Demands for change after Norfolk Police failed to intervene before toddler Isabella Jonas-Wheildon was murdered

A national children’s charity is demanding changes to the law after Norfolk’s police force failed to act on opportunities to intervene before the murder of a toddler.

Norfolk Constabulary is investigating itself over interactions officers had with Isabella Jonas-Wheildon – a two-year-old girl – days before she was found dead at a housing complex in Ipswich in June 2023.

This follows the publication of a safeguarding review which found multiple failures by agencies in Norfolk, Suffolk and Bedfordshire, with the child’s neglect becoming “invisible” to the authorities in her final weeks.

Officers found the toddler sleeping in a tent on Caister Beach with her mother Chelsea Gleason-Michell, 24, a week before her partner, Scott Jeff, 24, murdered the child through a campaign of violence and abuse.

Court hearings heard Jeff subjected the toddler to injuries consistent with those which would occur in a high-speed car crash.

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

It has called for new multi-agency child protection teams and for children’s voices and experiences to be reflected at every stage of decision-making about their care and protection to be included as part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is currently being considered by ministers.

An 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 opportunities to protect this little girl were missed by professionals on a number of occasions.

“This review found that in the final weeks of Isabella’s life, her voice went unheard and she was invisible to authorities, and information that was gathered was not shared between agencies.

“These are issues we hear time and again after children have died or been seriously harmed through abuse or neglect.

“It is unacceptable that this continues to happen, and we owe it to all children – not least our youngest like Isabella, who are particularly vulnerable to abuse and neglect – to do everything possible to protect them.”

In December last year, Jeff was sentenced to a minimum of 26 years in prison at Ipswich Crown Court for what Judge Mr Justice Neil Garnham called a “cruel campaign of violence and abuse” which ended in Isabella’s death.

Gleason-Mitchell was also jailed for ten years for causing or allowing her daughter’s death.