Tragic Case: Two-Year-Old Girl Dies After Alleged Assault by Mother and Boyfriend, Left Untended for an Hour Before Help Called

A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl lay dying for an hour while her mum smoked before a family member made her call 999, a court heard.

having allegedly suffered weeks of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Alexandra Walker and Harrison Simpson.

Isabelle Rose Welsh was hailed as a ‘princess’ by her devastated family Credit: Facebook Isabelle’s mum Alexandra Walker, 25, was heard calling her name on CCTV and saying ‘you’re scaring me’, jurors were toldCredit: Refer to source

The girl endured multiple fractures to 21 bones in the days and weeks before her death on September 14 last year, a court heard.

She had also been sexually assaulted, Crown was told.

Jurors were told that drank and smoked drugs while allegedly failing to seek medical help for Isabelle.

The day the toddler died, Simpson was the one looking after Isabelle. He put her to bed and left at 3pm, jurors were told.

The court heard that within 10 minutes, Walker Googled: “Why would my toddler be bleeding?” while smoking.

The 25-year-old was heard calling Isabelle’s name on CCTV and saying “you’re scaring me” as she lay dying, it was said.

The court was told Walker didn’t call 999 until 4.15pm, when her stepfather arrived at the house and told her to.

The toddler was found “gravely ill” and covered in bruises when medics were called to her home in Thornaby, Teesside.

Harrison Simpson, 21, faces a further charge of rapeCredit: Refer to source Isabelle’s family said the toddler was ‘full of life’

She passed away in hospital in the early hours after allegedly being violently slammed against a “hard, unyielding” surface.

Walker, 25, and Simpson, 22, deny murder, sexual assault, causing or allowing the death of a child and child cruelty offences.

pathologist Dr Sam Hoggard found 97 separate soft tissue injuries likely caused by Isabelle being shaken or tightly gripped, it was heard.

Just over a week before Isabelle died, Walker took her to a and then a hospital because her leg hurt – and reportedly became argumentative when staff quizzed her about how Isabelle became injured.

This was two weeks after the little girl’s leg was fractured, the court heard.

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said the toddler had been “violently assaulted” for weeks and that her death was “simply the end point in that campaign of violence to which she had been subjected”.

Mr Wright KC told the court that Isabelle’s grandmother became “seriously worried” about the child’s deteriorating during the final days of her life and described her as looking “white as a sheet”.

When she messaged Walker asking whether she could pick up supplies for Isabelle from , the mum replied: “Ten cans of Stella for my stress and nappies.”

Tributes were left outside the home in Thornaby Credit: Facebook Her devastated family paid an emotional tribute Credit: Facebook

Concluding his opening of the prosecution case, Mr Wright KC said neither defendant had explained how Isabelle sustained her fatal head injury.

Mr Wright told jurors: “When Isabelle became critically ill – when, on any account, she was gravely unwell – Alexandra Walker did not immediately call for help.

“Instead, she searched the internet. She spoke to others. She delayed.

“It was only when her stepfather arrived and instructed her to do so that a 999 call was finally made.”

The prosecution claims Walker and Simpson must both have been aware of the alleged abuse because their two-bedroom home was small and Isabelle’s injuries were severe and obvious.

Mr Wright said: “This is a case in which Isabelle was subjected to serious and repeated abuse in a household occupied by two adults and no one else.

“Whoever inflicted those injuries- and you may think there are occasions that point strongly to Harrison Simpson – those injuries were not hidden.

“They were obvious, severe, and repeated over time.

“And so, even if you were not sure that Harrison Simpson inflicted the fatal injury himself, the prosecution case is that he must have been aware of the risk of serious harm to Isabelle and did nothing to protect her.”

The court heard that Simpson and Walker began a relationship in the summer of 2025. Isabelle, born in March 2023, was Walker’s only child.

The 25-year-old checked online whether he was on the sex offenders’ register – but continued the relationship regardless.

On August 20 she left Isabelle with him alone for the first time but when she returned she discovered her daughter had a knee injury, the court was told.

Walker ignored it for a fortnight before eventually being persuaded by her mum and stepfather to seek medical attention, the court heard.

Even when she agreed to do so she delayed it a day so she and Simpson could have “something of a party at home, drinking, and taking drugs”.

Mr Wright said: “The prosecution say that there is no doubt that this relationship was unhealthy. That it was characterised by drink on the part of Walker and on the part of Simpson.

‘”It led to a decline over time in the care that was being given to Isabelle.

“That then built into her being subjected to regular violence at home by these two defendants.”

Central to the six-week trial is CCTV footage taken from inside Walker’s home.

The court was told that the footage “demonstrates the difference” in Isabelle from June 2025 to the time of her death the following year.

Jurors were told that a medical expert described Isabelle’s injuries as “not accidental”, which Mr Wright said was evidence that the toddler had been “subjected to repeated assaults that had caused her bones to be broken before finally her skull was fractured”.

Mr Wright concluded his opening speech by telling jurors: “Any person who violently shakes a two-year-old child before hitting their head off a hard and unyielding surface so that their skull is fractured and their heart stops beating can only intend to cause that child really serious injury or to kill her. This was an act of murder.

“But it was murder that came at the conclusion of a campaign of violence against her not over hours, or days but over weeks.

“She was beaten, her bones were broken and she was in obvious and severe pain for weeks.

“It was absolutely plain that she was being seriously abused we suggest and the only people who had access to her so as to have inflicted those injuries over that period of time were Harrison Simpson and Alexandra Walker.”

The trial continues.