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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
World
Kate Lally

Evil girlfriend killed toddler by punching and kicking her for three hours

An evil killer caused her partner's 16-month-old daughter "unsurvivable" and "utterly catastrophic" injuries in an attack that lasted some three hours.

Savannah Brockhill, 28, was today convicted of killing Star Hobson at her home in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

Star's mum Frankie Smith, 20, has been convicted of causing or allowing the toddler's death, but was cleared of murder and manslaughter.

READ MORE: Husband and wife stole £100k from children's football club they ran

A jury unanimously found Brockhill, who is a boxer and also worked as a doorwoman, guilty of murdering Star Hobson, who was abused for months before her death.

Star was taken to hospital on September 22 2020 but the injuries she had suffered were "utterly catastrophic" and "unsurvivable", Alistair MacDonald QC told Bradford Crown Court when he opened the prosecution case in October.

The jury was told the injuries which caused the toddler's death involved extensive damage to her abdominal cavity "caused by a severe and forceful blow or blows, either in the form of punching, stamping or kicking to the abdomen".

Mr MacDonald said Smith and Brockhill were the only adults in the flat at the time.

During the course of the trial, Brockhill had tried to blame a two-year-old for causing the fatal injuries to Star, claims prosecutors branded “absurd”.

Bradford Crown Court heard the main vein carrying blood back to the heart from the legs and organs of the abdomen had been torn, causing major blood loss.

Star suffered a split to the liver, a tear to the fatty attachments of the bowel and bruising to the lower part of the lungs and the pancreas, the court was told.

After causing the injuries, the couple searched online for ‘shock in babies’ and waited 15 minutes before calling for help, the court was told.

Medics arrived at the flat at around 3.49pm on September 22 last year and found Star apparently lifeless, pale and wearing only a disposable nappy.

Star suffered a cardiac arrest and died in hospital on September 22, 2020 (Yvonne Spendley / SWNS)

Star was in cardiac arrest and as they attempted CPR.

She was rushed to Airedale hospital – just six minutes away - where clinicians did everything they could to save her but she was pronounced dead that afternoon.

Jurors were shown a series of clips from a CCTV camera which prosecutors said showed Brockhill delivering 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 video appeared to show Brockhill punching and slapping Star with what the prosecutor described as "considerable force", and 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 that 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.

In her closing comments, The Honourable Dame Justice Christina Lambert QC thanked the jury members for “all they had done over the course of the past ten weeks.”

She added: “I do not underestimate how difficult a task it has been for you all.”

The jury were also shown distressing video footage, taken from Smith's phone, which shows Star being shouted at at and forced to stand facing a wall.

In one clip, an upset Star is seen being roughly handled by Frankie Smith and a sustained attempt made to make her stand in the corner.

The court also heard of a 'slam choke' that Brockhill used on Star, which involved her being picked up off her feet and held by the neck and thrown onto the bed.

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