'We call her the monster': Star Hobson's family say they can no longer say the name of toddler's killer

Star Hobson's family no longer say the name of the toddler's killer, she is simply referred to as "the monster".

Speaking about the events leading to her niece's murder, Star's aunt, Alicia Szepler, told Sky News how she warned social services and police the toddler was at risk, but was left feeling "no one was listening to me".

She said: "The day that it happened, I knew it wasn't an accident.

"I knew that I was right, and they should have listened."

Warning: This story contains distressing details about the abuse and subsequent death of a child.

Sixteen-month-old Star was murdered by Savannah Brockhill, while the child's mother Frankie Smith was found guilty of causing or allowing her death.

The pair were in a toxic, abusive relationship, and Star suffered terrible cruelty from both Smith and her girlfriend for months before she was beaten to death by Brockhill in September 2020.

Three months before the murder, Ms Szepler made the difficult decision to report her sister to social services and then later to the police after growing increasingly concerned for the child's welfare.

Ms Szepler has shown Sky News an email she sent to the police, with images of Star's bruised face and testimony in text messages from another sister that she had seen Smith "slap her across the face".

She says the police never got back to her, and she had similar fruitless exchanges with social services.

This is a transcript of the Snapchat conversation sent to police:

SISTER: "I've just seen Frankie slap her across the face. X"

ALICIA: "OMG"

SISTER "I'm fuming x"

ALICIA: "Tell nana x"

SISTER: "K x"

ALICIA: "Something bad is going to happen. Why did she hit her?"

SISTER: "Coz she was playing with her shoe."

'I can't ever speak to her again'

Around this time, police and social services took the child to hospital to be checked up, but accepted her injuries were accidental.

This was already the second time police had seen Star with bruising. Family and friends made a total of five referrals, but Ms Szepler now says she wishes she had taken things into her own hands.

She said: "I was just angry, every day, because no one was listening to me. I felt like all I could have done was taken her and run off with her."

Ms Szepler gave evidence against her sister in court. Although they were once best friends, she said of her sister: "I just can't ever speak to her again.

"I was literally screaming at Frankie, 'You don't have to be with that girl, we can call the police, we can get a restraining order.' I don't know if she didn't believe me, or she didn't want to.

"I just feel angry because I think if that was me, if that was my child, I would have got away. I would have got out of that situation, no matter what.

"So, I can't forgive that."

The case in Bradford revealed disturbing details of the toddler's short life - including a clip captured on CCTV of Brockhill repeatedly punching Star in the face and stomach over a three-hour period, nine days before the murder.

The toddler was also filmed being dragged through Bradford town centre by Smith and crawling painfully up the communal staircase to her mother's flat.

As well as the abdominal injuries that caused her death, a post-mortem examination found Star had more than 30 separate injuries including rib fractures, two breaks in her right tibia caused by forced twisting, and a 12cm fracture on the back of her skull from days before her death.

The case opened familiar questions about how repeated warnings about the toddler's welfare were not acted on by local authorities.

The chilling parallels between the murders of Star Hobson and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes

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Like all of those who loved Star, Ms Szepler remembers the toddler as an "amazing" little girl with "a big smile and big eyes".

Video shows the pair playing together and kissing each other. They are in sharp contrast to the unresponsive child in films with her mother, and in particular the mother's lover.

Ms Szepler recalls: "She loved music. My grandad would play the guitar and my nan had a washer-dryer, and she'd always bang it and make a noise. She loved music and dancing."

Star's "happiest days" were the three months she lived with her great-grandparents in early 2020. David Fawcett and Anita Smith looked after Star when her mother was struggling to cope.

Smith had split up with Star's father and found a new lover: Brockhill.

'Frankie is my sister - but you have to follow your gut'

In April 2020, Smith took Star back into her care to a flat in Keighley. Five months later, the toddler would be dead.

Social services had already had one warning from a friend of Smith's over concerns of domestic violence and bruising, but in May 2020 Star's great-grandmother Anita contacted authorities again after hearing reports the little girl was being "slam-choked". This is where someone is picked up by the neck and thrown down.

Ms Szepler says she was interviewed at this point and told social services she too had concerns: "I just had a feeling that something wasn't right.

"Frankie is my sister, but when you get a gut feeling - you have to follow your gut feeling."

Smith and Brockhill told caseworkers the referrals were malicious because the family didn't accept their gay relationship.

The case was closed, and the couple blocked the family members who'd spoken to social services from visiting Star, meaning she lost contact with the only people trying to protect her.

Ms Szepler says: "It just hurt me that somebody is calling me malicious because I'm trying to protect my niece.

"I just thought if they don't believe me, then who is going to believe me?"

Family feels let down by social services

A month later, after seeing more evidence of bruising, both Ms Szepler and Star's father made referrals, and this is when she was asked to email the photos of Star in her cot with bruising.

Again, the case was closed after Smith told authorities Star had sustained her injuries falling on to a coffee table.

The last time Ms Szepler saw Star was in August 2020, the month before she was murdered.

She says: "She just looked tired. There were eyebags. She wasn't as chunky. She looked sad."

Star was killed on 22 September 2020, by being beaten or stamped on - suffering catastrophic internal injuries. Both Brockhill and Smith claimed to be out of the room and that they'd heard a bang.

But from the outset, Ms Szepler didn't believe them: "I said to my mum, 'I know that's a lie', I said to my mum, 'you do know they are going to arrest Frankie now?' A few days later she got arrested and from that day I just decided I can't speak to her."

Timeline of calls to social services during eight months of abuse

Ms Szepler says the whole family feels let down by the authorities.

"It's not like just one person reported it," she says. "There were five different people from Star's family or close friends who reported it… that seems like a big failure.

"They just thought that all of Frankie's family were being malicious, and they'd just decided they'd taken their side. That's what it felt like, it felt like the social services were against us.

"I think they need to be more on the ball, and time is crucial. Frankie was texting her social worker saying 'we've got a sickness bug, can we rearrange'.

"And she was just replying, 'no worries' - whereas they should be like, 'no, you can't rearrange - this needs to be followed up, I need to see you today.'"

'We just call her the monster'

On the day Star died, she'd had a social services visit delayed by her mother.

Last week, Bradford Council was stripped of responsibility for running children's social care. A review into social services, due to be published in January, has been delayed.

Weeks after Star's death. West Yorkshire Police referred itself to the independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

A spokesperson for the force told Sky News: "We are unable to comment at this time as there is an ongoing IOPC investigation."

In December last year, Smith was sentenced to eight years in jail. Brockhill was given a minimum term of 25 years.

Asked about Brockhill, Ms Szepler said: "I don't have words. In our family we don't even say her name, we just call her 'the monster'.

"She took Star, she took Frankie... she just destroyed the whole family. Some people say these things are supposed to bring families closer together, but it's just ruined our family."

She said of Smith: "Some days I wake up and I miss her. I think about when we were younger and all the memories we had together.

"But it will never be the same again. I will love her in private, but I just can't ever speak to her again - I just can't do it."

Learning lessons

Kersten England, chief executive of Bradford Council, described Star's murder as "tragic and deeply upsetting".

She added: "The Bradford Partnership has already said that it is sorry for the death of Star and that we did not do more to prevent her murder.

"We are unable to comment further until the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review is published except to say that we will be fully committed on making sure the recommendations from the report are in place.

"We are completely focused on improving children's services in Bradford district.

"We have also welcomed the announcement by the Department for Education that the independent Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel will consolidate the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review for Star Hobson into its national review of the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

"These are two shocking murders and it is vital that learning from both these cases is used to help safeguarding agencies up and down the country to better protect children."