The father of a murdered toddler has said that he will never recover from the 'callous and cruel way' in which his beloved 16-month-old daughter was taken away from him.
Jordan Hobson has issued a statement after Savannah Brockhill was jailed for life, following the murder of Jordan's daughter Star.
The toddler's mother, Frankie Smith, 20, was also handed an eight-year sentence for allowing the death of her daughter.
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Mr Hobson, who is a student at the University of Sunderland split up with Smith, prior to her starting a toxic relationship with Brockhill, a judge was told earlier this week.
He said on Friday (17th December): “The horrific death of my beautiful baby daughter has left me devastated and I will never recover from the callous and cruel way in which Star was taken from me.
“No sentence that a court can impose will ever bring back my precious daughter.
“I would now request privacy so that I can start to grieve and begin to try and pick up the pieces of my life.”
28-year-old Brockhill was told she must serve a minimum of 25 years in prison before she is considered for release by a judge, who said Star’s short life was “marked by neglect, cruelty and injury”.
Star's murder details of how she was subjected to months of assaults and psychological harm, and have caused a national outcry - especially with the trial coming so soon after the recent case of murdered six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
It also emerged that friends and family had reported concerns on five separate occasions in the eight month time period before Star died, raising widespread questioning of the role of social workers and police.
On one of these occasions, Star’s dad Jordan contacted social services after Star's great grandfather, David Fawcett, posted a picture of Star with bruises on Facebook alongside a happier shot and with the caption "From this to this in five weeks, what's going on Frankie?"
Police took Star for a hospital examination but medics believed the explanation that the toddler had simply hit her face on a coffee table, the court heard.
Members of the jury also heard reports of 'growing fears' from Smith's family and friends leading up to Star's death, after seeing bruising on the youngster.
Both Brockhill and Smith successfully convinced social workers that any marks and damage on Star's person were accidental, and that complaints were made by people who did not like their relationship.
Speaking in court on Wednesday, Mr Hobson's father, Bernard, told Mrs Justice Lambert that while Jordan could not bring himself to make a statement, he said he is “heartbroken and haunted by his baby daughter suffering in her little life and her tragic death which didn’t need to happen”.
Bernard said: “What did Star do to deserve that her life, which had just begun, be snuffed out so prematurely?
“It’s hard to comprehend that a girl that we knew could do something so heinous.
“Star was snatched away, her life had barely started.”
Jordan Hobson split with ex-girlfriend Smith when he went to focus on his studies in Sunderland.
Sentencing the pair at Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday (15th December), the judge said the “fatal punch or kick” to Star inside Smith's apartment in Keighley, West Yorkshire, caused her to lose half the blood in her body, as well as damaging internal organs.
Star was also reportedly found to have suffered multiple brain injuries, numerous rib fractures, a repeated fracture of her leg and a skull fracture.
The judge also spoke of how the toddler was “caught up in the crossfire” of Smith and Brockhill’s volatile relationship, and could not understand how they could sickeningly film her in cruel circumstances.
Star was taken to hospital from the flat where she lived with Smith on September 22 2020, but injuries sustained were 'utterly catastrophic' and 'unsurvivable', according to prosecutors at the trial.
