Girl died from 'crash-like' injuries, trial hears

A toddler died with injuries usually seen in "high-velocity traffic accidents" or when “being kicked by a horse", a court heard.

Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, 24, and Scott Jeff, 24, of no fixed address, both deny murdering her daughter Isabella Wheildon between 26 and 30 June 2023.

The two-year-old's body was discovered on 30 June in a pushchair at the East Villas complex in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich.

During a trial at Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday, Ms Gleason-Mitchell sobbed in the dock as images of her daughter’s broken bones were shown to the jury.

Prof Owen Arthurs, a consultant paediatric radiologist for Great Ormond Street Hospital, explained to the court the injuries to her pelvis were unusual outside of a traumatic accident.

"My interpretation would be this would need a high degree of force for this to occur," he told the court.

"The kind of velocity in a road-traffic accident you need to fracture a pelvis is high impact - so a car travelling at 70mph versus 10mph.

“The front and the back of the pelvis are fractured but none of the sides.

“We rarely see fractures that don’t involve the whole of the pelvis outside of those situations, even inside those situations.

“The only other common way is being kicked by a horse."

The wrist fractures, the professor told the court, were also difficult to explain.

"What’s slightly odd in this case is there are bilateral forearm fractures in the same place," he continued.

"That’s pretty uncommon. To fracture both bones you almost have to put out both forearms at the same time.

"In almost all accidental situations you don’t fall symmetrically. For example even falling off a bike you tend to do it asymmetrically.

"In this case there is an absence of any observed accident or set of circumstances."

He told the jurors he believed the injuries presented could have happened "three, four, five days" prior.

Ms Gleason-Mitchell, whose family home was in the Biggleswade area of Bedfordshire, wore a black and white spotted dress with a black cardigan in the dock while Mr Jeff wore a grey tracksuit.

She sobbed into a tissue as details of her child’s injuries were read aloud.

The pair, who were a couple at the time of Isabella's death, had been temporarily homeless staying at hotels in Great Yarmouth, a caravan park and "camping in a very small tent on Caister Beach" in Norfolk before arriving in Ipswich, jurors previously heard.

The trial, due to last between six and eight weeks, continues.

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