Woman’s sentence for allowing daughter’s death ‘not unduly lenient’
Solicitor General Lucy Rigby had referred the case to the Court of Appeal.
A mother who allowed her daughter’s death and then wheeled her body around in a pushchair will not have her sentence increased, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, was jailed for 10 years in December last year after pleading guilty to child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of two-year-old Isabella Wheildon, at the hands of her partner, Scott Jeff.
Following Isabella’s death, the pair continued to push her body around in a pram before leaving her in a bathroom at a hostel for the homeless in Ipswich in June 2023, Ipswich Crown Court previously heard.
Following a hearing on Wednesday, Lord Justice Edis, Mrs Justice Stacey and Judge Andrew Lockhart KC did not increase the sentence, finding it was not unduly lenient.
Lord Justice Edis said: “We consider that some judges may properly have balanced the aggravating and mitigating features differently, or applied them to a somewhat higher starting point.
“That is not at all the same as to say the judge’s approach was unduly lenient.”
Addressing the public gallery, where some people had cried during the hearing, he added: “I am very sorry to everyone who has suffered this appalling loss.”
Referring to events after Isabella’s death, Lord Justice Edis said: “Instead of seeking help for her – even at this stage, the offender, together with Scott Jeff, treated her body in a reprehensible manner, pushing it around in Isabella’s pram concealed under various items.”
Sentencing former nursery worker Gleason-Mitchell last year, Mr Justice Garnham described her as a “weak and spineless person” who “stood back and let that abuse and violence happen to your little girl”.
He said she was “so concerned about her own comfort and pleasures, and about maintaining a relationship with this man, that you would tolerate anything, including these dreadful assaults on your daughter”.
After a trial, he was handed a life sentence and must serve at least 26 years in prison before he can be considered for release.
The jury was told that after Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff rekindled their relationship in May 2023, Jeff took over potty training Isabella who would sometimes wet herself and Jeff “couldn’t tolerate such accidents and began punishing her when they occurred”.
Lord Justice Edis said the toddler’s injuries were concealed with a puffer jacket and sunglasses, with her arms fractured and her pelvis broken.
The pelvic injury was caused when Jeff either stamped on her or kicked her between her legs, resulting in her death hours later.
Her medical cause of death was recorded as “bone marrow embolism caused by skeletal trauma”.
