BREAKING: Mum who shook her own baby to death jailed after giving court sickening excuse

Daily Mirror

21-07-2025

A mother who shook her four-month-old daughter to death has been jailed for 15 years.
Melissa Wilband was accused of the manslaughter of little Lexi Wilband, alongside her then-partner Jack Wheeler. Bristol Crown Court heard baby Lexi collapsed at her home in Newent in the Forest of Dean in April 2020, and died in hospital six days later.
Tests showed Lexi had suffered bleeding on her brain, likely caused by being violently shaken, both recently and on at least one earlier occasion, the jury was told. They also heard that on the night Lexi died, her mum spent three hours with her before leaving to go to sleep in a different part of the hospital.
Prosecuting, Jane Osborne KC said Wilband was aware that her baby might die through the night but did not stay at her bedside. She said: "A staff nurse held Lexi's hand through the night and remained with her.
"On the morning of April 18, Lexi seemed to have longer pauses in her breathing. Ms Wilband was told to attend the ward. She arrived just after Lexi had ceased to show any signs of life and had stopped breathing."
The manslaughter case against Wheeler was dropped part way through the trial when no evidence was offered by the prosecution. He was also found not guilty of a lesser charge of causing or allowing the death of a child.
During the trial, jurors were told that 28-year-old Wilband and Mr Wheeler were in a relationship for about three years but Lexi was conceived with another man in early 2019.
The court heard Wilband told Wheeler he was the baby's biological father and presented him with a fake DNA certificate that claimed he was "100%" the child's dad.
A genuine DNA test after Lexi's birth in November 2019 confirmed that Mr Wheeler was not biologically related to her but he remained with Wilband and brought up Lexi as if she were his own child.
Jurors heard how Wilband and Wheeler had a volatile relationship, and she took cocaine just six days after Lexi was born. It was alleged that she would take the drug in bed, with Lexi in the Moses basket alongside her.
On April 12, 2020 the mum made a call to NHS 111 from the new-build council house where she lived with Mr Wheeler and Lexi. She claimed Lexi had stopped breathing while in her bouncer chair.
Lexi was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and was intubated, with Wilband asked if she would like to hold her baby before the procedure took place. She declined to do so.
The infant was then transferred to Bristol Children's Hospital, where Wilband told medics that Mr Wheeler had been carrying Lexi in her bouncer chair and was swinging it.
A decision was made to switch off Lexi's ventilator on April 17, following the results of an MRI scan. She died on April 18, aged just four months.
A post-mortem examination gave Lexi's cause of death as bleeding to the brain, caused by a non-accidental traumatic event such as someone "shaking her violently", the prosecutor told the court.
Further tests found the areas of bleeding in Lexi's eyes were "too numerous to count", she added. Giving evidence, Wilband denied ever shaking Lexi and said she had a "bad wrist" that meant she was physically unable to shake her.
Wiliband told the court: "In the corner of my eye, I saw Lexi kind of throw herself back in her bouncer." She said she then took Lexi out of the bouncer, undressed her and put her in the bath.
'She was fine, she was giggling, she was splashing about in the water,' she said. After the bath, the couple put a film on the television in the living room and Wilband went upstairs to hoover their bedroom.
'Jack was shouting to me, saying that she has gone floppy and she is going blue,' Wilband told the court. 'I turned the hoover off and ran downstairs as quickly as I could. Lexi was in Jack's arms. She looked very pale. She was floppy.
'He put his fingers in her mouth to check to see if there was any blockage. He said there was nothing there so he turned her over and started patting her back. I was panicking.'
Miranda Moore KC, representing Wheeler, suggested to Wilband that she had shaken her daughter. She replied: 'I did nothing to my daughter.
'How could I shake my daughter when I have a bad wrist? I couldn't pick her up properly, how could I shake her? I never shook my daughter. That was a heavy-handed person. He was kind and gentle but he has heavy hands.
'My daughter was my life. I never killed my daughter, I am telling you.'
Today, sentencing her to 15 years, sentencing her today, The Honourable Mr Justice Saini said Lexi was a "healthy baby" and a delightful and smiley girl."
He told Wilband: "You killed Lexi by violently shaking her. While bathing her, you shook her and immediately after this she went floppy. Your extreme shaking led to extreme bleeding in her brain.
"It was obvious such violent actions would carry at least risk of very serious injury. I am not persuaded anything in the report can explain your violence towards Lexi.
"You were otherwise a loving mother although you lived a chaotic personal lifestyle. It is hard to imagine the pain Lexi must have suffered during both historical violence and the violent shaking that led to her death."
After Wiliband was found guilty by a jury in April, Detective Inspector Adam Stacey of Gloucestershire Police, said Wilband would now face the consequence of her actions.
He added: "Melissa Wilband inflicted such serious injuries that were sadly to prove fatal and tragically Lexi passed away six days later, despite the best efforts of all the medical staff who tried to save her. Further medical evidence showed that Lexi had suffered at least one other episode of shaking at some point before this one.
"Wilband told lie after lie after lie - right from Lexi's conception, and all the way throughout the pregnancy. These lies continued and were made to medical professionals trying to save Lexi's life, to the police, and all the way through to her giving evidence in court. The jury saw those lies for what they were.
"Lexi should be five years old now with her whole future ahead of her. She was shaken by someone who should have been protecting her. Someone who should have put her safety and wellbeing above everything else, her mother.
"Wilband did not do those things and in fact did the exact opposite. She now faces the consequences of her actions."