A former neighbour of a couple accused of murdering a toddler has told a court of “gurgling screams” coming from their room in the weeks before her death.

Isabella Wheildon’s mother Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell and Scott Jeff, both 24, are on trial for her murder at Ipswich Crown Court.

The two-year-old was found dead at a temporary housing unit in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, on June 30 2023.

A woman who was staying in the room beside the couple in St George’s Hotel in Great Yarmouth in the middle of June last year gave evidence at Ipswich Crown Court.

The Albert Square hotel was being used as temporary accommodation at the time.

Hannah Warnes, said she could hear a baby crying through the wall regularly and met the couple several times while having a cigarette outside.

However, she said the baby “really started to make a horrible screeching screaming cry” in the three or four days after she first heard it crying.

During her evidence she described what she saw on June 11, the night before the couple left the hotel.

Ms Warnes told the court she heard a banging sound from the couple's room at around 10pm.

She said she could hear the baby crying and it was a “gurgling scream like the baby was in pain”.

“I actually thought the baby had colic,” she told the court.

“It got to about between 1:30-3am and I went and knocked on the door.

“The banging got louder and louder and wouldn’t stop."

Ms Warnes added noise had been continuous since 10pm.

When she opened the door she said Scott was smacking the walls with a towel saying “come on then, come on then”.

After asking if the defendant was ok, she said he told her "no, there are things that go bump in the night”.

She described seeing the child in the crook of Gleason-Mitchell’s arms, who was lying on a bed but she could not see any injuries on the child.  

The court heard Ms Warnes offered her phone to the couple to call a doctor for the child, which she said was now silent, but the offer was refused.

The defence barrister for Jeff, Chris Paxton, put it to the witness her account was a fiction and said that Jeff’s account was that he had knocked on her door after he heard banging from her room.

Ms Warnes said this was not true.

Both Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff, now both 24, and formerly of Bedfordshire, 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 under 16.

Gleason-Mitchell has admitted causing or allowing Isabella's death and two offences of child cruelty.

The trial continues.