The beleaguered grandfather of doomed toddler Star Hobson committed suicide on his daughter’s birthday after sending her a heartbreaking note in prison promising to look after her child.
Andrew Smith, 50, died of an overdose in June as he battled with the realisation that his daughter, Frankie Smith, of Keighley, West Yorkshire, had caused the death of little Star Hobson.
The tragic tot was murdered by her mother Frankie Smith’s girlfriend Savannah Brockhill after suffering months of abuse in her West Yorkshire home during the Covid lockdown last June.
Andrew’s father, Frank, 68, was one of five relatives or close family friends who turned whistleblower and raised concerns over the treatment, and bruises that had appeared, on 16-month-old Star.
It was revealed that before his death, Andrew had sent a personal letter to Frankie while she was remanded in custody telling her he would look after her baby.
Frank told the Sun: ‘He [Andrew] had a handprint on his window from the baby and never washed it off. He couldn’t handle it and so he did it on Frankie’s birthday.
‘He sent her a card in prison and wrote, ‘You look after yourself and I’ll look after the baby’. It’s been devastating.’
Andrew Smith took his own life in June after sending his daughter Frankie a letter in jail saying he would look after her murdered daughter Star
Frankie Smith, 20, (right) was sent a letter by her father, Andrew Smith, 50, who promised to look after Star while she was in prison
Social services missed five opportunities to stop Star’s killers, including her great-grandfather’s partner, in the months before her death on September 22, 2020.
Frank continued: ‘When they found him, Star’s coat was at the side of him. My son did what he did and had 50 years of life, that baby had only a few months.’
Star’s great-grandfather branded Brockhill, 28, ‘pure evil’ and ‘ascended from the bowels of hell’, while Smith, 20, cried as she was convicted of causing or allowing the toddler’s death at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.
Smith cried uncontrollably as the verdicts were delivered as the pair stood in the glass-fronted dock.
Star was taken to hospital from the flat where she lived with Smith in Wesley Place, Keighley, but her injuries were ‘utterly catastrophic’ and ‘unsurvivable’, prosecutors told the two-month trial.
Police have released a harrowing picture of one of the bruises on Star’s face that sparked calls to social services from family
Partners in death: Savannah Brockhill, 28 and Frankie Smith, 20, have both been convicted over killing Star Hobson
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.
Prosecutors described how the injuries that caused Star’s death involved extensive damage to her abdominal cavity ’caused by a severe and forceful blow or blows, either in the form of punching, stamping or kicking to the abdomen’.
Jurors also heard there were other injuries on her body which meant that ‘in the course of her short life, Star had suffered a number of significant injuries at different times’.
On September 2, Frank alerted social services to a video of Star with bruises on her face.
When they visited her, her mother was said to have been in Scotland. The next day they went again unannounced and found her at home with Brockhill.
During an unannounced social worker visit to their Keighley home on September 15 last year Star was so dazed by the abuse she had suffered she walked into a sofa.
She had bruises on her face and shins but the Bradford City Council worker believed Brockhill’s explanation she’d fallen down the stairs.
In fact she was being ‘choke slammed’, swung by her leg and hit in the face by the twisted couple.
They referred to her as a ‘brat’ and forced her to stand facing the wall for long periods of time during their reign of cruelty.
In total two friends and three relatives – including Star’s own father – had reported them to social services but they were still allowed to keep her.
Tuesday’s verdicts fuelled mounting calls for sweeping reform, amid widespread outcry over the case of murdered six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes by his cruel stepmother earlier this month.
It later emerged that the Children’s Services boss in charge of Star’s care quit his £121,000-a-year post just days before Smith and Brockhill went on trial.
Mark Douglas became Bradford Council’s third Director of Children’s Services to quit within a turbulent three year period.
The department was rocked by an Ofsted report in 2018 which branded it ‘inadequate’ and said some children under its care were ‘at risk of serious harm.’
Michael Jameson quit as director soon after the report was released and he was succeeded by Gladys Rhodes White, who left less than a year later.
On his arrival in May 2019, Mr Douglas, formerly Director of Children’s Social Care at Doncaster Children’s Services Trust, vowed to ‘develop good and outstanding services for the city and district.’
Police released a picture of Star smiling happily before the torment from her mother and her murdering girlfriend began
Abused Star was so dazed she walked into a sofa in view of social worker during one visit
Kersten England, Chief Executive of Bradford Council, said at the time: ‘Mark will be key to us achieving this so we put the voice and needs of our young people at the heart of all we do.’
The former social worker suddenly quit on October 15, just before the trial at Bradford Crown Court began.
For confidential support call Samaritans on 116123 or visit a Samaritans branch
Star Hobson’s killer stepmother wanted to ‘shave all her hair off, like a gypsy baby’ reveals whistleblowing great-grandfather as babysitter says 16-month-old’s mother spent an hour cleaning her up and covering her bruises before social worker’s visit
Star Hobson’s murderer Savannah Brockhill wanted to shave off all of the little girl’s hair to make her into a ‘Gypsy baby’ in her own image, relatives revealed today.
The killer bouncer – who proudly called herself the ‘Number one psycho’ – fatally hurt the toddler by stamping or punching her stomach.
Brockhill had left school aged ten and the seven week murder trial heard she had come from a travelling background.
Relatives and friends contacted social services five times, but they swallowed the killer and Star’s mother’s lies that she was loved and cared for.
The little girl’s great-grandfather David Fawcett said this morning: ‘Savannah was slam-choking – some kind of move they do in kickboxing or karate or something – and she was throwing Star onto the bed, which was thought was a bit strange for an 11-month-old little girl to be doing.
‘Then a day or so later we got word she was going to shave all her hair off, she wanted to be like a gypsy baby, and she was holding her above her cot by one leg.
Star looks terrified as the woman who would later murder her holds her in her arms
Partners in death: Savannah Brockhill, 28 and Frankie Smith, 20, have both been convicted over killing Star Hobson
‘So that’s when Anita said ‘I’ve had enough, I’m going to ring the social services and try and get this sorted out’,’ he told GMB.
But devious Frankie Smith covered up the toddler’s bruises and injuries after social services tipped her off they were coming to visit.
Smith, 20, set about disguising the wounds she and murderer Savannah Brockhill inflicted on the baby girl with make-up.
Then when the Bradford City Council social worker arrived at her Keighley home, she made babysitter Hollie Jones hold her to try and obscure their view.
Smith had no idea it had in fact been brave Hollie who had tried to save Star by tipping off the authorities in the first place in January 23 last year
She had acted after witnessing the chaotic scenes in the house and said this morning if social workers had turned up announce the baby might still be alive now.
Star’s mother Frankie Smith, 20, and girlfriend Savannah Brockhill, 28, have been convicted
Police have released a harrowing picture of one of the bruises on Star’s face that sparked calls to social services from family
Babysitter Hollie Jones alerted social services but they told Frankie Smith they were coming
Brockhill – who called herself ‘the number one psycho’ – will be sentenced this afternoon for murder with Smith for causing or allowing Star’s death.
Hollie said: ‘The social workers rang an hour beforehand just to tell them they were coming.
‘Frankie started cleaning Star, covering up bruises and things like that’.
‘She made me hold Star so that the social worker couldn’t really see much of what she was like.
‘Later they told me they visited and they have no concern.
‘That she’s safe with her mother, there’s nothing more that they can do and everything looks fine,’ she told the BBC.
‘It’s like ringing up a criminal an hour before and saying ‘I’m coming to get you’. It just doesn’t really make sense.
‘I think more things need to be put in place because parents that are abusing their children know how to cover it up.’
The Bradford Partnership, which includes the agencies which had contact with Star during her short life, said on Tuesday: ‘We need to fully understand why opportunities to better protect Star were missed.’
The safeguarding partnership said a review into the case will be published next year, but that it ‘deeply regrets’ that ‘not all the warning signs’ were spotted.
And Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchliffe said Star was ‘let down’.
Keighley and Ilkley Tory MP Robbie Moore said Bradford Council leaders should ‘hang their heads in shame’ and resign.
The Department for Education said Star’s death was ‘deeply disturbing’ and that it would ‘not hesitate’ to remove children’s services control from Bradford Council ‘if necessary’.
Smith cried uncontrollably when the verdicts were delivered as she and Brockhill stood in the glass-fronted dock.
Star was taken to hospital from the flat where she lived with Smith in Wesley Place, Keighley, on September 22 2020, 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.
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.
Prosecutors described how the injuries that caused Star’s death involved extensive damage to her abdominal cavity ’caused by a severe and forceful blow or blows, either in the form of punching, stamping or kicking to the abdomen’.
Jurors also heard there were other injuries on her body which meant that ‘in the course of her short life, Star had suffered a number of significant injuries at different times’.
The jury was shown a series of clips from a CCTV camera which prosecutors said showed Brockhill deliver a total of 21 blows to Star in a car over a period of nearly three hours, some as the toddler sat in a car seat.
The footage came from a camera at a recycling plant in Doncaster where Brockhill was working as a security guard, and was filmed about eight days before Star’s death.
The footage appeared to show Brockhill punching and slapping Star with what the prosecutor described as ‘considerable force’, and at one point the youngster fell out of the vehicle. Brockhill also grabbed Star by the throat.
The jury also saw another video, described by the prosecutor as ‘disturbing and bizarre’, showing Star falling off a plastic chair and hitting the floor.
Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC told the court the youngster was ‘clearly exhausted but treated completely without love’.
He said ‘there was also a degree of cruelty and psychological harm’ inflicted on the toddler in the weeks and months before she died as well as physical assaults.
The maximum sentence for causing or allowing the death of a child is 14 years.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk