Isabella Wheildon murder trial: Chelsea-Gleason Mitchell said co-defendant Scott Jeff wanted her to take the blame, Ipswich Crown Court hears

A mother accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter in Ipswich told police her boyfriend wanted her to take the blame so he wouldn’t go to prison, a court has heard.

The trial of Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell and Scott Jeff, both 24 and of no fixed address, but formerly of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, continues at Ipswich Crown Court.

The couple stand accused of the murder of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon, after her body was discovered at East Villa, a council-run temporary housing unit in Sidegate Lane on June 30, 2023.

An interview Gleason-Mitchell had with police after her arrest in Bury St Edmunds on July 1 was read to the jury.

In it, she said co-defendant Jeff – who believed Gleason-Mitchell would be blamed for the crime anyway due to being Isabella’s mother – asked her to lie to authorities so that he wouldn’t go to prison for her murder.

While Jeff denied beating Isabella, Gleason-Mitchell said he hit her constantly, which began while they potty trained her in Great Yarmouth weeks before her death.

During interviews, Gleason-Mitchell gave different dates for Isabella’s death.

She denied playing a role in her daughter’s death, having previously expressed fears she would ‘be killed’ if she intervened in Scott’s alleged abuse.

Sally Howes KC, prosecuting, who read Gleason-Mitchell’s interview to the court, said: “He [Jeff] was the one who kept going back to her, touching her after she died. Putting his hands on her, looking at her.

“I wouldn't hurt my girl. That's my child I brought up over two years of my life. I had things in my head like 'that's my girl gone’ while he was acting like he cared and was sad she was gone.

“I said [to Jeff] you don't understand what it's done to me.”

Jeff suggested they take Isabella to a forest or lake and bury her, the court heard.

The couple pushed Isabella’s body around in her pram after her death, Gleason-Mitchell said. Isabella was wearing a puffer jacket and sunglasses to hide her injuries, as she had in the weeks before.

The court was shown CCTV footage of the couple, with Isabella’s body in the pram.

When quizzed by officers as to why they carried her daughter’s body around with them, Gleason-Mitchell said: “I don't know, I think I just wanted those last few days with her.”

When asked what they thought would happen, she replied: “I thought I'd get caught one way or another.

“I was trying to find a way to hand myself in but I was just too scared. Knowing he caused the bruises, they weren't going to listen to that and accuse me.”

Gleason-Mitchell said Jeff, who lied about being Isabella’s father, ‘got it into her’ that he was her dad.

She said: “All he wanted her to say was ‘daddy’. He got that into her head. It's like he changed her, she didn't want me.

“Every time he went near her you could tell she was scared.”

On June 30, 2023, officers found Isabella’s body in the shower of flat 15A of East Villa, strapped into her pram, covered in bruises, with black eyes and obscured by a blanket.

Police had been called by Gleason-Mitchell’s friend, Joanne Gardner, who told the court of her shock upon learning of Isabella’s death.

Traces of cocaine and cannabis were discovered in Isabella’s system.

The court previously heard that Jeff’s mother urged her son to turn himself in after learning what had happened.

Between them, Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff were accused of eight offences, with each charged with one count of murder, one of causing or allowing the death of a child, one of cruelty to a child under 16 in relation to cocaine plus one of cruelty to a child under 16 with relation to cannabis.

Gleason-Mitchell pleaded not guilty to murder, but admitted all other charges. Jeff pleaded not guilty to all counts.

The prosecution believes Isabella died on June 26, 2023.

Isabella’s cause of death was certified as a bone marrow embolism caused by skeletal trauma.

Ms Howes attributed this to physical abuse, namely kicking or stamping, by Jeff, in what she called an ‘escalated regime of brutality’.

The trial continues.