Mother wheeled her dead baby's body in pushchair for days, court hears

A mother who wheeled the body of her battered toddler in a pushchair for three days told police her boyfriend had been trying to get her to take the blame for her death, a court heard on Wednesday.

Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, was seen pushing two-year-old Isabella Wheildon in a buggy with partner Scott Jeff as they visited a variety of places, including a pub and a shop where they bought Xbox equipment.

Prosecutors say Isabella had suffered a 'regime of escalating brutality' before she died on June 26 last year at a homeless families unit in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Gleason-Mitchell and co-defendant Jeff, also 24, then allegedly took her with them for several days until police were told by a friend what had happened and found the girl's body under blankets in the couple's bathroom.

Jeff claims he had nothing to do with the multiple fractures and bruises found on the toddler's body.

But Gleason-Mitchell told police during an interview that he wanted her to accept the blame for her death.

In an exchange read out at Ipswich Crown Court, she told officers: 'He told me to lie, to say it was all me. 

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'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.'

The former nursery childcare assistant claimed she wanted to contact emergency services after her child died, but Jeff was against it.

'He said 'Oh don't, because of the bruises on her. We will be done for it',' she said in the police interview.

'I don't know why I was listening to him, but the whole time I was with him I was controlled by him and felt like I had to listen to him.'

Asked why she failed to call police, she added she had 'panicked', saying: 'I think I was in shock. 

'I should have phoned them… but I was losing my baby… that was going through my mind… I was a mess. I was in a panic.'

Gleason-Mitchell also claims Jeff wanted her to buy a spade so they could bury Isabella in a forest or lake.

'I said 'That is my child, I have brought her up for over two years of my life',' she told officers.

'He kept saying that if the police do find us 'you are going to be the one going down, because you are the mother. I will get away with it'.'

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Describing how she continued wheeling Isabella around in her pushchair, the defendant added: '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.

'I was going to get caught one way or another. I was trying to find a way to hand myself in but I was too scared.

'It was because, knowing that he had caused the bruises, I was scared they would not listen to me. I would never hurt a child.'

Gleason-Mitchell admitted some CCTV footage showed her smiling as she walked around with her daughter hidden underneath a blanket but claimed it may have been 'fake smiling' to avoid looking suspicious.

'I didn't hurt her. That's what I'm trying to explain,' she continued.

'I did want her with me but I was also scared because she had marks on her. I would have been blamed as her mother.'

The couple visited Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk at one point and Gleason-Mitchell claimed she had gone there to be nearer to her family's home in Bedfordshire.

'I was hoping my sister could put sense into me to go to the police station. I listen to my sister but not when I have got other people around me,' she said.

The defendant told police she had seen Jeff 'constantly' hitting her daughter on the head, slapping her in the face and force-feeding her until she was sick when she was struggling to eat.

Isabella initially 'screamed' when hurt but later became quieter.

'It's like all of her pain went away and stopped, like she didn't know how to cry and didn't know what pain was anymore,' the tragic child's mother said.

The court has heard how Jeff has denied harming the little girl except when he attempted to give her CPR.

In a prepared statement to police, he claimed he noticed bruises on her body in the days leading up to her death, but his partner told him not to worry about the injuries.

Gleason-Mitchell dismissed his version of events as 'all lies', telling police Jeff began abusing Isabella by slapping her on the hands 'for any little accident' while potty training.

The court has been told that Isabella was 'a healthy, contented and well-developed little girl' before Gleason-Mitchell started a relationship with Jeff in May last year after splitting from her toddler's father.

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Jeff is said to have believed that Isabella might be his daughter, as he and Gleason-Mitchell had sex shortly before she realised she was pregnant. 

But paternity tests later proved he was not the father.

Gleason-Mitchell quit her nursery job in Bedfordshire on May 24 and set off with Jeff to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, telling her sister that she was 'trying to get her head in the right place' and was going to give her relationship with him 'a go again'.

The couple and Isabella stayed in a succession of hotels and holiday parks and even camped on the beach before getting a place at the East Villa homeless unit in Ipswich.

The court heard that Isabella's body had multiple fractures across the front and back of her pelvis, which could only have been caused by 'high impact or velocity' such as a stamping injury, as well as two broken wrists.

Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff, formerly of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, deny murdering Isabella between June 26 and June 30 last year.

Jeff also denies causing or allowing the death of a child and two offences of cruelty to a child.

But Gleason-Mitchell has admitted causing or allowing the death of a child and two offences of cruelty to a child.

Prosecutors say Gleason-Mitchell 'stood back, watched and did nothing' as Jeff carried out his 'callous, cruel and ultimately fatal' assaults.

The trial continues.