Star Hobson’s mother has sentence for allowing toddler’s death increased

The mother of Star Hobson has had her prison sentence for causing or allowing the 16-month-old’s death increased by the Court of Appeal.

Frankie Smith, 20, was jailed at Bradford Crown Court in December last year for her role in the death of her daughter, who was killed by Smith’s former partner, Savannah Brockhill.

Star died after she was taken to hospital in September 2020, having suffered “utterly catastrophic” and “unsurvivable” injuries at Brockhill’s hands.

Brockhill, 28, a bouncer and security guard, was found guilty of Star’s murder, while Smith was found guilty of causing or allowing her death and handed an eight-year prison sentence.

Smith’s sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General’s Office under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme.

On Tuesday, three senior judges increased her sentence to 12 years’ detention.

Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mr Justice Sweeney and Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, found that the sentencing judge was wrong to reduce Smith’s sentence from the starting point based on mitigation, including of her losing her daughter.

“On the facts of this case, where Miss Smith had treated Star with such cruelty… the judge was wrong to identify this as a mitigating feature and then give it the weight she did.”

Dame Victoria continued: “There was little, if any, to be said in mitigation.

“In our judgment no less a sentence than 12 years would meet the justice of this case.”

The judge said that Star was “particularly vulnerable due to her very young age”, and that “self-evidently, Miss Smith was in a position of trust”.