Every Christmas and birthday, Anita Smith still buys presents for the great-granddaughter she will never see grow up.
She described Star Hobson, who was 16 months old at the time of her death on September 22 last year, as “the most beautiful, precious little baby girl you could ever, ever meet”. Samantha Brockhill, 28, was today found guilty of murdering Star by a jury at Bradford crown court. Frankie Smith, her girlfriend and the baby’s mother, was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child.
The case has similarities to the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, the six-year-old boy who was murdered after a “campaign of cruelty” by his father and stepmother.
Like Arthur, Star, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, had been known to social services and at least five separate referrals had been made to them by concerned family and friends in the eight months before she died.
Investigations found she had been physically and emotionally abused for months until Brockhill inflicted the injuries that caused her death.
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Anita, 70, has converted part of her front room into a memorial to the baby. It features pictures, flowers, toys, ornaments and candles.
Star lived with her great-grandmother for ten weeks from February last year and the pair enjoyed dancing around to music together.
Richard Hawley’s Tonight the Streets are Ours was one of their favourites. “She absolutely loved it. She was music-mad”, Smith told The Times.
Anita was among the five relatives and friends who had contacted social services with concerns about Star’s welfare in the care of Smith and Brockhill.
In May, several weeks after Star returned home, she was told by another relative that Brockhill would lift Star up by her neck or throat and then thrust her on to the bed. This was described as a “slam-choking” technique during the trial.
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Anita confronted her granddaughter, who denied it, so Anita informed her that she would be contacting social services.
“I said, ‘I’m not having it. Do not blame anybody else, Frankie, for ringing them. I’m going to do it,” she said.
During the subsequent call to the authorities, the great-grandmother had begged to have Star brought back to her and was told it was not possible.
“I said that I’ve had her for the last ten to eleven weeks and that I just don’t trust what is going on at that house,” she said, speaking before today’s verdict.
“And I said to her [the social worker]: “Is she going to end up like a Baby P?” She asked, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Like that little boy. Is that how she’s going to end up?’ The woman said they would have someone visit Star first thing the next day.”
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But Anita was told by other relatives that Smith had dismissed the referral as “malicious gossip”. She was not told by social services directly that the case had been closed. Smith then restricted Star from seeing her great-grandmother.
Anita said she had little hope that reviews and investigations would fix the problem. “It’s not going to change anything. It will just carry on. How many more kids?” she said. “Every time, they come back with ‘lessons will be learnt’. When? Not in my lifetime it won’t.
“I don’t want an apology because that’s not going to bring her back.” Ben Smith, Star’s uncle, who was brought up by Anita, said: “It’s disgusting. They should have left her with us. [We’re] very upset.”
Smith met Brockhill, a pub bouncer and dog handler, around Christmas 2019. She had split with Jordan Hobson, Star’s father, a short time before. Smith went on to have a turbulent “on and off” relationship with Brockhill. She is said to have become “obsessed”, neglecting the needs of her daughter.
The first referral to social services was made on January 23 last year by Holly Jones, who was then in a relationship with Smith’s brother.
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She was worried about bruising and the mother’s lack of interest in her daughter. Jones also raised concerns about Smith potentially being a victim of domestic violence by Brockhill.
Police visited the couple on January 26 and no issues were found. Smith was not there when social services attended her home two days later. But other relatives were approached and did not raise concerns. The case was later closed.
A temporary split between Brockhill and Smith the following month prompted the offer from Anita to take Star until her granddaughter had sorted “her problems” out.
The baby was “depressed” and “appeared to have lost weight” when the arrangement began.
But Star was said to have improved greatly under the care of Anita and her partner, David Fawcett, who lives nearby. The baby returned to Smith – and Brockhill – on April 26.
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After Anita made her report to social services in May, a visit was carried out, the trial heard. It found that the baby was comfortable around Brockhill, who gave permission for police checks to be carried out on her on May 29.
In June, Alicia Szepler, Smith’s older sister, took photos of injuries to Star and sent them to the police, who visited her at home. She told officers how Smith would shout at Star: “Shut up you, little c**t”, and deprive her of food.
Hobson made a referral to social services around the same time after he was sent photographs of his daughter with bruises.
Police visited Brockhill at home where Smith and Star were also present. An officer saw the bruising and organised a medical examination.
Star was seen on the same day and Smith said she had hit her head on a coffee table. The medical examination was considered unremarkable and the doctor deemed that there was a consistent explanation for all of the injuries.
Rachel Whiteley, a friend of Smith’s mother, made another social services referral on 23 June. But social services closed the case on July 8.
A final referral was made on September 2 by Frank Smith, Star’s paternal great-grandfather, who had seen a video showing bruises on her face.
Social services were told that Smith was in Scotland when they visited. During an unannounced visit the following day, when Smith was present with Brockhill, social workers observed that the flat was clean, tidy and warm. But they found a faint bruise on Star’s cheek and another bruise on her right shin. Star was also unsteady on her feet and walked into a sofa while social services were present. Smith claimed her daughter had fallen down the stairs.
The final referral was closed on September 15, six days before Star died.
Social services remained in contact with Smith and had been due to meet her on the day of Star’s death. However, the meeting was postponed until three days later.
A social worker texted Smith at 9.30am on September 22: “Thanks for letting me know, we will do Friday at 10.30am.” Just over five hours later, at 3.34pm, a number of Google searches were carried out from Smith and Brockhill’s flat for the term “shock in babies”.
They waited 15 minutes to call an ambulance and Star was rushed to hospital with “unsurvivable” injuries. The trial was told that Brockhill inflicted these injuries while Smith was in the bathroom. The infant could not be saved and was pronounced dead at 4.59pm.
Brockhill referred to Star as a “brat” in front of a hospital medic while the toddler lay dead in hospital.
“Frankie [Star’s mum] did look after her, she did. But she was brainwashed, absolutely brainwashed”, Anita said.
“This wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t met Savannah.” Ben added: “She was a different person, wasn’t she? She was so changed and so – I don’t know – so brainwashed.”
She described Brockhill as “a monster, an absolute monster” and “the devil”.
She added: “I hope with all my heart that Savannah Brockhill never walks the street again. Because it will happen again. Every time she is put up for parole, I’m going to block it.”
The Bradford Working Together to Safeguard Children partnership said in a statement: “We are very aware as partners that there is much that we need to learn from this case. We have already put in place actions that will improve our practice so that we learn those lessons. But we need to fully understand why opportunities to better protect Star were missed.
“We must also learn everything we can from the awful murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. A national review has been established to enable this to happen. If we can contribute our learning to this review, we will do.
“We offered support and assistance to Star’s family for what we believed their needs to be, at that given time, but we all deeply regret that not all the warning signs were seen that could have led to firmer statutory enforcement action.”
