Toddler Star Hobson took her last breaths on September 22, 2020 after suffering “utterly catastrophic” injuries caused by either punches, kicks or stamps.
It should never have happened, but it was far from a one-off event, reports WalesOnline.
Over the course of a two-month trial which ultimately found Star’s mum Frankie Smith, 20, guilty of causing or allowing the toddler’s death and her partner Savannah Brockhill, 28, guilty of murder, it was heard the toddler had suffered so much more.
During her short life, Star had suffered two fractures to her right leg “caused by forceful twisting” which had been re-fractured as they healed at her home in Keighley, West Yorkshire, and a fracture to the back of her skull.
Then there were the videos. During the trial, the jury was shown a series of clips from a CCTV camera which prosecutors said showed Brockhill deliver a total of 21 blows to Star in a car over a period of nearly three hours, some as the toddler sat in a car seat.
The footage 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.
The footage appeared to show Brockhill punching and slapping Star with what prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC described as “considerable force”. At one point, the youngster fell out of the vehicle. She also grabbed Star by the throat.
Frankie Smith, who has been convicted at Bradford Crown Court of causing or allowing the death of her 16-month-old daughter
Frankie Smith, who has been convicted at Bradford Crown Court of causing or allowing the death of her 16-month-old daughter
Savannah Brockhill who has been found guilty at Bradford Crown Court of murdering 16-month-old Star Hobson
Savannah Brockhill who has been found guilty at Bradford Crown Court of murdering 16-month-old Star Hobson
Another video 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”.
There was also one which showed Star being forced to stand and stare at a wall, filmed by her mother.
The court watched as 16-moth-old Star screamed and cried as she faced the wall.
A different clip, filmed on both defendants’ phones, showed Star being so exhausted that she fell forward and slept in a bowl of food.
Mr McDonald told the jury the youngster was “clearly exhausted but treated completely without love”.
But despite all this, desperate pleas for help from those that knew and loved Star went unheard.
The day of Star Hobson’s death
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The day of Star Hobson's death
Chilling audio has been released of the day of Star’s death when Brockhill finally called 999.
Videos and pictures shown to the jury saw Star with bruises to her face, eye and ear while Mr McDonald described a 15-minute window in which Google searches were made in relation to a child being in shock before Smith and Brockhill made the call to police, YorkshireLive reports.
In the harrowing 11-minute call, Brockhill lies to the operator that she was making coffee in the kitchen when she heard a “bang”, before trying to pin the blame of the tot’s death on another toddler.
Brockhill said: “I came out and the little lad’s stood there and the little girl’s on the floor and she was crying and then she was sick.
“Now she’s just gone a little bit floppy to be honest with you.”
The cruel stepmother told the call handler she didn’t know if Star’s injuries happened after falling from the sofa or if they came from playing with other babies.
She said: “I came in and the little lad was saying ‘Star’. So I’ve obviously shouted her mum in, said ‘sit up Star’.
“I’ve sat her up and I started to rub her back because she was like breathing but struggling.
“She started to be sick so I laid her on the floor.”
Star’s efforts at breathing were described by medics as “minimal”, while her complexion was a “waxy grey” when they found her almost lifeless body.
Jurors were told she vomited large amounts of brown fluid in an ambulance prior to being rushed to hospital and died soon after.
The search history on Smith’s phone revealed that she had searched for “how to bring a baby out of shock” and “shock in babies” at 3.34pm on that day.
Paramedics arrived at the family’s home in Bradford at 4.04pm, and Star was pronounced dead in hospital shortly before 5pm.
In her own words, pub bouncer Savannah Brockhill described herself as a “number one psycho” who claimed to have “dropped men and women” with her punches.
A one-time Mixed Martial Arts fighter, security guard, and dog handler, she had previously threatened to put love rivals in a wheelchair by breaking their kneecaps.
The defendant, a former amateur boxer, appeared to be bragging when she told the jury about her punching power. The court heard she was obsessively jealous, physically powerful, violent, and controlling.
During her trial, she was reprimanded by the judge for ‘gesturing’ while a barrister outlined her awful crime.
On a video link from custody, arrogant Brockhill could be seen laughing, shaking her head, repeatedly yawning, grinning, and chatting to someone off-camera. At one point she appeared to be playing with a ball and then playing with a surgical-type glove she had inflated.
During Brockhill’s relationship with 20-year-old Smith, she used social media to intimidate her love rivals.
In one menacing post on Snapchat, she had threatened to cripple anyone who looked at her young lover in the wrong way.
In May 2020, she warned: “Guys and girls need to remember the fact Frankie is with me. She keeps getting a lot of messages and friend requests – she’s not going to accept, especially tramps like yous.
“If you want to keep your kneecaps I would suggest you stop sending her them.”
A chilling caption beneath the video said: “I am a psycho when it comes to my girlfriend and wouldn’t mind putting anyone in a chair for the rest of their life if they as much as look at her wrongly. Keep safe don’t message my girlfriend.”
The trial heard Brockhill had subjected Smith to beatings and, as their relationship soured, her violent rages were directed at her lover’s defenceless little girl.
Meanwhile Smith, described as a lazy mum more interested in partying than her daughter, took part in cruel pranks on Star and failed to protect her from a woman who she knew was a bully prone to sudden and violent rages.
Smith, now aged 20, fell pregnant with Star aged 17. The child was born in May 2019 and soon after, Smith’s relationship with Star’s father Jordan Hobson ended when he returned to university.
The task of raising the child tended to fall to family members, as Smith – whose own home life had reportedly been turbulent – took more interest in socialising.
Frankie Smith’s father, Andrew Smith, died via an overdose in June this year at the age of 50, apparently overwhelmed by the death of his granddaughter.
Even Smith’s barrister, Zafar Ali QC, admitted to Bradford Crown Court she was not a “normal” mother, with an IQ of 70 – in the bottom two percent of the population. Both her mother and sister described her as immature, someone who had still been playing with dolls aged 16 and who had left school at the age of 10.
Smith cried uncontrollably in the docks as she was cleared of murder but convicted of causing or allowing the toddler’s death.
Brockhill was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years.
Smith has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Judge Mrs Justice Lambert revisited the devastating facts of the attack on Star during which she suffered a laceration to a vein carrying blood back to the heart.
The tot lost 50% of her blood having been “kicked or punched” and her injuries were likened to those one would suffer in a car crash.
The fatal assault “was not an isolated event”, Mrs Justice Lambert added.
She said: “Her short life was marked by neglect, cruelty and injury. She was murdered by you Savannah Brockhill. Frankie Smith, it was your role as her mother to protect Star from harm. You have been convicted by this jury of failing to protect her.”
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