A man accused of murdering his partner’s two-year-old daughter has told a court that he would "never in a million years" have hurt the toddler.

In his first day in the witness box at Ipswich Crown 24-year-old Scott Jeff said he loved children and there was “no way” he would have hurt his partner Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell’s daughter Isabella Wheildon.

Asked by his barrister Christopher Paxton KC: “Did you physically harm Isabella?” Jeff replied: “No way. Never in a million years."

Jeff, who studied motor mechanics and electrical installations after leaving school, told the court he had a relationship lasting several months with Gleason Mitchell in 2019 after meeting her while he was working in Wetherspoons.

The relationship ended before Christmas in 2019 and in 2020 he saw on Facebook that she’d had Isabella, who was born on September 22 2020.

He and Gleason-Mitchell had met up on May 21 2023 and she told him that he could be Isabella’s father.

“I get on really well with children and I was happy to know I might have a child out there,” he said.

He said he had quickly developed a bond with Isabella, who turned out not to be his child, and had been happy when she started calling him “daddy”.

On June 1 last year he and Gleason-Mitchell booked into the Nelson Hotel in Great Yarmouth with Isabella after Gleason-Mitchell told him that Isabella had never been on a proper holiday before.

He told the court that he and Gleason-Mitchell had decided to try to get housing in the Great Yarmouth area and had sent an email to the local housing authority saying she was fleeing from domestic violence and was at risk if she and Isabella returned to their home in Bedfordshire.

Jeff said there was no truth in evidence given by a witness who claimed to have seen him kick Isabella’s pushchair and slap her face.

He also denied hitting Isabella so hard on her hands that they were swollen.

Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell, both 24 and of no fixed address, have denied murdering Isabella between June 26-30 last year.

In addition to denying murder, 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.

The court has heard that Isabella’s body was found in her pushchair in the shower of temporary housing at East Villa in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich in June last year.

She had suffered extensive bruising all over her body, fractures to both her wrists and her pelvis caused by possible kicking or stamping in the weeks after Jeff started a relationship with Gleason- Mitchell.

It has been alleged that following Isabella’s death the couple had pushed her dead body around in her pushchair with the hood up for several days before leaving her body at East Villa and fleeing to Bury St Edmunds where they were arrested.

The trial continues.