabella had endured a “regime of escalating brutality”. Her body was discovered in the couple’s bathroom at a homeless family unit in Ipswich on June 26 last year after police received a tip-off from a friend. Witnesses reported seeing the couple visiting a pub and buying Xbox components with Isabella’s body hidden in the buggy in the days following her death.

Autopsy reports indicated Isabella had multiple fractures to her pelvis consistent with “high impact” injuries such as stamping, and she also had two broken wrists when police found her.

In her police interview, Gleason-Mitchell alleged that her boyfriend, Jeff, had pressured her to take responsibility for their daughter’s injuries, saying: “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.”

A former nursery childcare assistant, Gleason-Mitchell told authorities she would never harm a child and that she had wanted to call emergency services, but Jeff allegedly prevented her, warning they’d get in trouble due to the visible bruises on Isabella’s body.

In statements to police, Gleason-Mitchell described feeling controlled by her partner and claimed she was in “shock” after Isabella’s death. She explained why she continued to wheel her daughter’s body around, saying, “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.”

In a prepared statement, Jeff denied causing any harm, apart from when he tried to perform CPR. He claimed he had noticed bruises on Isabella prior to her death but that Gleason-Mitchell assured him not to worry.

Both Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff, formerly of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, have denied charges of murder relating to Isabella’s death between June 26 and June 30 last year. Gleason-Mitchell has, however, admitted to causing or allowing the death of a child, along with two counts of child cruelty.

The trial is ongoing.