Boyfriend who murdered two-year-old girl as mother watched on is jailed for 26 years
A ‘heartless and cruel’ drug-using thug who derived a sick ‘satisfaction’ from beating a toddler to death was today jailed for a minimum of 26 years.
Scott Jeff, 24, subjected two-year-old Isabella Wheildon to ‘a regime of escalating cruelty’, leaving her with multiple fractures and angry bruises over much of her body.
Punishments for wetting herself included giving her cold showers and making her eat until she got sick.
When she eventually died from complications caused by her injuries, he and Isabella’s mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, coldly dumped plastic bags on her corpse as they pushed it around for three days during trips to shops and pubs.
Jeff was convicted of the girl’s murder and two counts of child abuse last month after a six-week trial at Ipswich Crown Court, where he tried to claim the ‘tragic event’ was the result of ‘natural causes’.
Gleason-Mitchell was acquitted of murder but previously admitted causing or permitting the death of a child and two offenses of cruelty to a child.
The couple returned to court today, where prosecutor Sally Howes KC said Jeff had gained ‘gratification’ by ‘repeatedly’ abusing his partner’s daughter.
“There is a degree of outright cruelty and indoctrination of a child for his own purposes,” she added.
Isabella Wheildon was subjected to ‘a regime of escalating brutality’ before her death in June 2023
Gleason-Mitchell, who was unanimously cleared by a jury, claimed she and Jeff went to Bury St Edmunds ‘to try to escape what had happened’
Scott Jeff, 24, was convicted of the murder of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon
Her mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, coldly threw plastic bags on her corpse as they pushed it around for three days on trips to shops and pubs
Jeff was led to the cells after learning the minimum term for his life sentence. Gleason-Mitchell, also 24, was jailed for 10 years.
Moments earlier they had sat in the dock and listened to heartbreaking victim impact statements from Gleason-Mitchell’s distraught and crying relatives.
Her mother, Ann Mitchell, revealed she had “resorted” to holding lonely vigils at the crematorium where the toddler’s funeral took place, “letting her know her nanny is here.”
Recalling the once “happy” child who was “always singing and playing,” she added, “Sometimes I want to fall asleep and never wake up because when I do, I remember they’re not there is.’
Gleason-Mitchell’s sister, Jade Anglem, said the loss was “excruciatingly painful” and she was taking antidepressants to cope.
‘Every day was hell. I carry with me a feeling of emptiness,” she told the court.
CCTV footage from June shows Jeff carrying Isabella, who wore the dark glasses he allegedly gave her to cover her black eyes and heavy bruises
Isabella, pictured here on a swing with her mother Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, was found dead in a homeless shelter in Ipswich, Suffolk
Thomas Wheildon, Isabella’s father, said he couldn’t work “because I’m always in tears” and he tried to find “comfort” by referring to her in the present tense.
Returning to the past tense for his statement, which was read out in court, he said: “No parent should outlive their child. A part of me died with her and it pierces my heart every day.”
He described the defendants as “the two most evil, sadistic and violent people,” adding: “It is difficult to understand how you two acted towards Isabella. You should have protected her.”
Particularly shocking was an image of Gleason-Mitchell appearing to “celebrate” with a large glass of rose wine in a Wetherspoons pub in Bury St Edmunds after their daughter died, he said.
Isabella’s body was found under blankets in the shower room of the temporary accommodation the defendants were given in Ipswich on June 30 last year after police were alerted by a friend who had confided in Gleason-Mitchell about the death.
A post-mortem revealed she had fractures to both her wrists and a complex pelvic fracture involving several bones which was likely caused by ‘kicking or stomping’, similar to injuries sustained in car accidents.
There were also soft tissue injuries to her head, neck, torso, limbs and back, as well as a torn perineum, while traces of cocaine were in her blood, probably because she was close to crack cocaine when it was smoked, and traces of cannabis in her hair.
Isabella’s death on June 26 was caused by an embolism in her lungs after marrow from her fractures seeped into her bloodstream.
She was seen pushing the battered body of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon in a buggy with partner Scott Jeff for three days after the little girl’s death.
The court was told Jeff beat Isabella and put her naked in cold showers as punishment when she had accidents during toilet training or because he was in a mood and ‘needed medicine’
There were also traces of cocaine in her blood, probably because she was close to crack cocaine when it was smoked, and traces of cannabis in her hair.
But the couple kept her death a secret and pushed her body around in the stroller with the hood up to hide her face.
CCTV footage showed Jeff pushing the buggy while Gleason-Mitchell was ‘smiling by his side’ as they went to a pub on June 28.
The next day they took the bus to Ipswich city center before visiting shops where they bought aftershave and X-Box equipment and chargers.
Mrs Howes said: ‘They put their purchases in a yellow plastic bag which they placed in the pram on top of Isabella.’
They were eventually arrested in the early hours of July 1 after being tracked down at a Wetherspoons pub in Bury St Edmunds.
Gleason-Mitchell, a pediatric nurse, told police that Jeff had “constantly punched Isabella, punching and kicking her from head to toe and hitting her with a shoe as they moved through hotel rooms and campsites in East Anglia after leaving Bedfordshire to go home. escape the protective gaze of her family. The little girl had to wear sunglasses to hide her black eyes.
Isabella’s other punishments for not learning toilet training included cold showers and force-feeding to the point of vomiting.
Over time, the toddler stopped screaming and instead endured the pain and humiliation in silence.
Her mother told police, “It’s like all her pain disappeared and stopped, like she didn’t know how to cry anymore and she didn’t know what pain was anymore.”
Jeff, who had a history of abusive relationships and had ‘Pure Hell’ tattooed on his knuckles, blamed his partner – although the jury saw through this.
Sarah Wass KC, defending Gleason-Mitchell, said she had no previous convictions and was an exemplary mother before rekindling her relationship with ex Jeff.
She described her client as “easily bullied and weak and possibly not the most intelligent young lady.”
Chris Paxton QC accepted on Jeff’s behalf that there had been ‘psychological torment of Isabella’ and ‘numerous assaults leading to her murder’.
His client was previously of good character, he added, and was a young and immature 22-year-old when his victim died.
After their convictions, Detective Chief Inspector Craig Powell, of Suffolk Police, said: ‘The murder of any child is, in my opinion, the worst crime imaginable.
“When they are murdered by those who were supposed to protect them and care for such a young and innocent life, it is somehow even worse.”