Star Hobson murder trial: Mother made 'cruel' videos of toddler

A mother accused of killing her 16-month-old daughter has admitted making "cruel" videos of her shouting at the toddler.

Star Hobson suffered a cardiac arrest and died in hospital on 22 September 2020.

Her mother Frankie Smith, 20, and Savannah Brockhill, 28, both from Keighley, West Yorkshire, deny murder.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court was shown mobile phone footage of Ms Smith shouting at the girl.

One clip showed Ms Smith telling the sleeping child "Star get up it's not your nap time yet", adding "Evil aren't I".

She told the court that she sent the video to Ms Brockhill.

Asked by her lawyer Zafar Ali QC why she did it she said that Ms Brockhill told her she had to wake her up as it was not Star's nap time.

"Why wake her up in that hostile manner, that horrible way?" Mr Ali asked.

"Savannah said I had to be firm with her, so I tried to be," Ms Smith replied.

Asked how she felt about the video now, she replied: "It makes me feel sick, I should never have spoken to her like that."

Another video showed the exhausted child falling off her chair. When questioned about this Ms Smith said: "At the time I thought it was funny. I'd seen videos on Facebook, I didn't think I was doing anything wrong."

She added that now she felt "it was cruel. It wasn't a nice thing to do".

The court was told that Star was taken to see a hospital doctor after a police officer who visited the house saw bruises on her face.

Ms Smith said the injuries had been caused by the toddler falling and hitting a coffee table while learning to walk.

Earlier in the trial, jurors heard from the prosecution how the child had died from "utterly catastrophic injuries" after repeated assaults by the couple.

The trial continues.

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