Ipswich – Man sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Isabella Jonas-Wheildon

Scott Jeff and Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell

A 24-year-old man has been jailed for life after being convicted of murdering a two-year-old girl who was found deceased in Ipswich last summer, while the girl’s mother has also been jailed.  

Scott Jeff and Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell - also aged 24 – were sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court today, Friday 13 December, for their roles in the death of Isabella Jonas-Wheildon.

Jeff has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 26 years, while Gleason-Mitchell was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Jeff had been found guilty of murder on Friday 22 November following a seven-week trial. Gleason-Mitchell had been on trial alongside Jeff and was found not guilty of murder, with the judge directing the jury that it was only possible for one of them to be convicted of this offence.

However, Gleason-Mitchell had previously pleaded guilty to allowing the death of a child and two offences of cruelty to a child. Causing or allowing the death of a child is a homicide offence.

Jeff had also denied two counts of cruelty to a child but was found guilty of these offences in addition to the murder conviction.

Both Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were sentenced to terms of six months and three months imprisonment respectively for the two child cruelty offences and these will be served concurrently.

Isabella’s body had been discovered on Friday 30 June 2023 in a buggy at the temporary accommodation in Ipswich where Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell had been staying for the previous 11 days. It is believed she had died four days earlier, during the evening of Monday 26 June.

The defendants, who were both of no fixed address but formerly from Bedfordshire, were arrested in the early hours of Saturday 1 July in Bury St Edmunds, having fled Ipswich after police had found Isabella’s body in the flat where they had been staying.

Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were both charged with murder on Tuesday 4 July and made their first court appearance the following day. The pair were later additionally charged with two counts of cruelty to a child after tests found traces of cocaine and cannabis in Isabella’s system.

An initial post-mortem examination held on Tuesday 4 July was inconclusive. Following a subsequent number of expert tests, Isabella’s cause of death was determined to have been bone marrow embolism and skeletal trauma. 

Isabella had sustained fractures to both of her wrists and her pelvis – injuries which were consistent with having been kicked or stamped on – and also had extensive bruising all over her body. Bone marrow from her pelvic injuries entered her bloodstream and lungs, causing the embolism.

A world-leading bone expert who conducted some of the further tests after the initial post-mortem, told the court that in his 40-year career Isabella’s injuries were the worst he had seen. Such was the severity of the fractures he likened them to what you would expect to see following a high-speed road collision.

These injuries occurred in the timeframe since Jeff had entered into a relationship with Gleason-Mitchell, with the pathologist determining that the first significant injury (which was to her wrists) occurred after Monday 12 June.

The court heard that the Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell’s relationship began in May 2023 (having previously been in a short relationship in 2019) and that Gleason-Mitchell had begun claiming that Jeff may in fact be Isabella’s father – a claim that was later proven to be untrue.

They had left their home in Bedfordshire a month prior to their arrests, on Thursday 1 June, and travelled via train to Great Yarmouth. They initially told friends and family that they were going on holiday, but then later claimed they were fleeing domestic abuse at the hands of a former partner of Gleason-Mitchell’s – a claim she later admitted was false.

They then spent the next 11 days staying at different accommodation in Great Yarmouth and also Caister-on-Sea, which is just slightly further along the Norfolk coast.

CCTV enquiries made by police into their movements during their time in Norfolk found numerous occasions on which they were seen out and about without Isabella. This included them leaving her unattended in a caravan while they went out drinking.

Analysis of Scott Jeff’s mobile phone also found videos he had filmed during this time where he was verbally abusive to Isabella, to such an extent he made her cry. Gleason-Mitchell was sat just a few feet away when this was taking place and did nothing to intervene and shockingly was seen laughing at one point when the camera panned round to her.

By Monday 12 June they had run out of money for proper accommodation and after sending several messages to friends and family asking for funds, they eventually bought a tent and camped on the beach at Caister-on-Sea for the next four nights.

On Friday 16 June, police were alerted to their presence on the beach and officers checked on their welfare and supported a move to alternative accommodation. At the same time an employee of a nearby restaurant had secured them some free accommodation at another holiday park nearby. This offer was corroborated by the police and they were transported there later that day.

Over the course of that weekend they were found temporary accommodation in Ipswich, where they arrived on Monday 19 June.

Again, during their time in Ipswich, CCTV enquiries found numerous occasions where the pair went out and about without Isabella, leaving her alone in the flat.

It is believed that Isabella had already sustained broken wrists and some bruising prior to their arrival in Ipswich and she was frequently seen wearing a winter coat whilst in Norfolk (during what was a very hot June) and large sunglasses to hide injuries. 

It was during the next week while at the temporary accommodation in Ipswich that the prosecution attested Isabella had sustained more severe injuries, culminating it what proved to be a fatal assault on Monday 26 June.

Scott Jeff was captured on CCTV at the temporary accommodation at 4.55pm that afternoon with his arm in a makeshift sling. Gleason-Mitchell claimed whilst giving evidence during the trial, that he had hurt himself when violently hitting Isabella during the fatal attack.

Later that evening Isabella began to have difficulty breathing and the pair claimed they attempted to perform CPR on her. Gleason-Mitchell stated at the time they realised she had died, she looked at her watch and it was 11.37pm on Monday 26 June.

30 minutes after this the couple went out to the shops and CCTV footage shows them joking and apparently unaffected by what had just taken place.

On Tuesday 27 June, Scott Jeff’s phone was used to make the following searches on Google: “Flight to Scotland price”; “train to Amsterdam”; “Do u need a passport to Amsterdam”.

Detectives believed this was the beginning a plan to ultimately hide their crime and flee the country. This theory is supported by evidence Gleason-Mitchell gave during cross-examination when she told the court that Jeff had asked her to buy a shovel.

Over the course of the next three-days they proceeded to carry-on as ‘normal’, pushing Isabella’s body around in a buggy. This included getting the bus into town to go shopping and going to the pub.

During a trip into town on Thursday 29 June Jeff bought a second-hand games console and when he came out of the shop he was captured on CCTV placing the bag on top of Isabella in the buggy.

As the week progressed, Gleason-Mitchell was in contact with a friend and told her something bad had happened, before eventually disclosing that Isabella had died and her body was in a buggy in their flat.

Her friend contacted Bedfordshire Police on Friday 30 June and they in turn contacted Suffolk Police, who immediately began enquiries to locate them. They were quickly tracked down to the temporary accommodation in Ipswich.

When officers entered the flat they discovered Isabella’s body in the buggy inside as had been described.

Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were not present at the time and it is believed they attempted to return to the flat and after spotting police at the building, made efforts to then plot their escape from Ipswich.

CCTV captured them in a local pub that afternoon and Google searches on Jeff’s phone between 2.59pm and 3.35pm included the following: “Dead in Ipswitch (sic)”; taxis in Ipswich”; and “trains from Ipswich”.

At approximately 4.50pm they arrived at Ipswich station and boarded a train to Bury St Edmunds, where they then spent several hours in a pub until closing time. Following extensive enquiries, police located them in Bury St Edmunds at around 12.40am on Saturday 1 July, when they were both arrested.

Whilst giving evidence during the trial, Gleason-Mitchell said she had witnessed Jeff assault Isabella and the attacks escalated when he became frustrated by accidents she had during potty training.

Gleason-Mitchell admitted that she failed to intervene or take any action to remove Isabella from the situation and that she put her relationship with Jeff ahead of protecting her daughter.

Jeff denied ever assaulting Isabella and said he did not know how she had got her injuries. He claimed there were occasions that he had gone out and when he came back she had hurt herself and that Gleason-Mitchell told him she had fallen over.  

Both Scott Jeff and Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell denied the charge of murder. The jury had been directed by the judge they could not both be found guilty of murder, as only one of them was responsible for causing Isabella’s injuries and the jury ultimately found Scott Jeff guilty by a unanimous verdict.

When passing sentence, the judge described Jeff’s attacks on Isabella as “monstrous”, while he called Gleason-Mitchell “weak and spineless” for doing nothing to stop him.

The court commended the work of the police investigation team and the family liaison officers.

Detective Chief Inspector Craig Powell, the Senior Investigating Officer, said: “As I said following the convictions, the murder of any child is the worst crime imaginable. No sentence will ever be long enough, but the court has imposed the most severe penalties that it has deemed appropriate.

“Throughout this entire investigation we have been fully focused on achieving justice for Isabella and her family, and that has now been delivered. We know nothing will ever bring her back, but we have ensured that the person responsible for her murder has been sentenced to a significant prison term.

“I once again want to pay tribute to the family who have had to endure the unimaginable pain caused by Isabella’s death, alongside the trauma of all the details that have been divulged during the trial. A trial which could have been avoided had Scott Jeff admitted his guilt.  

“The family have remained dignified throughout all of this and have provided me and my team with their full cooperation, trust and support, for which I am very grateful.

“None of us involved in this case will ever forget Isabella and as I said previously, she has truly touched our hearts, along with those of so many others who she met during her short life.”

Further information about child abuse and how to report it can be found on our website here: Advice about child abuse | Suffolk Constabulary

Anyone who has been impacted by the information shared about Isabella and would like to talk to someone, the Samaritans are available anytime, day or night, and can be contacted on 116 123. Further information can be found here: Contact Us | Samaritans

If you have experienced a child death in your family and would like to speak to someone about the impact this case has had on you, or about your previous loss, you can also ring the Child Death Helpline on: 0800 282 986 (Monday - Friday 10am -1pm; Monday – Sunday 7pm-10pm).

Callers to the helpline might be parents, grandparents, siblings, family members, friends or involved professionals. They offer a confidential, safe environment within which a caller can talk openly. Callers are given the opportunity to freely express their worries and emotions. Further information is available via these links: Home CDH Trifold Leaflet