A man accused of murdering his girlfriend's two-year-old daughter repeatedly brushed aside her sister’s concerns for their safety in the weeks before her death, a court has heard.

Jade Anglum broke down in tears as she told a jury at Ipswich Crown Court that Scott Jeff told her that her sister, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell and her daughter Isabella, were starting a new life with him and that she should be happy for them.

In voice messages played to the court, Jeff accused Ms Anglum of being jealous of the fact that her sister was “moving on” and said that Chelsea didn’t want to speak to her because she kept asking when they were returning home.

In a message a week before Isabella’s death Jeff told Ms Anglum: “You need to let go and let Chelsea do her own thing”.

Ms Anglum said she had repeatedly tried to speak to her sister without success after Chelsea and Jeff left Bedfordshire with Isabella the month before the child’s death and were staying in hotels and caravans in the Great Yarmouth area.

She said she had asked Chelsea if she was being held against her will by Jeff because it had been out of character for her to “up and go” without discussing it with her.

Ms Anglum told the court that her sister had been “over the moon” when she found out she was pregnant with Isabella and that she had “adored” the child.

She described Chelsea as an “exceptional and responsible” mother and said she’d never had any concerns about Isabella’s safety and welfare before they left Bedfordshire in May last year.

She said she had never known her sister to lose her temper or be violent and said that she believed with “every inch of her body” that she would never have caused any physical injury to Isabella.

She wept as she described the last time she ever saw Isabella on May 25 last year when the little girl had run up to her and put her arms up for her to pick her up for a hug. 

“It was the last time I saw her face to face,” she said.

Jeff,  24, and Gleason-Mitchell, also 24, of no fixed address, have denied murdering Isabella between June 26-30 last year

Jeff has also denied causing or allowing the death of a child between June 26-30 last year and two offences of cruelty to a child.

Gleason-Mitchell has pleaded guilty to causing or allowing the death of a child and two offences of cruelty to a child under 16.

The court has heard that Isabella’s body was found in her pushchair in the bathroom of temporary housing in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, in June last year.

She had suffered extensive bruising all over her body, fractures to both her wrists and her pelvis caused by possible kicking or stamping after Jeff started a relationship with Gleason- Mitchell.

“From that time up to her death Isabella was subjected to an escalating regime of brutality that was callous, cruel and ultimately fatal,” said Sally Howes KC, prosecuting.

“It is the prosecution case that Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, Isabella’s mother stood back and watched, did nothing and allowed this to happen,” said Miss Howes.

The court heard that following Isabella’s death the couple had pushed her dead body around in her pushchair with the hood up for several days before leaving her body in Ipswich and fleeing to Bury St Edmunds where they were arrested.

The trial continues.