WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Mum Alexandra Walker, 26, was jailed for life with minimum terms of 22 years for the murder of her two-year-old daughter Isabelle Welsh, who she delayed in getting help for
The mother, who long has been jailed for life for the sadistic murder of her two-year-old daughter, delayed getting help for her child and Googled ‘why would my toddler be bleeding’.
Isabelle Welsh, two, suffered weeks of abuse, including suffering 21 broken bones, before she collapsed at her home in Thornaby, Teesside, in September. Mum Alexandra Walker, 26, and her boyfriend Harrison Simpson, 22, were convicted of murder and child cruelty this week following a trial at Teesside Crown Court.
Simpson, was also convicted of sexually assaulting Isabelle, while her mother was cleared of that charge.
While jailing them to life with minimum terms of 28 years and six months for Simpson and 22 years for Walker, Ms Justice Norton said the evil pair inflicted the injuries and then failed to get Isabelle medical help, she said, “even though it was obvious that she needed it”.
Earlier in the trial, the court heard how Walker had Googled “why would my toddler be bleeding” rather than call the emergency services.
And even when Isabelle collapsed at home, and was dying, Walker again delayed ringing 999. Instead, she was caught on internal CCTV cameras smoking a cigarette in her kitchen. It was only when her step-father arrived at the house that his concerns over Isabelle saw a call to 999 made.
When paramedics arrived they found Isabelle covered in bruises and there was blood in her nappy. The little girl died in hospital the next day and Walker and Simpson were arrested.
The judge said Walker “lied from start to finis”. “Claiming to be more highly educated than she was, pretending she had breast cancer, telling people she did not take drugs when she actually sold them”.
The mother also claimed she did not drink much, but on the night Isabelle was murdered she downed 10 cans of Stella Artois. She was not just a liar but “a fantasist and an attention-seeker” who self-harmed then claimed to have been attacked, the judge said.
The judge added: “I have no doubt whatsoever that your lack of urgency or concern for your child was because you wrongly believed that Isabelle was already dead, and you were working out what to do to save your own skin.”
Isabelle sustained an unsurvivable head injury in the 24 hours before she died in hospital. The girl was sexually assaulted around the time the fatal blow was inflicted, the judge said.
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