A man has been jailed for life after killing his partner’s two-year-old daughter and abandoning her body in a locked bathroom.

Scott Jeff, 24, will serve a minimum of 26 years in prison for the murder of Isabella Jonas-Wheildon, who was found with “traumatic injuries” in Ipswich on 30 June 2023.

Her mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, received 10 years in prison after admitting causing or allowing the death of a child.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how the couple, from Bedfordshire, had wheeled Isabella’s dead body around in a pushchair for days after her death on 26 June before fleeing from Ipswich.

Warning: This article features details of physical abuse

The pair were also sentenced to three months each for cruelty to a child in relation to cannabis and six months each for cruelty to a child in relation to cocaine, to run concurrently.

Gleason-Mitchell was found not guilty of murder at a trial in November.

High Court judge Mr Justice Neil Garnham said: “There she was, a two-year-old child, totally dependent on the two of you.

“Jeff, you subjected that defenceless little girl to a brutal campaign of violence and those attacks were monstrous. She feared what was going to happen next.

“Gleason-Mitchell, you are a weak and spineless person and pathetically desperate. Isabella must have looked to you for your help but you did nothing.

“It is perfectly clear to me that her killing has had a devastating effect on her family and the lives of all of them will be permanently disfigured.

“You two are responsible for all this pain.”

When speaking in court, Thomas Weildon, Isabella’s father, said: “Isabella was the most wonderful addition to my life – she was an extension of me and I miss her every day.

“When she died a part of me died and my entire world came crashing down – it has completed changed me and I am a shell of the man I once was.

“Isabella was perfect in every way and had a life so full of promise, but now all my dreams for her will never be realised – I’ll never take her for her first day of school.

“Her life was tragically cut short by you wicked, sadistic and vile people. I am so sorry Isabella. I am sorry for not being able to protect you.”

During a seven-week trial the court heard how the toddler suffered “psychological torment” and “physical trauma” at the hands of Jeff and his “evil temper”.

Frustrated over Isabella’s struggles with potty training, he would repeatedly kick and stamp on her and punish her with cold showers, all while her mother “stood by and did nothing”.

The brutal beatings resulted in Isabella suffering injuries usually seen in “high-velocity traffic accidents” or when someone has been “kicked by a horse”.

Bone pathologist Prof Anthony Freemont told the court, during the couple’s trial, that he had never before seen such a severe pelvic injury in a child in his 40-year career.

Smiley, blonde-haired Isabella, who was described as “engaging and happy”, died from a bone marrow embolism as a consequence of skeletal trauma.

“The level of injuries were just truly, truly horrific,” Det Ch Insp Craig Powell, from Suffolk and Norfolk Police, told the BBC.

“The overall level of abuse and the way in which poor Isabella suffered is truly shocking and the actions of the pair were abhorrent.

“It’s not lost on any of us as police officers and parents how shocking it is and the escalation and the speed with which this developed and led to such a tragic end.”

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