A 24-year-old man has been found guilty of the murder of his partner's two-year-old daughter in an Ipswich temporary housing unit.

Scott Jeff, of no fixed address but from the Bedfordshire area, was convicted of Isabella Wheildon's murder between June 26 and 30 last year at Ipswich Crown Court on Friday.

Isabella's mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, also 24, had also been charged with murder but was cleared by a jury.

As well as murder, Jeff was also convicted of two counts of cruelty to a child under 16.

Police at the housing unit in Sidegate Lane after the discovery of Isabella's bodyPolice at the housing unit in Sidegate Lane after the discovery of Isabella's body (Image: Dolly Carter, Newsquest)

Gleason-Mitchell, also of no fixed address but from the Bedfordshire area, had previously pleaded guilty to causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of cruelty to a child under 16.

Isabella had been found dead in a housing unit in Sidegate Lane last June.

Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell's trial at Ipswich Crown Court began in October and lasted more than six weeks before the jury retired to consider its verdicts on Thursday afternoon.

As the jury delivered its verdicts, weeping could be heard in the public gallery but Jeff showed little emotion as he was convicted.

Speaking after the verdicts on the steps outside Ipswich Crown Court, Craig Hale, Detective Chief Inspector at Suffolk police, said: "The murder of any child is, in my opinion, the worst crime imaginable.

"When they are killed at the hands of those that are supposed to protect and care for such an innocent life, it is somehow even worse.

"Tragically, this is exactly what happened to two-year-old Isabella Wheildon.

"Today has seen the delivery of justice for Isabella and her family. With Scott Jeff having been found guilty of her murder, and her mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, being convicted of causing or allowing her death."

The trial had previously heard how Jeff had entered into a relationship with Gleason-Mitchell in about May 2023.

Prosecutors had argued that the pair subjected Isabella to a "regime of escalating brutality" that ended with police discovering her lifeless body in the flats block on June 30, 2023.

A post-mortem examination of Isabella had revealed she had suffered fractures all over her body.

There was also evidence of a microscopic piece of bone marrow inside the girl’s lung which could have been due to skeletal trauma, the court heard.

Both defendants were arrested in Bury St Edmunds the day after Isabella's body was found and subsequently charged.

Sentencing will be held at the court on December 13.