Frankie Smith
Frankie Smith is a British woman who, together with her girlfriend Savannah Brockhill, murdered her one-year-old daughter Star Hobson in 2020. The case was controversial due to social services failing to act despite receiving multiple complaints about Star's welfare, off the back of similar complaints about the murder of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes by Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes.
Biography edit
Smith became pregnant with Star Hobson to her boyfriend Jordan Hobson in 2018, giving birth in May 2019. She later broke up with Hobson in November 2019 and began dating bouncer Savannah Brockhill. In February 2020, a friend of the couple raised a complaint with social services about the welfare of Smith's daughter Star Hobson. Brockhill was accused of being abusive and controlling, sending a video to Smith's sister where she referred to herself as a "number one psycho" and threatened to stab Smith if she was cheating on her and telling her sparring partner that she had given smith "a hiding". Despite this social services decided not to take action. Two other complaints were raised by family members, one after Brockhill was accused of using a slam choke to restrain Star and another when family members noticed bruises on Star's face, but both times social services decided not to take action.
However, Brockhill and Smith were in fact abusing Star. CCTV footage taken on 13 September 2020 showed Brockhill, who was babysitting Star while Smith went out drinking, beating Star. More CCTV from 20 September, two days before Star's death, showed Smith dragging her through Bradford City Centre by reigns with her head dropping to one side. It was later determined that Star was by this point unable to walk because of a broken leg.
On 22 September 2020, Brockhill called an ambulance reporting that Star was injured. She was pronounced dead in hospital. The cause of death was determined to be a punch or kick "with the force of a car crash". She also had several injuries that had been inflicted prior to 22 September, including a broken leg and a fractured skull, and it was clear she had suffered severe physical abuse which had lead to her death. A search of their Internet history also revealed that Brockhill and Smith had Googled "shock in babies" 15 minutes before calling 999.
Brockhill and Smith were both charged with murder, manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child. Smith was only convicted of causing or allowing death while Brockhill was convicted of murder. Smith was sentenced to eight years in prison, later increased to 12 years after her sentence was deemed unduly lenient.