A woman accused of murdering her two-year-old toddler told her mum her partner was “not like he used to be”.

Excerpts of messages exchanged between Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, her mother Ann Mitchell and her partner Scott Jeff were read aloud at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday.

Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff, both 24 and of no fixed address, have denied murdering Gleason-Mitchell’s two-year-old daughter Isabella Wheildon between June 26-30 last year.

The two-year-old's body was discovered at a temporary housing unit in Sidegate Lane in Ipswich.

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.

Ann Mitchell, Gleason-Mitchell’s mother, said her daughter and granddaughter moved in with her and her partner in May last year, after the relationship between Gleason-Mitchell and Isabella’s father broke down.

She explained that Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff had been in a relationship in 2019, prior to Isabella’s birth.

She said around this time her daughter, then 18 turning 19, was struggling with her mental health. She was also drinking heavily and taking drugs.

Although she has never met Jeff, Ms Mitchell agreed with counsel Sasha Wass KC's pronouncement that her daughter was “vulnerable”, and that Jeff was a “bad influence”.

On June 1, Ms Mitchell had planned to spend the morning out with Isabella and a friend.

However, Gleason-Mitchell told her that she would be taking Isabella away to Great Yarmouth for the weekend with her “mummy friends”.

Around 9pm that night, she sent her mother a WhatsApp message, saying that she and Jeff were again in a relationship, and it was he she was with in Great Yarmouth.

“I promise he a changed person. He not like he used to be,” she wrote, before apologising for lying about the relationship.

She also said that Jeff wanted to "love us for who we are".

Ms Mitchell did not see her daughter for the next few weeks. She also heard very little from her over messaging apps apart from requests for money.

On June 20, Gleason-Mitchell told her mother that she, Isabella and Jeff were in Ipswich.

Ms Mitchell messaged Jeff over Facebook, asking if her daughter would call her.

“We are all worried about them and missing them,” she wrote.

Jeff replied to say that he would do so. However, the following day the tone of the messages soured, and Jeff sent her several expletive-filled messages.

One read: “Take a hint woman she does not want to see you.”

Representing Jeff, Jane Oldfield put it to Ms Mitchell that she was making him "look as bad as possible" while making her daughter "look as good as possible".

Ms Mitchell denied that this was the case.

She admitted that she had concerns about Isabella’s lack of routine while her daughter and granddaughter were staying with her.

She told the court that on the day she left for Great Yarmouth, Gleason-Mitchell had said: “She’s my daughter, I can do what I want.”

Previously the court had heard Gleason-Mitchell claimed to recall a “long history of physical abuse” of Isabella at Jeff’s hands, some incidents of which were triggered by potty training.

The trial continues.