Authorities in England reported that they discovered a two-year-old girl was beaten to death by her mother's partner and then pushed on her stroller as the two adults went about their lives, such as going shopping.
The victim was identified as Isabella Jonas-Wheildon, who was found dead in her stroller inside a hostel in England in June 2023. Authorities believe that she had been lifeless for about three days before that.
The Death of a Two-Year-Old Girl
The mother of the deceased child was identified as Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, and her current partner, who was believed to have been the one who murdered the two-year-old, was identified as Scott Jeff.
The death sparked a review looking into how authorities responded to the situation, and it was found that Jonas-Wheildon's safety was brought to the attention of several agencies before she was found dead in June 2023.
The report read that Suffolk Constabulary attended a hostel in Ipswich, Suffolk, where the family was staying and found the young girl dead in her buggy. It added that the findings of the criminal investigation showed the two-year-old suffered from several significant non-accidental injuries, according to People.
In a news release on Dec. 13, 2024, Suffolk Constabulary confirmed that Jeff was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of the young girl, as Gleason-Mitchell was also sentenced to jail for 10 years. The former's sentence carries a minimum term of 26 years.
Guilty of Murder
Jeff was found guilty of murder on Nov. 22, 2024, and Gleason-Mitchell previously pleaded guilty to allowing the death of a child as well as two offenses of cruelty to a child. Police said that the young girl's body was found on June 30, 2023, at the place where the couple stayed for 11 days prior.
After the couple was arrested, Gleason-Mitchell revealed that Jeff's anger at her two-year-old daughter spiraled when the young girl had accidents during potty training. The details of the victim's death were found to be death from a bone marrow embolism as a consequence of skeletal trauma, BBC reported.
On top of the sentencing of Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell, a child safeguarding practice review found that authorities failed to protect the young victim due to "siloed decision-making." Report author Russell Wate noted that no multi-agency discussions took place in Jonas-Wheildon's case.
He said that this happened despite police, social worker, and health involvement in the two-year-old girl's families' lives. These were even more prominent in the weeks leading up to her death, as per Children Young People Now.
