Melissa Wilband, a 28-year-old mother from Gloucestershire, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the manslaughter of her infant daughter, following a harrowing trial at Bristol Crown Court that revealed a pattern of violent abuse. The conviction marks the end of a five-year legal process that began in tragedy in the spring of 2020, when four-month-old Lexi Wilband was rushed to hospital with multiple catastrophic head injuries.

Melissa Wilband

Bristol Crown Court

The events unfolded in April 2020, when emergency services were called to a home in Newent, Gloucestershire. Lexi had collapsed suddenly. She was first taken to Gloucester Royal Hospital and then transferred to Bristol Children’s Hospital, where she died six days later. A nurse was with her when she passed away.

Gloucester Royal Hospital

Bristol Children’s Hospital

Medical evidence presented during the trial painted a grim picture. According to pathologists, the child suffered bleeding on the brain, as well as widespread retinal hemorrhages described by one expert as “too numerous to count.” These injuries were consistent with deliberate and forceful shaking. The court heard that the trauma could not have been accidental and that Lexi had been subjected to such violence on at least two separate occasions.

pathologists

Wilband denied responsibility throughout the proceedings. She maintained that a longstanding injury to her wrist would have made it physically impossible for her to shake a baby with the necessary force to cause such damage. Instead, she suggested her former partner, Jack Wheeler, could have been responsible. But the court rejected those claims after a careful examination of the medical and forensic evidence.

Jack Wheeler

Mr Justice Saini, presiding over the case, said Wilband’s attempt to shift blame was not credible. “You killed Lexi by violently shaking her. That caused traumatic injuries from which she died,” he stated in his sentencing remarks. He added that he was satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that Wilband had inflicted the injuries in two separate incidents — one within hours of Lexi’s collapse, and another prior to it.

Mr Justice Saini

Wheeler, 31, who had originally faced charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing Lexi’s death, was formally acquitted partway through the trial. Prosecutors decided not to proceed with the case against him, and the judge directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts. There was no evidence presented that he had participated in or witnessed the violence that led to the child’s death.

Wheeler

In court, the judge acknowledged the intensely emotional nature of the case and the irreversible consequences of Wilband’s actions. “It is hard to imagine the pain she must have suffered,” Justice Saini said, referring to Lexi’s final hours and the trauma she endured.

Justice Saini

Lexi had been born healthy and was described by doctors as a thriving infant before her injuries. The prosecution emphasized the total dependency of a child that age and the trust placed in caregivers. The post-mortem confirmed no medical conditions that could have explained the bleeding found in her brain and eyes.

Following the sentencing, child protection advocates again stressed the dangers of abusive head trauma in infants. The condition, often caused by shaking, remains one of the leading forms of fatal abuse in children under the age of one.

Child protection

Abusive head trauma

The 15-year sentence handed down to Wilband reflects, in the court’s view, the extreme vulnerability of the victim and the grave breach of parental responsibility. As the courtroom fell quiet after the verdict, the only sound was that of a life ended far too soon.