A woman has been found guilty of murdering 16-month-old Star Hobson who endured months of assaults and psychological harm before suffering “utterly catastrophic” injuries in her home.
Savannah Brockhill 28, was the partner of Star’s mother, Frankie Smith who was cleared of murder at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday but convicted of causing or allowing the toddler’s death.
Star was taken to hospital on September 22 2020 from the flat where she lived with her mother in Keighley, West Yorkshire, but her injuries were “utterly catastrophic” and “unsurvivable”, prosecutors told the two-month trial.
Jurors heard that Smith’s family and friends had growing fears about bruising they saw on the little girl in the months before she died and made a series of complaints to social services.
In each case Brockhill and Smith managed to convince social workers that marks on Star were accidental or that the complaints were made maliciously by people who did not like their relationship.
The verdicts come less than a fortnight after the stepmother of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Emma Tustin, was found guilty of his murder in a case that caused widespread shock and revulsion.
Judge Mrs Justice Lambert said Brockhill and Smith will be sentenced on Wednesday.
