A cocaine-snorting mother who violently shook her baby daughter to death while bathing her has been jailed for 15 years.
Cruel Melissa Wilband, 28, killed four-month-old Lexi Wilband and then tried to cover it up after the infant collapsed at home in Newent, Gloucestershire, during the first Covid-19 lockdown in April 2022.
Little Lexi died six days later in hospital with a nurse holding her hand, but Wilband had not stayed by her bedside despite knowing she might not live through the night.
During a four-week trial at Bristol Crown Court, it was heard Wilband had tried to be a ‘loving mother’ but lived a ‘chaotic personal lifestyle’.
As a habitual cocaine user, Wilband took the Class A drug throughout her pregnancy, six days after giving birth and regularly while in bed with her boyfriend Jack Wheeler and Lexi in the basket alongside them.
It emerged during the trial that Wilband had told a ‘spiral of lies’, including how she faked a paternity test to falsely claim Mr Wheeler, 31, was Lexi’s biological dad and even presented him with a bogus DNA certificate claiming he was ‘100%’ the ‘farther’.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saini said Lexi had been a ‘healthy baby’ but Lexi was shaken so hard on at least two occasions that this caused brain damage.
He said: ‘After the evening meal you were bathing Lexi and you shook Lexi, and immediately after this she went floppy. Your shaking of Lexi led to severe bleeding in her brain.
‘I am sure on the evidence that Lexi had been shaken by you in another, less violent, incident before that Easter Sunday.
Melissa Wilband (pictured), 28, was found guilty by a jury of the manslaughter of Lexi who collapsed at their home in Newent, Gloucestershire, in April 2020
Lexi Wilband (pictured) was just four months old when she died after being shaken to death by her mother
Wilband and her former partner Jack Wheeler (pictured), 31, had also been charged with Lexi’s manslaughter but this was formally withdrawn during the trial after prosecutors offered no evidence against him.
‘Only you will know why you acted in the way you did. It is hard to imagine the pain that Lexi must have suffered both from the past violence and the violence that led to her death. She would have cried out in anguish.’
When paramedics arrived at Wilband’s home, she lied about how Lexi collapsed and even tried to shift the blame onto Mr Wheeler, who was charged with manslaughter but had this formally withdrawn. He was also acquitted of causing or allowing Lexi’s death.
She also messaged Mr Wheeler while at the hospital telling him to lie about what had happened that evening.
Those messages had been deleted from Wilband’s phone but were present on Mr Wheeler’s phone.
In his initial account to police, Mr Wheeler, of Ledbury, went along with what Wilband had told him to say.
However, he changed that account in subsequent police interviews and in his evidence in court.
Wilband also told Mr Wheeler to burn drug bags that were in her bedside drawer so that they would not be found. Again these messages were deleted from Wilband’s phone.
The court heard how she and Mr Wheeler would regularly take cocaine while in bed with Lexi in her basket alongside them.
A jury unanimously convicted Wilband of manslaughter and unanimously found Mr Wheeler not guilty of the charge against him (Pictured: Wilband outside Bristol Crown Court on March 4)
The trial was earlier told how Wilband told a ‘spiral of lies’, including how she faked a paternity test (pictured) to falsely claim Mr Wheeler was Lexi’s biological father
Jurors heard how Wilband told medics that Lexi had stopped breathing while Mr Wheeler had been carrying Lexi in her bouncer chair and was swinging it.
The court also heard Wilband lied to medical professionals and missed several appointments.
It was suggested by the prosecution that she might have missed appointments in order to prevent a doctor noticing that something was wrong with Lexi after she had been shaken.
Jurors heard how Wilband, who had a volatile relationship with Mr Wheeler, made a 111 call on April 12 2020, from the new-build council house where she lived with Mr Wheeler and Lexi.
The court was told that Wilband did not call 999 for an ambulance, but instead dialled 111 – the non-emergency NHS number.
She hung up before getting past the automated message and then phoned her father who advised her to dial 999.
However, she again dialled 111. It took over three and a half minutes from first dialling 111 for Wilband to speak with emergency services.
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 and the infant was then transferred to Bristol Children’s Hospital.
A decision was made to switch off Lexi’s ventilator on April 17, following the results of an MRI scan.
Jurors were told that Wilband spent three hours with Lexi that evening before leaving to go to sleep in a different part of the hospital.
Lexi passed away with a nurse holding her hand, on April 18 – six days after she collapsed.
Jane Osborne KC, prosecuting, said Wilband was aware that her baby might die during the night but did not stay at her bedside.
‘A staff nurse held Lexi’s hand through the night and remained with her,’ Ms Osborne said.
‘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.’
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’, Ms Osborne said.
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, and sought to blame her partner.
Mr Wheeler said he had no idea why Lexi had collapsed and denied carrying her in the bouncer chair.
Evidence was also heard that Wilband had researched online for ‘baby screaming’.
Prosecutors told the court that Lexi was shaken so hard by Wilband on at least two occasions that this caused brain damage which Lexi could not recover from.
The events that evening, April 12, 2020, were described differently by Wilband and Mr Wheeler in court, and were contradictory in parts.
In a victim impact statement read to the court today, Mr Wheeler’s mother Donnah Davies said, although she was not Lexi’s paternal grandparent, ‘from the day she was born to the moment she died she was our granddaughter.’
She told the court: ‘She was a beautiful, quiet little baby girl and we loved her.
‘The day Lexi died, both Paul (Jack’s father) and I went to hospital in Bristol and it is a day we will never forget.
‘I picked up Lexi in my arms to say goodbye. She looked so peaceful. I can clearly remember what lovely long eyelashes she had.
‘I could not understand or comprehend why she was no longer with us.’
Wilband was told at Bristol Crown Court (pictured) she would serve two thirds of the 15-year sentence and the remainder under licence.
Ms Davies said the following days were a ‘blur’ and said she ‘lost the ability to function.’
She described her son’s arrest as ‘overwhelming’ and said Lexi’s death had ‘consumed’ the family for the last five years.
She said: ‘Ledbury is a small community and with Jack being under investigation some people automatically assumed he was guilty.
‘I tried to be strong for my family but the stress and worry of it made me extremely anxious.
‘Lexi was only in our lives for a short time but Paul and I will never forget her. Lexi, a little four and a half month baby lost her life, all those who knew and loved her will never see her again.
‘Lexi’s death is something Paul and I will carry with us for the rest of our lives. We are irreversibly changed.’
Wilband was found guilty by a jury of the manslaughter of Lexi Wilband and sentenced to 15 years in jail. She was told she would serve two thirds of the 15-year sentence and the remainder under licence.
An investigation was launched by Gloucestershire Constabulary’s Major Crime Investigation Team on April 13, 2020 when doctors had identified that Lexi’s injuries were non-accidental and had been inflicted.
Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector Adam Stacey said: ‘Lexi was four-and-a-half months old when she died.
‘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.’
