Mother, 20, and her female lover, 28 are found guilty over death of her 16-month-old daughter
Mother, 20, and her female lover, 28 are found guilty over death of her 16-month-old daughter who died from ‘utterly catastrophic’ injuries caused by weeks of physical assaults and psychological harm
Frankie Smith and Savannah Brockhill killed Smith’s daughter Star Hobson She was taken to hospital on September 22 last year with unsurvivable injuries Star Hobson’s severe injuries were ’caused by a severe and forceful blow or blows, either in the form of punching, stamping or kicking to the abdomen’
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A bouncer has been found guilty of murdering a 16-month-old girl who died from ‘utterly catastrophic’ injuries after weeks of assaults and psychological harm.
Savannah Brockhill, 28, killed 20-year-old girlfriend Frankie Smith’s daughter Star Hobson at her home in Keighley, West Yorkshire. Smith was convicted today of causing or allowing the death of a child.
Star was taken to hospital on September 22, 2020, but the injuries she had suffered were ‘unsurvivable’, Alistair MacDonald QC told Bradford Crown Court.
The jury heard the injuries which caused the toddler’s death involved extensive damage to her abdominal cavity.
These were ’caused by a severe and forceful blow or blows, either in the form of punching, stamping or kicking to the abdomen’.
Prosecuting, Mr MacDonald said Smith and Brockhill were the only adults in the flat at the time.
Frankie Smith, 20, and her partner, Savannah Brockhill, 28, killed Smith’s daughter Star Hobson (pictured) at her home in Keighley, West Yorkshire
The jury heard the injuries which caused the toddler’s death involved extensive damage to her abdominal cavity. Pictured: Smith and Brockhill
The prosecutor said investigations found evidence on the girl’s body which meant ‘in the course of her short life Star had suffered a number of significant injuries’.
Mr MacDonald said there had also been two fractures to the toddler’s right leg ’caused by forceful twisting’, which had been refractured as they healed.
He described a fracture to the back of Star’s skull, and bruising, ‘much of which is considered to be non-accidental in origin’.
Jurors were shown footage which prosecutors said showed Brockhill delivering 21 blows to Star in a car over three hours, some as the toddler sat in a car seat.
Star Hobson (pictured with Brockhill) suffered a cardiac arrest and died in hospital
A number of relatives and friends of Smith (left, with Brockhill) told the jury of concerns they had over bruises they saw on Star which, in some instances, they filmed
The video came from a camera at a recycling plant in Doncaster where Brockhill was working as a security guard, and was filmed about eight days before Star’s death.
It appeared to show Brockhill punching Star with what the prosecutor described as ‘considerable force’.
At one point the youngster fell out of the vehicle. Brockhill also grabbed Star by the throat.
Another film which was shown to the jury, described by the prosecutor as ‘disturbing and bizarre’, showed Star falling off a plastic chair and hitting the floor.
The mobile phone footage had been slowed down with music added, plus a caption which said ‘in this moment she realises she has messed up’.
Another clip, filmed on both defendants’ phones, showed Star being so exhausted she fell forward and went to sleep in a bowl of food.
Mr MacDonald told the jury the toddler was ‘clearly exhausted but treated completely without love’.
He said ‘there was also a degree of cruelty and psychological harm’ inflicted on Star in the weeks and months before she died, as well as physical assaults.
A number of relatives and friends of Smith told the jury of concerns they had over bruises they saw on Star which, in some instances, they filmed.
Jurors were told that a number of referrals were by them made to social services from January 2020.
Brockhill and Smith, from Keighley, both denied murder and also causing or allowing Star’s death.
Summing up the case on Thursday, Mrs Justice Lambert told the jury the prosecution case was it was Brockhill who inflicted the fatal injuries on the toddler.
Both women denied inflicting the injuries and each claimed it must have been the other.
Smith told the jury she was not in the room when Star suffered the fatal injuries but did not suspect Brockhill until she reassessed the situation in prison.
Brockhill described how she ran into the room after hearing a thud and found Star on the floor groaning. She said she administered CPR to the youngster and called 999.
When ambulance staff found Star lifeless, pale and wearing only a disposable nappy, they attempted CPR, leading her to vomit ‘large amounts’ of brown material.
She was then rushed to Airedale hospital – just six minutes away – where clinicians did everything they could to save her, but she was pronounced dead that afternoon.
Lead prosecutor, Alistair McDonald QC, stated that Star had abdominal injuries, ‘Caused by the application of blunt force in the form of a punch, kick or stamp delivered to the front of the abdomen.’
After causing the injuries, Mr McDonald said the pair searched online for ‘shock in babies’ and waited 15 minutes before calling for help.
Mr MacDonald added: ‘The reality is that the injuries suffered by Star were so catastrophic that there never was any real chance of saving her life.’
‘The speed of all this is illustrated by the fact that the ambulance was called at 15.49 and death was pronounced at 16.59 so it all happened in a very short period of time.’
Smith’s representative, Zafar Ali QC, conceded that during the relationship, Smith had neglected her caring duties saying: ‘Frankie Smith was a terrible mother. She was selfish and sometimes callous.’
