Ex-nursery worker could have sentence for allowing daughter’s death increased
Ex-nursery worker could have sentence for allowing daughter’s death increased
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A woman who wheeled her daughter’s body around in a pram could have her sentence for allowing the youngster’s death increased at the Court of Appeal as “unduly lenient”. 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 her two-year-old daughter, Isabella Wheildon, at the hands of her partner, Scott Jeff.
The pair then continued to wheel Isabella’s body around in a pushchair before leaving her in a bathroom at a hostel for the homeless in Ipswich in June 2023. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Garnham described the former nursery worker as a “weak and spineless person” who “stood back and let that abuse and violence happen to your little girl”.
But Gleason-Mitchell’s sentence could now be increased after Solicitor General Lucy Rigby agreed to refer the case to the Court of Appeal following a request from shadow safeguarding minister Alicia Kearns. In a letter to Ms Kearns, Ms Rigby said she was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the “horrific crime”, and had decided there were “sufficient legal grounds to conclude that the sentence would likely be increased by the Court of Appeal”.
Ms Kearns said: “Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell failed to protect her child from Scott Jeff, who horrifically abused and brutally murdered her child. “No punishment will ever make up for their heinous actions, let alone their depraved behaviour in the days following her murder visiting the pub and pushing her lifeless body around the shops.
