Mother jailed after violently shaking baby to death

Melissa Wilband was found guilty of killing four-month-old daughter Lexi

A mother has been jailed for 15 years after causing the death of her baby daughter by violently shaking her.

Melissa Wilband's four-month-old baby Lexi died in April 2020 at Bristol Children's Hospital.

Wilband, 28 and from Newent in the Forest of Dean, denied killing her daughter, but jurors found her guilty of manslaughter following a four-week trial at Bristol Crown Court in April.

Her behaviour was described by police as "despicable", and she was described as a "habitual liar".

Tests revealed Lexi suffered bleeding on her brain, likely caused by being violently shaken, both recently and on at least one earlier occasion.

Further tests found the areas of bleeding in Lexi's eyes were "too numerous to count".

She died at Bristol Children's Hospital on 18 April, six days after collapsing at home.

Wilband's ex-partner Jack Wheeler, of Ledbury in Herefordshire, who was not Lexi's biological father, said in court she went floppy in his arms and stopped breathing.

Mr Wheeler, 31, was previously acquitted of causing or allowing the death of a child.

Lexi Wilband died in hospital following a brain bleed

On 12 April 2020, Wilband made a 111 call - the non-emergency NHS number - telling dispatchers her daughter had stopped breathing while in her bouncer chair.

Lexi was rushed to hospital and was intubated. Wilband was asked if she would like to hold her baby before the procedure took place, but she declined to do so.

Sentencing Wilband, Mr Justice Saini said the child would have "cried out in anguish" at the abuse she suffered.

"After the evening meal you were bathing Lexi and you shook Lexi, and immediately after this she went floppy," he said.

"Your shaking of Lexi led to severe bleeding in her brain. Only you will know why you acted in the way you did.

"It is hard to imagine the pain that Lexi must have suffered both from the past violence and the violence that led to her death."

Det Insp Stacey said the mother had lied "from the moment of conception"

Det Insp Adam Stacey from Gloucestershire Police described the woman as a "habitual liar", whose deception began "from the moment of [Lexi's] conception".

The jury heard she had faked a paternity test during her pregnancy to try and fool Mr Wheeler into believing he was the father.

Wilband presented him with a forged document which contained obvious errors, including the word "father" spelt "farther".

'Despicable' lies

"After she'd called the emergency services, her first instinct was to cover her back by fabricating details around what had happened, instead of providing proper information to the ambulance service who were trying to save Lexi's life," Mr Stacey said.

"Those lies continued beyond that, all the way through the police interviews to court.

"The fact a mother would not only do this to her own baby, but then put her own needs in front of her child's. It's just despicable."