Change demands after the Norfolk police did not intervene before little Isabella Jonas-Wheildon was killed

A national beneficial organization for children demands changes in the law after Norfolk’s police force did not act on opportunities to intervene before the murder of a small child.

Norfolk police are investigating the interactions that the officers had with Isabella Jonas-Wheildon, a two-year-old girl, days before being found dead in a housing complex in Ipswich in June 2023.

This follows the publication of a safeguard review that found multiple agencies in Norfolk, Suffolk and Bedfordshire, and the child’s negligence became “invisible” for the authorities in their last weeks.

The officers found the sleeping boy sleeping in a tent in Caister Beach with his mother Chelsea Gleason-Michell, 24, a week before his partner, Scott Jeff, 24, killed the child through a campaign of violence and abuse.

The judicial hearings heard that Jeff subjected the child to consistent injuries with which they would occur in a high -speed car accident.

After the findings, the National Society for Children’s Protection (NSPCC) has urged the Government to make changes to the law to prevent similar abuses from happening again.

He has requested new child protection teams of multiple agencies and that the voices and experiences of children are reflected at each stage of decision making about their care and protection that will be included as part of the children’s welfare law and schools , which is currently considered by ministers.

A NSPCC spokesman said: “The cruelty and brutality that Isabella suffered at the hands of Scott Jeff was shocking and heartbreaking, and it is devastating to read that professionals missed this girl on several occasions surprised to this girl several times.

“This review found that in the last weeks of Isabella’s life, his voice was not described and was invisible to the authorities, and the information that met was not shared among the agencies.

“These are problems that we hear again and again after children have died or have been seriously damaged by abuse or negligence.

“It is unacceptable that this continues to happen, and we owe all children, among no less than our youngest like Isabella, who are particularly vulnerable to abuse and negligence, to do everything possible to protect them.”

In December last year, Jeff was sentenced to a minimum of 26 years in prison in the Ipswich Crown Court, so Judge, Judge Neil Garnham, called a “cruel campaign of violence and abuse” that ended in the Death of Isabella.

Gleason-Mitchell was also imprisoned for ten years for causing or allowing the death of his daughter.