The mother of toddler Star Hobson has been released from prison just six years after she allowed her girlfriend to beat the one-year-old to death.
Star was murdered by nightclub bouncer Savannah Brockhill at her home in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in September 2020.
The assault followed a brutal campaign of ‘neglect, cruelty and injury’ – with Star becoming a victim of the couple’s ‘petty squabbles and jealous fights’.
Brockhill, then 28, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years in a trial in December 2021.
But Frankie Smith, Star’s mother, was cleared of murder and manslaughter at Bradford Crown Court and was instead convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child.
She was jailed for eight years, which was later increased to 12 by the Court of Appeal.
However, the Ministry of Justice has now confirmed that Smith has been released on licence.
Star Hobson was murdered by nightclub bouncer Savannah Brockhill at her home in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in September 2020
Nightclub bouncer Savannah Brockhill and Frankie Smith were in a relationship, with Star becoming a victim of the couple’s ‘petty squabbles and jealous fights’
Star, who died aged 16 months, sitting with Savannah Brockhill – who went on to murder the toddler when she was just one year old
The decision follows a ruling that an original trial judge had been wrong to send Smith to an adult prison due to her being under 21 – with an appeal judge saying she should go to a young offenders’ institution instead.
While Smith had been due to serve two-thirds of her sentence before being considered for release, this was reduced to half.
During sentencing, Mrs Justice Lambert described Smith as a ‘neglectful’ parent. Speaking to the couple, she said: ‘Her short life was marked by neglect, cruelty and injury. She was murdered by you, Savannah Brockhill. Frankie Smith, it was your role as her mother to protect Star from harm. You have been convicted by this jury of failing to protect her.’
In her defence, the court heard Smith had borderline very low intelligence and had herself been a victim of domestic violence. It was also claimed she had been unaware of the assaults on Star.
Following Smith’s release, the Ministry of Justice said: ‘This was a horrific crime and our thoughts remain with all those affected.
‘Offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions and can be returned to prison immediately if they breach them.’
Star Hobson with her mother Frankie Smith, who has now been released from prison on licence
At Smith and Brockhill’s seven-week trial, prosecutors said that the injuries which led to Star’s death involved extensive damage to her abdominal cavity ’caused by a severe and forceful blow or blows, either in the form of punching, stamping or kicking to the abdomen’.
The jury also heard that Star endured months of assaults and psychological harm before suffering ‘utterly catastrophic’ injuries in her home.
Justice Lambert QC said Star had become a victim of the couple’s ‘petty squabbles and jealous fights’.
She said Star’s life was marked by ‘neglect, cruelty and injury’ before she was murdered by Savannah Brockhill on September 22, 2020.
Justice Lambert QC said: ‘Star was caught up in the cross-fire of your relationship.
‘The detail of that relationship is graphically illustrated in the many hundreds of social media messages that you sent to each other.
‘Those messages concern petty squabbles and jealous fights.
‘Often fuelled by alcohol, those fights quickly escalated into an exchange of violent threats and ultimatums, which were obviously meaningless to you both.’
However, Justice Lambert had conceded that Smith’s ‘low IQ’ and obsession with Brockhill offered some mitigation to the length of her overall sentence.
She told her: ‘You were a neglectful parent, even before you began your relationship with Savannah Brockhill.
‘[But] I accept that when you met Savannah Brockhill, she proved to be an even greater distraction and that you as a rather immature and impressionable girl became obsessed by her.’
Both women had denied murder and also causing or allowing Star’s death before a jury found Brockhill guilty of murder and Smith guilty of causing or allowing the toddler’s death after three days of deliberations.
It later emerged that social services had missed five opportunities to stop Star’s killers in the months before her death.
